Green Tomatillo Salsa - Canned

Tomatillos don't have to be peeled just cored and chopped.

I loved canning Green Tomatillo Salsa! Unlike the tomatoes that are used in Tomato Salsa, you don't have to peel tomatillos. You just have to chop them up and throw them in. This is a lot less work and the results are delicious.


I followed Ball's recipe for Tomatillo Salsa. Which can be found here. I have also included it below with a few changes that I made.

Simmering Tomatillo Salsa

 5-1/2 cups chopped cored husked tomatillos (about 2 lbs or 27 medium)
1 cup chopped onion (about 1 large)
1 cup chopped green chilies (I used a combination of Jalapenos and green peppers.)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp minced cilantro
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vinegar
4 Tbsp lime juice
4 (8 oz) half pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands
I omitted the Red Pepper Flakes because I chose to use Jalapeno Peppers. 

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until salsa reaches desired thickness.
Ladle the hot salsa into prepared jars leaving 1/2 inch head space. Wipe rims and put hot lids and bands onto jars.
Process jars in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours.


Remember that it is not safe to change the ratio of tomatillos, peppers, onions, and garlic to the amount of acid used (vinegar and lime juice). The only thing that can safely be changed is the amount of spices you use. Always use an approved recipe when canning salsa.

Home Canned Tomatillo Salsa

You can also try my recipe for Roasted Tomatillo Salsa found here.

DIY: Frozen Spinach

Large bunch of Spinach harvested from our Garden.

As the days started to get warmer here in East Texas I knew that the days of being able to satisfy my spinach cravings were numbered. It made me a bit sad, because my spinach has been doing so well and we have all been loving it. As it started to bolt I decided to preserve a bunch of it by freezing.

Freezing is actually a really great way to preserve vegetables from your garden. Freezing allows you to preserve most of the nutrients and also helps to maintain the color and flavor.

Three bowl set up for freezing homegrown spinach.

For most vegetables blanching and cooling is a necessary step to properly preserve them. Blanching stops the enzyme action that helps vegetables to grow and mature. 

I used a three bowl set up to blanch and cool my spinach very quickly. It only took me about 20 minutes to do the whole batch.

Blanching Homegrown Spinach.

Cooling Spinach after blanching.

Draining water off of blanched and cooled spinach.

Of course the first step is to thoroughly wash the spinach, cut off thick stems and take out any bad leaves. Then you can start the blanching process.

The first bowl is for blanching. I have a large stock pot with a colander that fits inside, perfect for blanching. But you could also scoop it out with a slotted spoon.  Bring the water in your stock pot to a boil. Then add your spinach. I did several small batches because you want your spinach completely covered with water. Cover the pot and blanch for 3 minutes.
 

Remove your spinach promptly after 3 minutes and put it in a bowl full of ice water. I placed a colander inside a larger bowl of ice water for quick and easy transfer. Allow the spinach to cool for the same amount of time. If you are doing several batches be sure to change your water or add more ice to keep the water cold.





After cooling I transferred my spinach into another colander placed over a bowl to allow it to drain. After it drained for a bit I used my hands to squeeze out the remainder of the water.

Blanched, cooled, and drained spinach all ready for freezing.

After my spinach was blanched, cooled, and drained I placed it into Ziploc bags. Here they are all ready for the freezer. I got three quart sized bags of spinach from my garden that day. I was very excited. It was much easier than I thought and didn't take much time at all.





Remember that each type of vegetable has a different blanching time to prepare it for freezing. If you want to freeze other types of vegetables there are various places you can find time charts. Here is one from the Colorado State University Extension. Freezing is another way we can preserve some of that great garden harvest. Happy Freezing!

Also remember this great water conservation tip and use all that great spinach water to water you household plants and pots.

Goin' Green

Kale - Nutritional Powerhouse

Unfortunately for us, our green season has pretty much come to a close. By "Green" I mean our garden greens. We have been loving them. For many of you though you still have some green days ahead. If you haven't been planting greens in your garden you should give them a try. We have found them amazing easy to grow and extremely delicious. Most importantly they are packed with nutrition. Let me tell you about a few that we grow.

