Sunday, August 26, 2012

Around the Farm Part 2

Now for part 2 of this awfully long post. You can find part one here.  Back to all that zucchini. You all are probably getting tired of hearing about zucchini, but this is a first for me and I want to remember what I did with it next year. First, I made stuffed zucchini with the smaller ones. A dear friend had given me some small zucchinis from her garden and I had a few smaller ones as well. So I made greek stuffed zucchini.


I just cut them in half lengthwise. Then I scooped out the insides. I chopped up the insides and cooked them in some oil with salt, pepper, garlic powder, greek seasoning and onions.

I added this to a mixture of bread crumbs. Which I made with my coffee grinder. I love this tool. I even use it to grind my 7 grain cereal that I add to my homemade bread. My hubby doesn't love multi grain bread and the pearl barley hurts my teeth when I bite into it, so grinding it up is a great solution. I like that it doesn't grind it all to powder, we still get some bigger grains. I also added chopped tomatoes, feta cheese and copped frozen lambs quarters. You would use lambs quarters as you would spinach. It is a weed, but it is wonderful. I only picked this one package this year. You can see my post about lambs quarters here.  Then I stuffed the zucchini halves and baked them at 350 degrees for about 35-40 mins. Then I froze them on a cookie sheet and then put them in a zip lock bag.

   
Bread crumbs, feta, tomatoes and "spinach" for stuffed zucchini

I also made a big stock pot full of Italian Beef and Zucchini Soup. I divided it up between 5 zip lock bags and froze them. When we eat this, I will add cooked macaroni.

My favorite thing I made with the zucchini was Sweet Relish.  It is SO GOOD! We go through a lot of relish on hot dogs and hamburgers and this is so much better than the no name stuff I always buy. I have just enough zucchini left to make one more batch, which will make 11 pints altogether. Just enough to last a year. If I knew how easy and good this relish would be, I would have tried harder to grow zucchini other years. I looked on the internet for a recipe and put together one from looking at a few.

This is the recipe I used;
12 c shredded zucchini
4 c onion
5 Tbsp canning salt
Mix all these in a non-metallic bowl. Cover and let sit over night in the fridge. The next day, rinse and squeeze out the water.

Then place the following in a big pot;
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
5 c sugar
3 c vinegar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp dry mustard (I am going to use mustard seed in my next batch instead)
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp celery seed
1 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp nutmeg. 

Add the zucchini and bring to a boil. Simmer for 30 mins. Pack in 5 sterilized pint jars and process in a hot water bath for 30 mins. I processed mine for 35 mins because of our higher altitude.


Now onto a new subject.  Our neighbour called and asked if we could use some apples. Well our trees don't have that much on them, so I jumped at the chance to go pick some.  Rebekah is in the picture below peeling an apple. I was able to make 4 apple crisps - one to eat that night and 3 big ones for the freezer. Our neighbour told me that her apples cooked up mushy, so that is why I made crisps out of them. She said we could come get more, which I might do so I can make fruit leather.

The kids and I also went into town to pick chokecherries. They grow along the river there. We picked enough to make 8 cups of juice. I already used 2 cups to make a batch of Crab Apple Chokecherry Jelly- a favorite in our house.

We have had other vegetables from our garden too, such as sweet corn. This corn is so incredibly sweet and it grows so well. I always plant Earlivee corn.  We picked it all and processed it. We only enjoyed 15 corn on the cobs. I wanted to get as much as I could into the freezer for winter. We eat corn about 5 nights per week.  I always cut the corn off the cob first and then boil it. We were able to put up 8 lbs of corn kernels. I have more growing in one of our pumpkin patches, but I'm not sure how well it has done.


Our neighbour that had the apples also had sour cherries. I have never had these before or used them in baking. We picked a box full. I am just pitting them and freezing for now. I think I would like to make some cherry pies.  If anyone has a great pie recipe or any other recipes that use sour cherries, could you leave a comment with a link or the recipe? I would really appreciate it.

So, now we will continue with the harvest. I look forward to pickling my beets and the cucumbers my friend gave me this week.

This post is linked up to Homestead Revival Barn Hop #76

6 comments:

  1. I found you on the Barn hop:) Just a quick note. My daughter and I usually can the cherries in a simple syrup and use them in our pies. We usually use a little almond extract in our filling for a nice change. Have a great week!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ohhhh you are sooo lucky. Sour cherries make the BEST JAM ever! To die for...I have not had it in years but it is my absolute favorite!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you Amanda and Inag for your suggestions. They sound really good.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love it arond the farm ben .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ben, I am so glad you love it on the farm. I love you, sweety.

      Delete
  5. I LOVE pie cherries. Pie is good, but cobbler is easier. I posted my recipe here: http://domesticendeavors.net/2012/02/27/cherry-cobbler/

    I try to can at least 12-24 quarts of pie cherries a year.

    ReplyDelete