I like to use plain unsweetened applesauce as a delicious snack and also as a replacement for some of the oil I use when baking. But I made a LOT of applesauce. I’m thinking about maybe using some of it to make an even sweeter treat: Cinnamon-Vanilla flavored applesauce.
RancherMan loves crispy dehydrated apple slices topped with cinnamon sugar. I dry them in the dehydrator and then a quick stint in the oven to make them crisp. Check it out!
My sweet aunt shared with me many delicious sweet apples from her tree. Not a few mind you, but a LOT! (as in 5 bushels of a lot!)
Thankfully this apple pie filling is pretty straightforward and canning it requires just a 20-minute stint in a water-bath canner. Wanna see how I did it?
I like to use fresh herbs from my garden as often as I can. I’d heard of freezing a mixture of herbs with olive oil into a cube. Herb bombs!
Even though the terrible weather & grasshopper damage has all but ruined my chances of harvesting anything, there has been a ray of sunshine in my gardening endeavors this year. My edible landscape!
I’ve had many herbs such as rosemary, thyme, sage and basil survive the weather and the grasshoppers.
I’d heard before about making ‘Flavor Bombs’ from various herbs and olive oil, so I figured I’d give it a try. Turns out I really like them!
Gardening is a fun hobby, but c’mon there’s lots of work involved too. From planting seeds or tender seedlings to standing under that hot summer sun watering, weeding and harvesting.
Seeing that basket of fresh healthy produce is enough to make it all worthwhile of course. But oftentimes your harvest comes all at once as feast or famine. After putting in all of that tender loving care to your precious garden it’s important to make sure none of your hard works goes to waste.
For instance I harvested my onions when their growing time was up. But how to make sure a whole garden full of onions can be enjoyed instead of being sat aside deteriorating until they’re only compost worthy? You can bet your hat I won’t be letting my hard work go to waste!
Several weeks back a friend & I were talking about gardening. Her family had a huge garden when she was growing up and they relied on it to keep them all fed.
She was quizzing me on the different things I like to plant in my garden and I rattled off all the faves: Tomatoes, garlic, onion, bell peppers, jalapenos, cantaloupe, squash, green beans, etc.
She asked if I ever planted potatoes and I told her that in the past I’d planted them, but I could never successfully store them long term whether garden potatoes or store-bought. I know that freshly-harvested potatoes have to be cured but even when properly curing them, they would sprout within a short time.
She was surprised that I had any trouble keeping them long term and told me that they just used to store their potatoes on the ground in the barn and they lasted all season. I was intrigued…
I was dehydrating lots of vegetables from my garden. Each one was placed in a repurposed glass jar in my pantry. Then I decided to assemble various dry veggies, add some seasoning and make dehydrated salsa in a jar as a gift. The gift recipients LOVED IT!
Tomatoes are the darling of the vegetable garden around these parts. Some like to plant squash, some like peppers. But by golly almost everyone has a tomato bush (or two, or three…) in their garden!
None of my tomatoes will go to waste. Even when they’re producing too fast for me to eat fresh. I like to dice & dehydrate those fresh tomatoes to use in my wintertime soups. It’s easy!