by Texas Homesteader
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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!
by Texas Homesteader
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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?
by Texas Homesteader ~
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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!
by Texas Homesteader
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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!
by Texas Homesteader ~
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!
By Texas Homesteader ~
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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!
by Texas Homesteader
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This year I planted heirloom sugar pumpkins in my garden. And when it was time to harvest them I knew I’d first be able to enjoy them for a bit as decoration. I love the way those little pumpkins looked propped on our antique cast-iron Franklin stove.
But several days later I was in the kitchen enjoying the last of my favorite pumpkin granola. I knew that since I planted those delicious pumpkins for use in my granola it was time to cook those babies down into pumpkin puree.
