More Seeds in the Garden
I found this while I was cleaning out one of my garden beds the other day. What kind of seeds do you think they are?
They’re tulip seeds. I saved them and thought I might try to start them to see what happens. I’ve researched and found out that it will take them 3 years to bloom. That’s why it takes patience to garden!
I’m not sure what color they’ll turn out to be, I’m not even sure which tulip they came from. What a fun experiment to try to start tulips from seed.
Any interesting plants you’ve tried to grow from seed before?
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Making Jalapeño Jelly
I’m always game for making new things, particularly when it comes to enjoying fresh produce from the farmer’s market. When I was at the market last weekend I saw some lovely jalapeño peppers, so I snatched them up. While contemplating what to do with them and I came across Baby Loves Jellies post about making jalapeño jelly.
Since I’m a big fan of all things spicy, particularly where spicy hot peppers are involved, I knew this jelly was right up my alley. This recipe is particularly interesting because it is made with all jalapeño peppers and it contains no green peppers. It’s actually more of a jam than a jelly because you don’t strain out the seeds like you do in a lot recipes. Of course the result is a hotter jelly than most recipes.
Since I cannot follow a recipe to a T, I amended it to suit my tastes. I don’t like to use pectin when making jams/jellies, I prefer using tart apples or nothing at all. I find that certain jellies, particularly this one, work well if they’re a little runny. After all, you don’t really want to use huge amounts of this jam on your toast, it is quite spicy!
Jalapeño Jelly
12 jalapeños
2 tart green apples, chopped
2 cups cider vinegar, divided (I prefer organic unfiltered raw apple cider vinegar)
6 cups sugar (I use organic evaporated cane juice which makes the jelly darker)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 green jalapeños, diced finely (for added texture, add to blender with peppers above if you don’t want jalapeño bits in your jelly)
2 red hot peppers, diced finely (for added color, you can use sweet if you’d like, or add additional jalapeños)
Chop up 12 of the jalapeños and add them to blender with one cup vinegar and the 2 chopped apples and liquefy.
Make sure the wear rubber gloves while cutting & handling peppers since the hot pepper oil can burn the skin. Also don’t inhale too deeply when opening blender and when cooking the jelly, can cause coughing. Make sure you wash your hands well after handling peppers to remove all pepper oil.
Combine the pepper & apple purée with the remaining cup of vinegar, lemon juice and sugar in a pan and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat.
Boil for ten minutes, stirring often. If it’s not thick enough boil longer, test for thickness by putting some on a cold plate and letting it rest. Remove from heat and add remaining diced red peppers and jalapeños and stir to incorporate.
Ladle directly into hot, sterilized jars. Leave a quarter inch of headspace. Remove any air bubbles and wipe the rims clean. Add lids and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
I canned this jelly in small 4 oz jars because I figured a pint or half pint might not be used up quick enough. I ended up with 12- 4 oz jars and 2-8 oz jars.
This jelly is perfectly spicy, of course I love hot spicy foods. It’s perfect on things like cornbread, or a bagel with cream cheese. I even added some to my apple pancakes the other evening and it added the perfect spiciness, of course Mr Chiots thought I was crazy. I think a jar of this mixed with a jar of chutney would make a great BBQ sauce for chicken or salmon.
Are you a hot spicy food lover, or do you prefer to keep things on the tame side?
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Playing Hooky Again
Yesterday was a beautiful day, just perfect! I got up and went to the farmer’s market as I do almost every Saturday morning.
I was excited because I was taking some of my tomatoes to one of my favorite vendors. She told me last week that she lost all of her tomato plants to the late blight that’s going around. She told me that she couldn’t even go out to her garden for 3 days after she had to burn all of her tomato plants. I figured it would brighten her day if I took her an assortment of my heirloom tomatoes. I was right, she was ecstatic!
We went to an auction after that for a little bit and then came home. We enjoyed delicious fresh corn and steamed green beans for lunch and then some friends called to see if we wanted to motor. We took them up on the offer and headed up to West Point Market in Akron to buy some artisan cheeses and other interesting items. We went to a small local dive for dinner and then we stopped at Mary Coyle’s for some ice cream!
