Posted by Cindy on July 1, 2009
It’s garden time again! I just love this time of year – even though it keeps me VERY busy. I feel so productive caring for, harvesting and putting away things from the garden. Two of the first crops to fill our home this summer have been zucchini and onions.
I haven’t had much experience putting either of these away, so I did a little internet research. It seems as if the quickest and easiest way to save these veggies for later use is freezing them raw. What could be simpler than that?
I grated the zucchini and placed it in freezer bags in two cup portions since most of my normal recipes call for about this much grated zucchini. So far, I’ve frozen 20 cups!
With the onions, I sliced some and chopped some. I didn’t worry about measuring since frozen onions come apart with a quick tap on the counter. One website said to place the onions on cookie sheets and freeze before bagging, but I didn’t have time to fool with that. 
Both of these will need to be used in cooked recipes since they won’t hold their original texture. For the zucchini, the directions said to add any liquid in the bag (after thawing) to the recipe since it will be the juices that are normally in the zucchini.
Mahayla and Caleb grew carrots this year. They were able to can 10 quarts – and I only had to supervise! Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the finished jars.
Looks like green bean canning will be next on the list! Anybody have a really good idea for saving summer squash? I have attempted to parboil and freeze, but it turned out way to mushy to use, even in cooked dishes.
Posted by Cindy on November 7, 2008
Remember the black walnuts we collected to harvest and freeze? Yeah, well, let’s just say it turned out a bit like the applesauce experience. What you see below is less that one cup of walnuts, which took at least 45 minutes of my hard labor.
I got lots of great advice on doing applesauce the easier way next year. Any advice for an easier way to harvest these little boogers? (I used a hammer on a large rock to crack the shell – which flew everywhere. Then used a nut tool to painstakingly get the meat out.)
At this point, I told my son to scatter the rest of the walnuts out for the squirrels! My husband told him to bag them up just in case I change my mind. Me, change my mind? 
Posted by Cindy on September 9, 2008
I suppose this is what I get for going back on a promise to myself. After canning well over 200 quarts of veggies and freezing over 30 gallon bags of fruits and veggies, I decided I was done. Finished. No More. I made a promise to myself and let everyone in the house know that I WAS NOT canning or freezing anything else this year.
Then came a great big bag of free apples. I certainly couldn’t turn away a great big free bag of apples. And, hey, why not add one more staple to the pantry shelf while trying my hand at a new canning skill – applesauce??
According to the canning recipe, I had just the 21 pounds of apples needed to make a canner load of seven quarts. That big ol’ bag didn’t seem like it would be too hard to cut, core and slice, UNTIL an hour and a half later when I was finishing the last few. Cooking the slices until soft didn’t seem like it would take a long time, UNTIL 45 minutes later when I was still stirring the 12 quart cooking pot full of sliced apples. And sending the apples through the food mill didn’t seem like a daunting task, UNTIL I nearly pulled a muscle trying to get a teaspoon of sauce to come out.
After pulling out the blender (plan B) and finally having a sauce resembling what I buy in the store, I was excited to know that I was almost there. Applesauce, here we come. Only 2 hours and 45 had passed! (insert eyes rolling)
Would you like to see the fruit of all my afternoon labors?
Yep, four quarts. Only FOUR quarts! In all, including the canning process, I spent almost FOUR hours canning FOUR quarts of applesauce! I’m considering this a lesson learned. I imagine I’ll appreciate the 99 cent cans of applesauce I buy from Save-A-Lot a lot more, too.
Posted by Cindy on August 25, 2008
The green and orange peppers are finally coming on the garden. Freezing them is such a snap that I can have a whole bucket done in about 15 minutes. Wash, cut off the tops, take the seeds out, slice, parboil for three minutes, place in ice water, dry and freeze in ziptop bags. It’s that easy!
We took a trip last week to the local orchard to stock up on peaches and apples that had been graded out. (They’re much cheaper that way!) Again, freezing is easy. Wash, peel, cut in slices, sprinkle a little sugar over the peaches or dip apples in water with a little lemon juice, place in ziptop bags and freeze.
All of these things can be used in a recipe just as you would use them if they were fresh. They aren’t great, however, for thawing and eating plain.
I promised a couple of ladies that I would share recipes throughout the year using things I’ve canned or frozen. Here’s a fried corn dish we had at supper last week.
Ingredients
- fresh or frozen corn cut off the cob
- fresh or frozen green pepper, chopped
- fresh yellow squash, chopped
- fresh or frozen onion, chopped
- butter
Melt butter in a frying pan. Saute all veggies until crisp-tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Yummy!
Posted by Cindy on August 13, 2008
A sinkful of fresh tomatoes in our house turns into about eleven quarts of diced tomatoes!
And here’s a new recipe I concocted to use up the canned tomatoes. I had a quart that didn’t seal, plus some corn and peppers that needed to be used. I didn’t have any ground beef, but I did have some shredded chicken in the freezer. So I made a *yummy*….
Chicken Chili
- 1 quart diced tomatoes and juice
- 1-2 green peppers, diced
- a cob or two of fresh corn cut off the cob (or a can, drained)
- a can of beans -any type- with juice (I used great northern)
- shredded chicken, about 2 cups
- about 1/2 cup of chili mix
- extra water to suit your taste
Mix all ingredients together and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes. As you can see, the recipe isn’t a science, but it sure is yummy!
Now for the serious stuff…..Where are your Charlotte Mason planning and organizing posts??? I know, I know, they’re coming. I see many of you are procrastinators like me, huh??
We’re not looking for huge, in-depth posts (unless you want.) Just a simple post about something you have planned or organized to enhance CM-style learning.
- Have you made an artist study plan for the year?
- Have you put together a nature study area?
- Have you decided on a living book list for the semester?
- Have you made a plan for specific handicrafts?
- Have you organized any areas of your schoolroom?
Okay, you get the idea. Now, go write! 
)
Oh, and submit your posts here.
