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How to save money and save the planet at the same time.
Home-canned food has saved us from starvation on more than one occasion. On a snowy winter’s day, when the fridge was looking bare and I couldn’t go get groceries ’cause the driveway needed plowing, but the tractor was out of diesel, and the only local pizza delivery place decided they “wouldn’t risk it”, I’ve bounced [...]
It’s that time of year when I cut and dry all my herbs for winter use. The small-leafed herbs are hung to dry – tied up with twine and hung from coat hangers – but the majority of my harvest meets the heat of the dehydrator. I like that it’s done quickly but still at [...]
Pure unsweetened apple butter was my kids’ first condiment. When they had their first rice cakes, and it was too soon to try peanut butter, I gave them apple butter. When I made Apple Barley Pancakes, they were never served with maple syrup; they were served with apple butter. Their first “cookies” were sweetened [...]
The orchard is throwing up apples. We don’t spray for pests or diseases, and we stopped pruning years ago – call it laziness, busy-ness, whatever – but every two or three years, we have perfect growing weather and in spite of our lack of attention, the trees give us a fantastic harvest. This year is [...]
It’s been a busy summer of gardening, harvesting, cooking and preserving. This year is, for me, the most productive season I’ve ever had. The early spring gave us an early summer which, in turn, gave us an early harvest. The dry start was scary, but eventually gave way to an almost perfect schedule of rain [...]
A word about baby poop. Like most middle-class North Americans, I was first taught how to change a baby’s diaper using a disposable. The procedure involved removing the wet or dirty diaper, wiping with disposable wipes, and fastening a new diaper on the fresh clean baby. The diaper was then folded up tightly into a [...]
Better late than never. The best time of year to make baby food is late summer or early fall. Peaches, followed by apples and pears, reach their peak at this time, and these flavours are always well received. If you are new to canning, then making baby food is a good way to …
I was worried that my beautiful greens might take a wee bit of a hit tonight (-2 predicted), so we rigged a temporary mini hoophouse over the garden bed. It was a very last minute decision – made at about 4pm – and I think we did well. We happened to have several yards of [...]
Babies are usually ready to start solid foods by the time they are six months old. A few babies will thrive on just breastmilk until their ninth month, and others will be eager for new tastes and sensations at five months. Try to wait as long as possible. There is no danger in delaying the introduction of [...]
The babe is learning the art of spoon-handling. It makes sense to give her as many opportunities as possible to sharpen her skill, so for breakfast, I usually alternate between various hot cereals, such as oatmeal, quinoa, and millet, and mix them with various fruits, such as banana, blueberries, and applesauce. Well, this morning, I [...]
In my experience, it is almost impossible to boil down pureed tomatoes to a consistency that can accurately be referred to as “paste”, and yet, that is what the published canning experts tell us to do. Here is a much better alternative: Peel tomatoes and puree them until smooth. For every 4 cups of …
I have 6 jars of green tomato salsa in the canner. I’ve never preserved green tomatoes before. Usually, at the end of the season, I cut down all the remaining clusters of tomatoes, leaving as much vine attached as possible, and spread them in a single layer between newspapers in the cold cellar. …
I canned five pints of salsa today. The tomatoes were a mix of Amish Paste, Roma and Hungarian Heart. With night temps back up into the “teens” all this week, the rest of the fruit will have a reasonable chance to mature. I may be in full canning production by Saturday.
I think if we can learn to LIVE Green, EAT Green and GROW Green, then ultimately we will SAVE Green, which is good for our pocketbooks, and good for the planet.
I also have a love/hate relationship with recipes that promise to “put a dent in that zucchini harvest”.
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