Homeschool Helper » Gardening

Apple Pie Filling

amy — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:45:47 +0000

We had a lot of cooking apples in our orchard this year, so I canned some apple pie filling. My brother-in-law loves apple pies, so this will make a nice Christmas gift for him. I used the recipe from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

amy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:24:02 +0000

We like to have homemade pizza at our house every Sunday night. So, we make use of some of the extra tomatoes in the summer time and cook up some homemade pizza sauce to freeze.

I use the squeezo to get the tomato juice, then cook it up and freeze it into ice cube trays. We use two cubes per pizza, but we don’t like a very saucy pizza.
Here’s the recipe if you want to make some.

Pizza Sauce
3 quarts tomato juice
bit of parsley
1/8 cup salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 cup clear jel – this is a thickening agent
1 medium onion (chopped in the food processor)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoon oregano
Put all ingredients in big pot. Boil until slightly thickened. Cool and freeze.

Digging the Sweet Potatoes

amy — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:12:36 +0000

We dug up the sweet potatoes a couple of days ago. We like to get them out of the ground before it frosts because a frost will kill the vines. Most of the big potatoes are concentrated around where the sweet potato slips were planted, but we also found some smaller ones in other places where the vines had taken root.

After digging them up, they need to be cured in a warm place (80-85F) for a couple of weeks. Then, just store them in a cool, dark place until you are ready to eat them.
Don’t forget to save some for making slips again next year!

Saving Tomatoes from the Frost

amy — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:53:38 +0000

You can have tomatoes in November and December. Just bring all of your green tomatoes inside before it frosts. Then store them in a cool, dark place (like your basement) and cover them with a layer of newspaper. Check them every few days to pick out the ones that are ripe and throw out any that have rotted.

They aren’t as good as vine ripened tomatoes, but better than store bought ones.

Drying Herbs from the Garden

amy — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:00:49 +0000

I have a small herb garden in my backyard. It has chives, mint, oregano, thyme, chamomile, and parsley in it.

To dry the herbs for use in the winter, I cut some stems, bundle them together and hang them upside down to dry. It is best to do this early in the morning after the dew has dried.

Here, I have cut oregano, thyme and parsley to dry.

Homemade Enchilada Sauce

amy — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:30:23 +0000

I wanted to make and can enchilada sauce this year with our extra tomatoes, but I couldn’t find any recipe that sounded suitable. So, I decided to just can tomato sauce. It is much more versatile anyway. Now, I can make anything I want out of it.

Here’s how I made some enchilada sauce with one of the jars. Since I had a quart of sauce, I multiplied this recipe by four. I am leaving it smaller in case you don’t have home canned tomato sauce to use.

Enchilada Sauce

3 Tablespoons chili powder
3 Tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon oregano
3 cups water
1 – 8oz can tomato sauce
Put all ingredients into saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.

When I quadrupled this recipe, it made enough for us to have enchiladas 12 times. I put the extras into freezer bags in the freezer.

Freezer Spaghetti Sauce

amy — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:08:40 +0000

Every summer, I cook up our fresh tomatoes, peppers and onions into a delicious, versatile spaghetti sauce and freeze it for winter. It makes preparing spaghetti, lasagna, or any recipe calling for a jar of spaghetti sauce a snap. I also love it because I know how much better it is for us than any of the store varieties.

Frozen Spaghetti Sauce

20 cups tomatoes – peeled and chopped
3 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped green pepper
5 cups water
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoon oregano
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon pepper
3 Tablespoons canning salt

Mix all ingredients and simmer for 2 hours, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add 4 – 12 oz cans tomato paste. Stir well. Cool and freeze in ziploc bags.
.

To peel the tomatoes easily, just pour boiling water over them and let them stand for a few minutes. The skin will just slip right off.

I put the onions and peppers through the food processor until they are small enough that nobody can pick out any parts they think they don’t like.

The tomato paste really thickens it up nicely. This year, I got a great big can from Costco. It was a little cheaper than buying the four cans and I had enough paste to make several batches of spaghetti sauce.

It helps to lay the bags on a cookie sheet in the freezer until they are frozen. That way, they stay flat.

Freezing Shredded Zucchini

amy — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:54:45 +0000

I seem to miss the occasional zucchini in my garden and it gets really BIG before I find it. I like to use these in recipes that call for shredded zucchini. Here’s how I freeze the shredded zucchini to use later.

Wash, and cut up zucchini.

Then, shred it in your food processor.

Measure it. I freeze mine in 2 cup quantities because my favorite recipe uses 2 cups of shredded zucchini.

When you defrost it, it is a bit watery, but I just put the whole thing into my recipe and it turns out just fine.

How to Freeze Hot Peppers

amy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:51:54 +0000

You could just slice your peppers and freeze them, but I have several recipes that call for a can of green chilis, so I fix my peppers up this way to use in those recipes instead of buying a can of chilis.

I grow anaheim peppers, but this would work with any hot pepper. Be careful when you work with hot peppers. The seeds can burn. Wear plastic gloves to be safe.

Just cut them up into small pieces, then put them in a pan and cover them with water. I take the seeds out – you can leave them in if you like spicier. Boil them until they change color and are tender.

After they cool down a little, pour them into ice cube trays. Freeze, then take out of trays and put into freezer bags.

How to Save Spinach Seeds

amy — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:47:45 +0000

If you want to save seeds from year to year, you must plant heirloom varieties of plants, not hybrids. I grow Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach. When it starts to get hot in the early summer, your spinach plants will bolt and get quite ugly looking. Don’t pull them! If you leave them, they will produce lots of seeds. Once they have produced seeds and are all dry, pull them up and hang them upside down to dry somewhere. This step is probably not necessary if it is a dry year. It was raining every other day here so I wanted to get them inside to finish drying.

Now, just pull off the little bunches of seeds and store them until planting time. Be sure to get enough for your fall and spring plantings.