Kale in a planter.

Giant Winter Spinach

Kale is a nutritional powerhouse. It is said to be one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. In addition it grows easily and it is very pretty. I even planted kale in my decorative flower pots.  Kale is of course extremely low in calories but is loaded with fiber, and is highly concentrated with the antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K. We love kale both raw and cooked and we have been eating a lot of it.




Spinach had long been know for being an iron rich vegetable. It also is a good source of fiber, folate, and vitamins A, C, and K. I have actually been craving spinach for most of the spring.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Leaf Lettuce

We have struggled to grow Swiss Chard in the past. But it grew beautifully this year. I am so glad, because it is delicious! I love it! We have really been enjoying it. It is also full of vitamins A, C, and K and is rich in dietary fiber and protein.The stems on this Bright Lights Swiss Chard remind me a lot of rhubarb, not only appearance but taste as well.



Although, not as high in nutrients as many of the other greens, lettuce is still a tasty choice. The greener and more colorful the lettuce the more nutrient rich it is. Iceberg lettuce has the lowest nutritional value of all lettuces. We grow a bit of leaf lettuce in our garden but to be honest most things we would use lettuce for (hamburgers, sandwiches, and salads) we choose to use spinach or one of the other greens instead. Most often we will mix it with other greens for a tasty salad.

Giant harvest of beet greens.

Another really great green that we often have an abundance of is beet greens. I have to admit these are not my personal favorite, but they have grown on me. I didn't care for them at all in the past, but now I will occasionally eat them sauteed and we like to throw them into our "Green" Smoothies. This is the beet green from last years harvest of beets. We planted a lot and canned and pickled beets. This year we only planted a few for greens.
The wonderful thing about greens is you can continually harvest them. I usually cut the outer leaves first and leave the younger inside leaves to grow and mature. The more you harvest them the more they will grow.

Swiss Chard being Sauteed with garlic and onion.

We use greens in a variety of ways, but our favorite way is to throw them in a smoothie. At least this is the way the kids enjoy them most because, they can't really taste them. :)  Jacob and I love them sauteed with garlic and onion. We like to add sauteed greens to things like scrambled eggs and pasta dishes. I will also add pureed greens to my pasta sauces. Of course, we also enjoy them raw in salads. It is most beneficial to grow greens yourself and harvest them as you use them, because once you have harvested them the nutrients begin to deteriorate. It has been show that frozen spinach (I am sure this is true for other greens too) actually contain more nutrients than the store bought fresh spinach, because by freezing the spinach you lock in the nutrients. Check back in a few days for a post on how to freeze your own spinach or other greens.

Variety of greens from the garden harvested for a smoothie (kale, chard, spinach, and flat leaf parsley).

Egg Shell Seed Starters

 As I was doing a little Easter shopping online I came across some ceramic Easter eggs that had seedlings in them that you could water and then they would grow. This got me thinking that real egg shells would actually be great seed starters. They have tons of calcium in them so you can just put them directly in the ground and it will give your new plant a calcium boost. So I thought I would give it a try. Jacob was the expert at cracking the eggs at the very top, keeping the rest of the shell in tact.

Then I simply gave the shells a good rinse. The kids helped me fill them with soil. We used a large needle to poke holes in the bottom of each of them so we could simply fill the egg carton up with water and they could stay moist from the bottom up. We filled our egg shells with pepper seeds. We really like peppers around here and use a lot in our canned salsa recipes. We planted a big variety this year. I hope they do well.

A couple of weeks later we had pepper plants peeking out of each one of our egg shells. Yay! Success! When I planted my peppers, I gave each shell a little squish and put it directly in the ground. They make perfect, organic, and completely biodegradable seed starters. I am thinking this is a great idea. I will be starting a bunch of seeds in egg shells for next year's garden. 

Spring Spinach Salad

 We have some spinach and lettuce growing in our garden right now that over wintered, yay! We are loving it! A few nights ago I made this delicious salad with a whole bunch of spinach and some of the beautiful leaf lettuce. The recipe was shared with me by one of my good friends. It is so yummy I can't keep it to myself.