There are still weeds in my garden that need pulled, tomatoes that need harvested and tons of other chores that need done. Since I spent the day playing hooky I’ll have to work extra hard this week to make up for it. But I sure had a great relaxing day which is perfect before a long busy week!
What kinds of things do you like to do when you play hooky from gardening?
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Canning Tomato Soup
My tomato harvests have been ramping up now that the warm weather is here. On Sunday I harvested over 28 pounds of tomatoes. With this many tomatoes it’s time to start canning. The recipe I’m starting with is tomato soup. I made this last year it was by far our favorite canned item. We finished off all of the jars earlier this spring, so this year I need to can more than I did last year (31 pints).
I’m particularly excited about this soup because this year I grew my own celery. I also started a lot of onions, but onions are one of those things that don’t do all that well in my garden, so I’ve been buying them at the farmer’s market.
TOMATO SOUP
6 onions, chopped
1 bunch celery, chopped
8 quarts fresh tomatoes (or 5-6 quarts of juice) *I coarsely chop mine in quarters leaving the stems on them since I’m putting them through a food mill.
1 cup sugar (I find this is too much and I use less usually 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup salt (I usually add 2 T and then taste before I add more)
1 cup butter
1 cup flour
1/4 cup lemon juice
Directions
1. Chop onion& celery. Place in large kettle w/ just enough water to keep them from burning. While this simmers, cut tomatoes (remove stems if not using strainer).
2. Add tomatoes to kettle & cook until tender.
3. When tender put through Victorio or Squeezo (or similar food mill) strainer. (reserve 2 cups for mixing with butter/flour)
4. Return to kettle, add lemon juice, sugar & salt.
5. Cream butter and flour together& mix thoroughly with two cups of reserved juice (chill so it’s cold), until dissolved (or blend together in a blender), to avoid lumps of flour in the juice. Add butter/flour mixture to warmed tomato juice. (Add before it’s hot, to avoid lumps of flour!). Stir well.
6. Heat just until hot. (If it gets to a boil, it can make the flour lumpy). Just prior to boiling, turn off the burner. (It will continue to thicken as it cools.).
7. Ladle into hot jars with 1/4 headspace, close securely with lids.
8. Put in canner & process 30 minutes (start timing when it’s at a ‘rolling’ boil).
9. Remove from canner & allow to set until sealed (approx. 12 hours)
To serve, mix equal parts tomato concentrate to milk (or water or chicken stock), and add 1/2 t. of baking soda per pint as it cooks (1 t. per quart) if using milk, this keeps the milk from curdling. I actually prefer to add chicken stock to mine instead of milk, I also omit the baking soda when using stock or water. I serve with a sprinkle of freshly grated romano cheese, a sprinkle of cayenne and a little freshly ground black pepper.
**Some people say this isn’t long enough in a canner, some people say you should only pressure can this recipe. I’m happy with it and am quite comfortable making it and processing it in this way. If you’re uncomfortable with this method use whatever canning method you’re comfortable with.
What’s your favorite home-preserved garden food?
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Old Friendships
I spent this weekend in Cincinnati, OH with a few of my girlfriends from college. We had a great time staying up late, chatting about everything we’re doing now and things we did then.
We enjoyed eating all the food that’s specific to the great city of Cincinnati like Skyline Chili and Graeter’s Ice Cream.
We visited the campus of our alma mater and got the see the excited new freshman moving in (which is what we were doing 15 years ago). On Saturday night, we went downtown to watch a movie at Fountain Square and enjoy the city life like we did in college.
We even took a carriage ride around the city that night (because of the economy they’re the same price they were when we were in college 15 years ago).
We all live in different places now, with families, kids, husbands and dogs keeping busy with our individual lives. It’s always good to drop all of that for a weekend and get together to remember the fun times we had back when we were young and in college without a care in the world (or a cent to our names).
Do you ever get together with old friends?
