Cranberry apple conserve recipe
Cranberries and Christmas. ‘Tis the season. This is one of my favorite recipes to serve at holiday dinners. You’ll never serve that store bought, can-shaped, jiggly cranberry stuff again!
Caramel apple jam recipe
The wild apples trees on the farm are flush with fruit. The old timer up the road says that’s a bad sign – lots of apples means a long, harsh winter. He also says women shouldn’t be allowed to drive and that moonshine will cure the flu. But I digress… This jam is autumn at…
Autumn olive jam recipe
The autumn olive (or autumnberry) bush is a double-edged sword. In my area, it can be found along just about any country road or fence row. Unfortunately, just like Japanese knotweed and multiflora rose, it’s considered an invasive species. However, recently, it’s been discovered that the autumn olive berry contains high amounts of Lycopene –…
Pickled green tomatoes recipe
Most folks I know have never heard of pickled green tomatoes. It’s one of those recipes that was born out of the desire to not waste anything. The old timer up the road gave me the recipe years ago after a strong storm blew over most of my cherry tomato plants before they had a…
Sugar plum jam recipe
Confession… I am an over-canner. I love, love, LOVE to can. So when my friend, who owns a farm market, said he had couple of plums for me, I thought, “oh goody, I’ll make some plum jam.” Unbeknownst to me, a couple of plums turned out to be twenty-four quarts of plums. Never one to shy away…
Basil and garlic tomato sauce recipe
The wonderful aroma from this sauce, as it’s bubbling on the stove, brings me right back to my Gramma Josephine’s kitchen. She would make this simple sauce and pour it over everything, from pasta to gnocchi, chicken and even fish. It’s a great sauce to can, but it also freezes well.
Pickled garlic scapes recipe
My grandfather pickled garlic scapes long before they were a “trendy” food. He was an Italian who grew up in the depression and nothing went to waste in his household. As a kid, opening the refrigerator door and finding pickled pigs feet was not surprising to me. Tripe, smelt, head cheese (yes, it is what…
Wild Violet Jelly Recipe
While spending a few days in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I happened upon a little farm stand, on a back road, in the middle of nowhere. Among the usual jars of chow-chow, blueberry jam and apple butter, I spied a small jar of violet jelly. After striking up a conversation with the lovely Amish woman who made…
Pickled sweet peppers recipe
I have to thank my neighbor for this recipe! This is a SWEET pickle brine, which brings out the wonderful taste of the peppers. I use a mixture of green and red bell peppers from my garden. They’re delicious with Italian hoagies, tuna sandwiches, omelets or just straight out of the jar. Pickled Sweet…
Brown sugar carrots recipe
With the temperature hovering around zero and the winter wind whipping fiercely enough to take your breath away when you step outside, I decided that there’s nothing better to do than to can some carrots. I stored some carrots in a friend’s root cellar back in the fall which were a mixture of Saint Valery,…
Holiday Jam Recipe
‘Tis the season for homemade Christmas gifts. Combine tart cranberries, sweet strawberries and a splash of orange juice… voila! Holiday Jam. Holiday Jam INGREDIENTS 32 oz frozen whole strawberries 24 oz fresh cranberries 1/4 cup orange juice 5 lb white sugar 6 oz liquid pectin DIRECTIONS In a large sauce pot, cook cranberries, strawberries and…
Sweet Pickle Relish Recipe
Sweet Pickle Relish INGREDIENTS 4 – 5 lbs large cucumbers 1 large sweet onion 1/4 cup pickling salt 3 cups apple cider vinegar 3/4 cup sugar 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 tsp dill seed 2 tsp mustard seed 2 tsp celery seed 1 tsp turmeric DIRECTIONS Wash cucumber and remove ends. Slice the cucumbers lengthwise…
Let’s preserve something
Very simply – I love to can. For some reason I find it therapeutic. I make a total disaster of the kitchen, but there’s nothing better than opening a fresh jar of tomatoes in the dead of winter. Although somewhat time consuming, canning is relatively easy. So hop on the canning band wagon and go…
Canned stewed tomatoes recipe
Tomato season is upon us and it’s putting up time. Wheee! The key ingredient in this recipe is FRESH, RIPE tomatoes, whether from your garden or farmer’s market. Six months from now, when the snow is piling up outside, you can have a taste of summer by using the stewed tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce,…
The Farmers in the Dell 