Spring Spinach Salad

 Here is the original recipe:
1 lb. Spring Salad Greens
1 large bag Baby Spinach
1/2 C. slivered Almonds (brown in 3T. sugar & water)
1/2 package Craisins
1 Cup Grated Cheese
2 Cups Mandarin Oranges, Strawberries, and Avocado
Toss together well.

Dressing:
3/4 Tb. Poppy Seeds
1/3 Cup Sugar
3/4 tsp. Salt
3/4 Cup Olive Oil
5 Tb. or less of Mustard
1/3 Cup Red Wine Vinegar
1 Tb. Red Onion Grated
Put dressing on salad just before serving.

Jacob and I polished off the whole bowl ourselves.

I made a few changes to the recipe simply because I didn't have a few ingredients and of course I cut it in thirds, just enough for our family to eat. But as you can see we ate the whole bowl. Me and Jacob shared it because the kids aren't big on salad, but we did make them try it.  I couldn't stop eating it.  I didn't have any almonds so I threw in some sunflower seeds. I also didn't have any strawberries or avocado, but I wish I would have. No red onion for the dressing so I left it out, but it would have been a great addition. The lesson here is you can always adapt a great recipe to better suit the ingredients you have on hand. But next time I make this I am going to plan to have the other ingredients, because it would have been that much yummier. At any rate this one was a hit and I can't wait to make it again.

Garden Totals for 2012

456 Pounds of Produce

The grand total for all of our 2012 garden harvests adds up to 456 lbs of delicious top quality fresh food.  We preserved (bottled) a lot of our surplus for later eating, lots of tomatoes, beets, pickles, salsa etc.  We actually had some great bottled beets tonight for dinner, they add a nice color and variety to the dinner plate.  The kids loved how it turned their rice purple.

$861.71 Worth in Produce

So when we add up what all our garden goodness would cost in the store, we come up with $861.71!
That's over $71 per month in fresh off the vine and straight to the table fruit and veggies.

We used normal everyday pricing gathered througout the year.  We did not collect the organic pricing, which our food would stack up well against.  When you look at organic produce, you see a very high premium.

I would place our food above organic, we used beyond organic methods and techniques.  We are learning and progressing in our understanding of permaculture and other beyond organic methods. 

Soil

We have already started to plant our spring gardens.  We are amazed at how great our soil is, its rich, moist and dark.  It is a dream to dig and plant in.  We have used zero fertilizer and have built up our beds with worm castings (from our worm bins), leaves and grass clippings.  We also have incorporated Woody Beds (hugelculture) into most of our beds reducing water demands.  We are also amazed at how much life we find in the soil, its full of great insect life.

2013: Looking Forward

We look forward to this year, we hope to grow far more than last year in the same space.  We also are expanding our gardens out into the field behind us, planting in swales and contour beds.  We hope to greatly expand our harvest with this small area, we also plan to plant some pumpkins, squash and goards for market too. 

A Winter Favorite: Italian Farmhouse Soup

Italian Farmhouse Soup: Winter Vegetarian Favorite

A few weeks ago we had some friends for dinner and I made this wonderful winter favorite. We absolutely love this soup. It is hearty, warm, and delicious. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.  I am sure it will become one of your favorites too.

Italian Farmhouse Soup

2 Tb. Olive Oil
1 Onion, Chopped
2 to 3 cloves Garlic, minced
3 to 4 Carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
6 oz. Rutabaga, peeled and cut into large chunks
7 oz. Turnips, peeled and cut into large chunks
2 Quarts, canned diced tomatoes
2 tsp. Oregano
2 tsp. Basil
1 tsp. Thyme
1 tsp. Salt
6 & 1/2 Cups Vegetable Stock
1/2 Cup Dried Small Macaroni
1 - 14 oz. Can Red Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
2 Tb. Italian Flat Leaf Parsley, chopped
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese

Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the onion and garlic, cook over low heat for about 5 minutes until softened. Add the carrot, turnip, rutabaga, tomatoes, herbs, and salt. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes or until veggies are tender. Add the pasta and kidney beans to the pan and simmer for about 5 minutes until pasta is tender. Remove from heat and stir in parsley and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot with freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.

