Disabled suburban apartment dweller. The only things I'm able to harvest are a couple of potted herbs, and Sea Grape and Cocoplum, and fish. My next "build" project is (yet another) cat door. :-) I finally almost nearly tamed a feral after 5+ years and she's just gotten comfortable enough to nap at my feet. So the bedroom door gets...a smaller bedroom door. AND a fresh coat of paint, to hide the many scuffs from my wheelchair.
Nice! That's your able to do all that is impressive given what you've got going. Good work with that cat! We've had our share of feral barn cats, but while they'll come near in the yard, we rarely get them as close as sleeping at our feet!
Hey Ashley, thanks for getting back to me on the lemon pickle question. I have another one. This is probably basic, but not sure so just checking with the pro! I had 4 jars of pickled asparagus lids buckle and my understanding is that I can replace the lids and re water bath them. Is that correct? Thanks Chris
Thanks so much. In 20 years of water bath canning, I have never ever had a buckle. I’ve had 100 % buckle fail with superb branded lids from Lehmans. I re canned the asparagus and 1 buckled, 3 just didn’t seal at all. Then 3 half pints of jam - same lids didn’t seal either. So determined, I redid using ball lids and voilà! But was a pain and waste of time. Weird.
Yup! That's exactly right. Replace the lids and re-can.
(Buckling usually is lids tightened on too much, or at least so I've read. I've only ever had that happen once in all my years of canning, and it was on a pressure canned jar of stock.)
I studied and tweaked aronia berry recipes for awhile, and if you want to ELIMINATE the astringency for recipes like jam or juice, you just need to add a little bit of clear gelatin powder to the liquid you get off of them. Start with maybe a tsp. Try it, and work up from there! It will naturally take that astringency right out for you, leaving behind beautiful flavor!
That makes a lot of sense, it probably precipitates it right out! I found that they're much less astringent in the wine once it's racked, so that's probably it slowly precipitating out into the sediment. Doing some active work with gelatin would be better though I'd bet. Thanks so much for that!
I am amazed at the Swiss chard still in my garden! it has been attacked by mild frosts, and still perks right up and is even sweeter than I have ever tasted. I am growing my two favorite varieties: Barese (from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds) which is under 18" tall and has thick glossy leaves with white veins and Lucullus (From Gurney's) which grows way taller. Both are delicious - guests this summer declared they had never liked chard before tasting these varieties! And I have waay too much still in the garden to blanch, and vac-pak because the freezer is already full!
A vac pak tip for chard: blanch, squeeze out water, spread on cookie sheets cover with a large plastic bag, freeze, THEN vac-pak. Otherwise the moisture tray fills up multiple times for each bag and that is a royal pain. I do the same thing for Brussels sprouts too after blanching.
I stumbled upon another wonderful veg this season: Magnolia sweet peas, which have delightful purple flowers then produce edible purple pods which I have been using in stir fries or tossed in with the regular peas at about 1.5" long max. Pretty in the garden on a fence and tasty!
Also this season, my cuke (beit alpha aka persian) seedlings all damped off in april, so I sowed direct in June - not expecting much. BUT I got several healthy plants which completely escaped the early season cucumber beetles. I had read about this - if the beetles don't have food, they die or move on. They weren't obvious on my squash either. Great strategy for the future!
This year's Colorado red artichokes - best for our cool summers, were a complete bust. Have to learn more about them as the past two summers we had good crops!
Gardening in Brookfield, VT, Zone 4b, on a southern slope, both raised and in ground beds.
I have friends in Brookfield, I know that spot well. It's usually colder than here, and gets more snow...so a bit more of a challenge, I'd guess. Sounds like you're really killing it over there with your garden! That's amazing.
Magnolia sweet peas sound interesting, I'll maybe try those next year!
When I make autumn olive jam, I add a bit of cinnamon. The jam tastes like Thanksgiving and Christmas wrapped on one.
That sounds absolutely perfect!
