Tag Archives: Food Preservation

Accumulating Okra When You Don’t Have Enough To Fry

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Okra is a powerhouse in the garden. Heat? Drought? Poor soil? It just seems to laugh at it all! My garden struggled this year due to the prolonged cool, wet spring. When the sun finally did come out & the temps warmed, many of the things I’d planted had already given up the ghost. But not the okra.

Now okra will produce you out of house & home if you let it. So I only planted four (count ’em – f-o-u-r) plants! It’s been about right to supply RancherMan & me with okra. But I’ll need to harvest & accumulate enough okra for frying up for us. Thankfully it’s easy!

An easy way to accumulate fresh okra from the garden & prepare it for frying at a later time. A quick mixture of flour, cornmeal & spices. #TexasHomesteader

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How To Make Dehydrated Blueberry Powder

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by Texas Homesteader ~

I have a couple of bags of frozen blueberries in my freezer. But right now freezer space is at a premium. So I need to empty some of its contents and one of those bags of frozen blueberries needs to come out.

I’ve got plenty jars of jelly/jam in my pantry so there’s no need right now to make more Blueberry Jam. And a person can only (healthily) eat so many Blueberry Muffins. So my thoughts turned to ways to dehydrate some blueberries for my pantry instead. Turns out it was pretty easy.

Dehydrated Blueberry Powder. Convenient to store in the pantry and stir into yogurt or pancake or muffin batter #TexasHomesteader

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How To Rehydrate & Use Dehydrated Pumpkin Puree

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by Texas Homesteader ~

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Last year’s pumpkin harvest was truly out-o-control!  I harvested so many pumpkins!  I shared several of them with family & friends but still ended up with mountains of my own.  I love to use these heirloom pumpkins for puree in my Pumpkin Granola so I cooked ’em up & pureed them.  They were measured out into 2-cup measurements and frozen for future use.

But RancherMan was the wild-hog-hunting KING and our freezer was filled to capacity with wild pork.  But I still had two remaining pumpkins…  They had some staying power, still looking as fresh as the day I harvested them.  But I really needed to do something with them before they started to deteriorate.  But with no freezer room, what will I do? I decided to Dehydrate the Pumpkins.

Rehydrating Pumpkin Puree. Come see how to rehydrate and use dehydrated pumpkin puree. Dehydrated Pumpkin puree stores in the pantry with no additional energy needed - a wonderful preparedness food! #TexasHomesteader

 

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Food Waste In America – What Do Those Food Dates Mean?

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Did you know the U.S.D.A estimates 30% (I’ve even heard 40%) of the food in the United States is wasted?  Wow.  Shocking, right?  Now some of that waste happens right in the fields, problems with harvesting machinery & such.  Other waste may be a result of that produce being shaped or sized imperfectly.  Oftentimes a  store refuses to accept perfectly good but visually imperfect produce from farmers.  They want only perfection to sell to their customers.  (I absolutely hate this!)  And some waste can be attributed to such things as restaurants serving too much food, or even that apple being forgotten in the back of your fridge until it’s no longer appealing.

But often, food waste is a result of consumers being confused about product date labels. 

You may look at a box of mac-&-cheese and notice the date stamped on the box has passed.  But it can be confusing.  Use-by date, Sell-By Date, Best-By Date – what does it all mean???

Dates can be confusing, Use-by, Sell-By, Best-By - what does it all mean? Food waste in America is around 40%. Don't toss good food! #TexasHomesteader

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How To Dehydrate Fresh Pumpkin

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Last year’s garden included a very robust pumpkin harvest! When the season was over I harvested all those pumpkins and brought them inside before the first frost.  But there were just so many!  I gave several fresh pumpkins to family & friends and used the remaining pumpkins for fall decoration purposes.  One by one I cooked & pureed the pumpkins, using them in my Pumpkin Granola or other dishes.

But here we are months later and I’m staring at those two remaining pumpkins.  And RancherMan’s filled our freezer with so much wild pork there’s no room to spare there.  But when that pumpkin starts with planting the seed, you make sure none is wasted!  I decided to cook & dehydrate the two remaining pumpkins & store ’em in my pantry instead.