After we discovered this amazing soup we started growing Rutabaga in our garden. It is so delicious! We also usually have turnips growing too, but if you don't have either of these just use whatever root or winter vegetables you have available.

I didn't have any turnips when I made this batch. So I threw in a small butternut squash and a large sweet potato, along with my rutabaga and carrots. It turned out awesome! So yummy! Served with homemade French Bread, it makes the perfect winter time meal.

Sweet Potato Harvest

This year's sweet potato harvest.

A month ago we harvested all of our sweet potatoes.  We love sweet potatoes in our family.  This was our first year grown them.  We started them from slips early in the year.  We harvested over 11 lbs, though we would have had more but about half of our slips were planted far to late.  We only started these from two sweet potatoes, we also gave away a bunch of slips.  Unfortunately some of the slips were quickly overshadowed by other larger plants and did not produce much. 

Sweet potatoes are very nutritious and store well.  After what we learned this year, we will be starting a whole lot of slips next year.  We'll plant them everywhere.

All in all it was a great success., below are some highlights from what we learned.

• Sweet potatoes really prefer a lot of sunlight.  The slips we planted in the shade of a fence and those that were overtaken by tomatillo's or tomatoes did not do well.  
• We planted a lot too late which limited our production.
• Planting them as part of a polyculture increases production
• They grow well in many types of soils, even very poor soils
• They can fill in many gaps in your garden beds
• Once you establish a them, you can continue to propagate them from starting slips from your harvest.
• You can also bring in some vines and over winter them. 
• Store bought sweet potatoes won't always produce slips, try for some locally grown ones.
• Start your slips early, get them in early  

Slips are very easy to start and each slip can grow several potatoes each.  They are very hearty once established, we had some that produced a lot of pretty sweet potato blossoms which is unusual. Honeybees love sweet potato blossoms.

This was a long one, it would have been huge with a little more time.

Another long one, this is almost 3 feet long!

Follow Up: Those Cold Fall Nights

The other day I posted about our method of covering our frost sensitive plants from freezing dead on cold nights.  I just wanted to follow up and tell you how our plants did.

I happened to wake up in the middle of the night and looked at my phone, it was 30 degrees outside!  I was so glad I covered the plants.  It was only supposed to be 34 with a chance of 32.  I went back to sleep with a peaceful mind not worrying about our plants.

Frost all over

The top is a little frost bitten

The next morning I pulled off all f the sheets to see how everything was doing.  Most everything looks pretty good.  Some of the plants had the top six or eight inches were freezer burned but he majority of the plants were in good shape.  We have only one more cold night to go then a good week of warm weather.  The next night I added some grass clippings around the base of some of our pepper plants.  We are now 2 years on three of our pepper plants and want to keep them going another year, since pepper plants are perennial they just need a little protection. 

Hang up your sheets to dry them out, ready for the next night.

We are trying to keeping our tomatoes, squash, tomatillo's and peppers going along so we can gain some harvest from  each of them.  A few of the plants we where a little late in planting so we hope that we can still gain a harvest from them before it is too cold for them.  Either way it's worth the effort.




 

Those Cold Fall Nights

Sheets covering frost sensitive plants.

There is nothing better than wrapping up in a blanket on a cold cold night. 

Tonight we are having an overnight low of 32 or 33 degrees.  We still have cold sensitive plants like tomatoes, tomatillos, squash and peppers.  We still hope to harvest more from them before winter sets in.  While they may make it through the night, if they do get cold enough they will be done for.

So we loosely wrap our plants up to keep them from freezing.  This method only works with light to moderate freezes.  Really hard freezes are hard to avoid even with this method.  We wrap up the plants in old sheets, the ones we keep around for painting and for this exact reason.  Sheets work well because they are lightweight.  If you had some stakes or supports you could use blankets if you had them.

Pillow Case covering a small Pepper Plant

We cover each plant or groups of plants, trying to cover them down to the ground.  This works well to keep the freeze back.  Keeping in the heat some while keeping the wind down and frost at bay.