Disabled suburban apartment dweller. The only things I'm able to harvest are a couple of potted herbs, and Sea Grape and Cocoplum, and fish. My next "build" project is (yet another) cat door. :-) I finally almost nearly tamed a feral after 5+ years and she's just gotten comfortable enough to nap at my feet. So the bedroom door gets...a smaller bedroom door. AND a fresh coat of paint, to hide the many scuffs from my wheelchair.
Nice! That's your able to do all that is impressive given what you've got going. Good work with that cat! We've had our share of feral barn cats, but while they'll come near in the yard, we rarely get them as close as sleeping at our feet!
It can take a LONG time. Not all feral cats are feral, but just homeless, so they're easy to tame.
Hey Ashley, thanks for getting back to me on the lemon pickle question. I have another one. This is probably basic, but not sure so just checking with the pro! I had 4 jars of pickled asparagus lids buckle and my understanding is that I can replace the lids and re water bath them. Is that correct? Thanks Chris
Thanks so much. In 20 years of water bath canning, I have never ever had a buckle. I’ve had 100 % buckle fail with superb branded lids from Lehmans. I re canned the asparagus and 1 buckled, 3 just didn’t seal at all. Then 3 half pints of jam - same lids didn’t seal either. So determined, I redid using ball lids and voilà! But was a pain and waste of time. Weird.
Yup! That's exactly right. Replace the lids and re-can.
(Buckling usually is lids tightened on too much, or at least so I've read. I've only ever had that happen once in all my years of canning, and it was on a pressure canned jar of stock.)
I studied and tweaked aronia berry recipes for awhile, and if you want to ELIMINATE the astringency for recipes like jam or juice, you just need to add a little bit of clear gelatin powder to the liquid you get off of them. Start with maybe a tsp. Try it, and work up from there! It will naturally take that astringency right out for you, leaving behind beautiful flavor!
That makes a lot of sense, it probably precipitates it right out! I found that they're much less astringent in the wine once it's racked, so that's probably it slowly precipitating out into the sediment. Doing some active work with gelatin would be better though I'd bet. Thanks so much for that!
Husk cherry wine. Epic.
Nice write up Amy!
Thanks!
I am amazed at the Swiss chard still in my garden! it has been attacked by mild frosts, and still perks right up and is even sweeter than I have ever tasted. I am growing my two favorite varieties: Barese (from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds) which is under 18" tall and has thick glossy leaves with white veins and Lucullus (From Gurney's) which grows way taller. Both are delicious - guests this summer declared they had never liked chard before tasting these varieties! And I have waay too much still in the garden to blanch, and vac-pak because the freezer is already full!
A vac pak tip for chard: blanch, squeeze out water, spread on cookie sheets cover with a large plastic bag, freeze, THEN vac-pak. Otherwise the moisture tray fills up multiple times for each bag and that is a royal pain. I do the same thing for Brussels sprouts too after blanching.
I stumbled upon another wonderful veg this season: Magnolia sweet peas, which have delightful purple flowers then produce edible purple pods which I have been using in stir fries or tossed in with the regular peas at about 1.5" long max. Pretty in the garden on a fence and tasty!
Also this season, my cuke (beit alpha aka persian) seedlings all damped off in april, so I sowed direct in June - not expecting much. BUT I got several healthy plants which completely escaped the early season cucumber beetles. I had read about this - if the beetles don't have food, they die or move on. They weren't obvious on my squash either. Great strategy for the future!
This year's Colorado red artichokes - best for our cool summers, were a complete bust. Have to learn more about them as the past two summers we had good crops!
Gardening in Brookfield, VT, Zone 4b, on a southern slope, both raised and in ground beds.
I have friends in Brookfield, I know that spot well. It's usually colder than here, and gets more snow...so a bit more of a challenge, I'd guess. Sounds like you're really killing it over there with your garden! That's amazing.
Magnolia sweet peas sound interesting, I'll maybe try those next year!