Thinking out loud

This months can jam was a challenge and a joy.  I LOVE pickles - you know the "real" ones made from cucumbers so when I saw the theme was cucurbits I was ecstatic.  Boy did I have a lot to learn.  I had no idea that cucurbits included not only cucumbers but squash and melon as well.  Well this opened new doors to me.  I started the search for the perfect can jam item.  Did I find it?  Well, Woodman can answer that.  I have often wanted to try Watermelon Rind Pickles.  There is something about making use of something I am just going to throw away that really appeals to me.  We had a watermelon on hand, the girls love them and eat tons this time of year, so guess what we had for dessert?  Of course the girls thought I was a little nuts when I wouldn't let them throw the garbage away.  I got my recipe from one of my favorite standbys.  At first glance, it seems a little intimidating and time consuming.  In reality much o...

Ok, for those of you who have a blog you know how this goes. You are driving down the road and you think to your self, "Oh yeah, I need to post about this!!!" This is the garden back in May. And then you get home and life happens to you. So, as you get ready to go to sleep something else hits you... This is the Rhubarb cordial, syrup, stuff. It's all gone now, mostly in Rhubaritas, but some in Rhubarb Iced Tea. A few days pass, maybe a week or two, or three, and you realize that you are way behind on anything you meant to talk about, and some things don't even make sense any more. Some people get on planes and go to foreign places... Some things show up and start eating shoes. And sometimes, even when you post the most recent picture of something, it's still three weeks old.

"erries" I LOVE 'em!  Any kind any way!  The sweetness with the sometimes tartness just tickles my taste buds.  So why did I wait so long to post?  Decisions!!!  They are so hard to make when you have so many recipes you want to try! So I settled on a variation of a jam.  Ok, it really was a jam but I got too impatient and it really makes a yummy syrup for ice cream, pound cake, yogurt and if you don't mind it a little runny even on biscuits so I didn't bother to re-boil it! The original recipe was from the Ball Blue Book.  I do have other canning books but seem to come back to this stand by a lot.  Here is the original recipe: Strawberry Jam 2 quarts strawberries, crushed 6 cups sugar Combine berries and sugar in a large sauce pot.  Bring slowly to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.  Cook rapidly until thick, about 40 minutes.  As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking.  Poor hot into ho...

Finally, a can jam I can jam on!  Rhubarb, I LOVE rhubarb and everything I have ever tried it in or on.  This was a chance to get my creativity going.  I scoured books, magazines and web sites.  So many choices and all sound great.  I wanted something out of the ordinary - trust me, I will be canning many other items with rhubarb so it isn't like I will be missing out on old standbys like my cheater rhubarb jam (more on that later).  So I am looking around and I find something I have never heard of - RHUBARB BUTTER - now I have made apple butter, sweet potato butter, pear butter, spiced peach butter even pumpkin butter but I have never heard of rhubarb butter - this was just the thing for me. So I assemble all my equipment and get started.  The recipe follows but this was a quick easy recipe.  There is one catch - it looks like green slime but I'm telling you this stuff ROCKS!  I love it and can't wait to eat more.  It will never make...

Ok, let's set the scene. Three weeks ago DD and I are at Lowes buying two for one plants. Some tomatoes, peppers, and other stuff. It's early for our zone but we can keep them in the house until it's time. I was wanting to plan right away, and I was told I was silly. Then we talked about the people at the plan shop in the parking lot at the mall that were saying you should plant now and that is totally safe to do so. DD laughed about them a lot. On our way out of Lowes with a cart full of plants a gentleman walked up to us and asked if it was ok to plant now. DD explains that no, not at all, there is still a strong chance of frost, in fact there is a strong possibility of frost just three days from now. We talked about the garden shop that was so silly as to tell us to plant now, and my wife talked about how she was going to wait to plant our plants. We get home and someone picks up the plants, walks out side, and plants them.... All of them. Three days later, we did ...

Ok, I'm posting this, which means DD didn't like what she canned.  When we first read that it was herbs there was some confusion and consternation concerning this confounding canning conundrum (OK, I was reaching a little on the alliteration). We thought of a couple things that we make for recipes, an apple thyme jam was suggested many times and we almost went that direction. But, there was a substance that I have always craved from my childhood that DD decided to attempt to replicate. I have no idea if this is what I had as a kid, but it rocks..... Dilly Beans! Pretty cool stuff. You go and buy some beans, then you open up your Ball Blue Book 2008 to page 54 and do what it tells you. 2 lbs Green Beans 1/4 cup canning salt 21/2 cups vinegar 21/2 cups water 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 4 cloves garlic 4 heads dill Trim ends off green beans. Combine salt, vinegar and water in a large sauce pot. Bring to a boil. Pack beans lengthwise into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch...

DD is doing a raised bed garden this year. Our dirt is crap, nothing has done well the last couple years. So, I got her some horse poop, and peat, and vermiculite... and a pulled groin later we had a raised bed garden. In square foot gardening by some magic method you are able to put a million or so plants in each square foot. In some of the squares there are upwards of a couple dozen things growing. 24 carrots, 24 radishes... I have no idea how that works. The cages are for peas and tomatoes, we can't plant the maters outside yet since we live in some of the most random weather in the US. Edit: Ok, peas and cucumbers, not tomatoes. I put the string in, and she puts the plants in. And then the plants come up. The close up is Asian radish things. The site she gets a lot from is http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ I'm looking forward to more things like what we made for the can jam, which I'll talk about tomorrow.