It’s so easy to do, y’all.  And unlike using the freezer, dehydrated pumpkin uses no additional energy to store.  Come see what I did!

How to dehydrate pumpkin to use all year long! These fresh pumpkins won't be wasted and now can be stored in tiny jars in my pantry. #TexasHomesteader

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How To Make Your Own No-Waste Citrus Juice Using Frozen Limes

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Several weeks ago we were shopping for a family gathering and we needed to pick up some fresh limes. While we were in the grocery store to pick up limes, RancherMan decided that ‘6 for $1’ was the way to go.  I wasn’t sure we’d go through all six limes though.  As it turns out there were indeed limes leftover after our gathering.  To keep them from going to waste I washed them and tossed ’em in the freezer.

Come see how a frozen lime helps me reduce waste in the kitchen.

You could buy a plastic bottle of real lemon or lime juice, but why? Come see my easy, zero-waste (and CHEAP) solution for having 100% real citrus juice for my recipes. #TexasHomesteader

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How To Eat Your Compost! Becoming A Food Waste Ninja…

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Food waste – we all hate it.  We work diligently to make sure none of that food we’ve paid our hard-earned money for is wasted.  But are we doing all we can?  Maybe…  But maybe not!  Have you ever thought about eating your compost?

Stay with me now, I’m not suggesting that you root through the compost heap and snack on its contents.  Today I’m talking about food destined for the compost heap.

Can you eat your compost? Come see ways I've saved food previously destined for the compost pile for delicious use in my kitchen. #TexasHomesteader

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Homestead Hack: Keep That Broccoli Fresh!

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by Texas Homesteader ~

My baby sis and her hubby came to spend the weekend with us recently.  RancherMan & I planned to grill out since the weather was nice.  I’d also planned to roast some fresh veggies that I had in the fridge.  As my sis & I were in the kitchen I opened the refrigerator door to fetch the broccoli leftover from our dinner party several days ago.  My sister saw how it was contained and exclaimed “That’s BRILLIANT!”  Come see this Homestead Hack for keeping your broccoli fresh.

Keep broccoli fresh and crisp for several days during its storage in your refrigerator. Check out this simple Homestead Hack! #TexasHomesteader

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Applesauce Is A Multi-Purpose Gem In Your Pantry

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by Texas Homesteader ~

WHEW!  I finally finished with all the fresh apples my aunt let us harvest from her tree & bring home.  Ten bushels worth!  TEN bushels.  T-E-N.  Wow.   I’ve made and canned Apple Pie Filling for quick homemade pies this winter.  And I dehydrated some of those delicious apples into crispy Cinnamon/Sugar Apple Chips for snacks.  But I love the Slow-Cooker Applesauce the most.  I’ve even taken some of the regular applesauce & flavored & canned it into Cinnamon-Vanilla Flavored Applesauce.  And of course the liquid released when I cooked down those apples into applesauce wasn’t wasted either.  I strained & canned it for apple cider.

All are delicious, but today I was thinking about that applesauce.  How versatile it is in my kitchen.  Not only do I enjoy eating it straight from the jar, but it replaces a cooking item I typically have to buy.

 

Not only do I enjoy eating homemade applesauce straight from the jar, but it replaces a cooking item I typically have to buy. #TexasHomesteader

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How To Make Clover-Blossom Jelly with Recipe

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Although we often plant winter rye and clover for early grazing opportunities for our cattle herd, we planted clover heavily in the pen right next to the beehives.  It’s beautiful in full bloom! We’ve kept the cattle off of this piece of land to allow the bees to do their thing with the clover blossoms.  I suspect there’s not a much sweeter delight than home-grown clover honey #amiright?

But as we were walking through that paddock recently I commented to RancherMan how fragrant those blossoms were.  Wonder if I can make jelly from them?  Hummmm…

Making Clover-Blossom Jelly. We have many clover blossoms in the pastures. Why not make Jelly with those fragrant blooms? It is delicious! #TexasHomesteader

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