literally on the library holdshelf

These are a few of my favorite things!  I actually have had the first book by Sergei Boutenko checked out for a few weeks.  I have eaten clovers, searched for dock and made a face mask.  Have green at your fingertips is so much fun.  I have found myself wanting more information about wild edibles, where to find them, what they look like, what to do with them and how to preserve them.  I can't wait to get the other three books and get outside!  Hopefully the large snake population around this year will leave me alone while I hunt!  And the only sad part about all of this is that you can't do it year round, it's just a spring/summer/fall thing.  Enjoy it while it lasts!

Potato Madness

It seems as though I was canning all weekend long... oh wait.. I was! Shaun and I with the help of his Mom dug our potatoes two weeks ago. We spread them out in the basement on a quilt to let them sit and dry out a little. I made sure to pick up as many potatoes as I could including the small ones. Shaun's Grandmother had told me that a friend of hers cans the smaller ones to use in soups, green beans, roast, etc. I got pretty excited about this.


I had Granny call her friend and get the steps for me and she did and here's how you do it.

• Wash quart jars to have them ready


• Boil lids


• Wash potatoes using a vegetable brush


• Pour 1 teaspoon canning salt into each jar


• Pack potatoes into jar keeping them just below the neck of the jar


• Fill each jar with water leaving 1/4 inch head space


• Place lids and bands on jars


• Put the jars in canner with water covering the tops of the jars


• Start this process with the temperature of the water in the jars the same as the water in the canner pot.


• Boil jars for 3 hours


• Allow jars to cool and store.

This is the first time ever that Shaun or myself has grown potatoes. The experience has been pretty neat. We dealt with potato bugs eating flowers and leaves the entire time despite putting pesticides on them quite a bit. We have eaten fried potatoes the past two nights with supper and they have been wonderful! You just can't beat that homegrown taste!

As for the canned potatoes, I plan on using them this winter in roasts and homemade vegetable soup and all sorts of other dishes! It seemed like it took forever washing these little guys and my fingers were just puckered! I wound up storing 20 quart jars. I had two break because of water temperature differences. One of them I was able to put in another jar quickly so I actually only lost one jar. I logged it all in my canning journal.

What to do with all that Zucc!

It seems that each year we have an over abundance of "something" in our garden. Last year we had tons of squash and tons of cucumber. This year it's zucchini! I have put several different recipes that include zucchini on our table so far and they have all been wonderful. I have made my squash and zucchini casserole, zucchini sliced into spears and cooked on the grill, zucchini bread.. etc! After opening the fridge to see four grocery bags full of this vegetable I decided I needed to do something. I decided to freeze the "over abundance" and thought I would share how to blanch vegetables to prepare them for freezing. I was always a tad fearful of doing this thinking it would take a long time or just thinking I didn't need to do it. But in fact just cutting up and freezing can prove the vegetables to be not-so-good for you when you do decide to use them out of the freezer. Certain enzymes and bacteria can will still grow even in the deep freeze. As hard as Shaun and I have worked in our garden to help it produce the best and tastiest vegetables we can I would hate to open up a bag of zucchini in January with my mouth watering for my Mexican Soup that includes it to find my green goodness not-so-good.

So here's how you blanch:

Get out your big soup pot and fill it half way with water. Bring it to a boil. If you will put the lid on while the water is heating it will come to a boil a lot faster. In the meantime, wash and cut up your zucchini, squash, green beans, or whatever you are putting up. Once the water is boiling drop some of the slices or dices into the water. Keep in mind while you are cutting what recipes you may be using them for. For instance I use diced zucchini in my soup so I diced some. Once the veggies are in set the timer for 3 minutes. When they are done, remove them from the water with a strainer or slotted spoon. Allow them to cool before packaging them into freezer bags. I use one of my big enamel bowls to dump them in while they cool. Be sure and use a sharpie to label and date your bags. You can even write their intended use on the outside so this winter you can remember what you were thinking when you put them away.

Enjoy what God has given you, today and tomorrow :)