It is important to remove the covers in the morning so the plants and ground can be warmed by the sun.  We have made the mistake in the past of not uncovering them leading to the plants freezing the next night.  Also the other issue can arise if the sheets are damp, they are less effective.  We hang our sheets off of the swing set to dry out during the day.       

Seed Saving: Pumpkin

 Pumpkin week has been so much fun. I have enjoyed sharing some of our favorite recipes with you. There are many more, it was really hard to decide what to post. I can't end the week without a short post on saving pumpkin seeds. It is so easy to do.  I was so excited when I cut open this pie pumpkin to can and see how many seeds it actually had in it. I decided to save them all for planting. 

All you have to do to save pumpkin seeds or any type of winter squash for planting is to scoop them out of the pumpkin, remove any pulp, rinse them, and then allow them to dry completely before putting them away for storage. These seeds came out really easily and they had hardly any pulp on them. I put them into a colander and rinsed them really well. Then I laid them out on a towel to dry for several days. That was all there was to it. I am looking forward to planting them in the spring.

Drying Basil

Fresh Basil from the Garden

Our Basil is doing awesome right now. I have way more than I can use fresh and the bugs were starting to feast on it, so I thought I better cut a bunch for drying. I love basil. It smells amazing. I love to weed in that spot of my garden because it is just heavenly smelling. I harvested 4 large bunches last week and got to work getting it preserved for future use. 

Even though we were lucky enough to inherit our food dehydrator from Jacob's parents, I think a food dehydrator is a great investment. I use mine all of the time, for tons of stuff. It can save a lot of money in the long run. Drying your own herbs is a great money saver. I also dried tons of parsley this year.

Homegrown Dried Basil

It only takes about 4 or 5 hours to get your basil nice and dry. 

I keep my old spice containers once I empty them, clean them well and fill them up with my own dried herbs. 

Dried Stevia

If you don't have a food dehydrator yet, no worries. You can simply hang your herbs upside down for a few weeks and allow them to dry naturally. That is what I did with this Stevia that is pictured at the right.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

We harvested the first pound of tomatillos from our Garden this week. I was so excited to try out some tomatillo salsa. I searched the internet for some recipes and after a little research I came up with my own recipe. It turned out Delicious! So I am going to share it with you today.

Here is what you will need:
1 to 1&1/2 lbs. Tomatillos
1 small to medium Onion
2 or 3 Jalapenos
2 to 3 Cloves Garlic
1 Bunch Cilantro
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Cumin
About 1/4 Cup Water

Remove husks from the tomatillos and wash. I sliced mine in half and then laid them cut side down on a foil lined baking sheet. I also cut my peppers in half, removed the seeds and laid them cut side down. Cut your onion into wedges and place about half of your garlic cloves onto the tray. Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 1/2 hour. Remove your garlic about halfway through, once they are toasty, so they don't get overcooked.

The last few minutes I turned the broiler on to get a nice char on the tops of my veggies. Yummy!

Roasted Tomatillos

Here are the tomatillos, nice and soft with a bit of a char on them. 

Then we just throw it all in the blender. Put your roasted garlic in first. Just cut one end off and squeeze it out of the peel. I pushed all of my roasted veggies to the center of the foil, so I could capture all of the yummy juices. Then I just folded my foil up around it and used it like a funnel to dump it into the blender. Add the fresh cilantro, salt, cumin, and the rest of your garlic. (I chose to keep half of my garlic raw, because of the health benefit.) Blend it all up. You may need to add some water to get things rolling. I ended up using 1/4 cup, but don't add too much or your salsa will be too thin. Mine turned out nice and thick!

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa - Yummy!

Here it is the finished product. It was really yummy and so easy. I couldn't believe how easy it was. I love the fact that I didn't have to peel the tomatillos. It would be delicious on a variety of Mexican dishes, not to mention the fact that it tastes great on a plain old tortilla chip.






This recipe makes about 2 cups of salsa. It is also important to mention that this is not a suitable recipe for canning. There is not enough acidity. But once my tomatillos get going on their production then I will be making some salsa for canning, so be sure and check back. 

Just an update: I freeze this salsa all the time. So although it is not suitable for canning if freezes great.