Preparing for Winter & Dehydrating Peppers

Fall feels officially over now that we have snow on the ground.  Were you able to get everything ready for winter?  If not, look for some nice days ahead and give your yard some TLC.  Next spring you'll sure be glad you did!  

This is what we (ok, mostly Todd) did to prepare for winter.  Are any of these things also needed in your yard?

VEGETABLE GARDEN

• Picked remaining produce.
• Removed dying plants and vines.
• Rota-tilled in fallen produce and fertilizer/compost from chicken yard.

  

CHICKENS

• Removed all wood chips and chicken pooh from chicken yard and coop to put in garden.
• Added new wood chips.
• Added warmer under waterer to keep water from freezing.
• Set light to automatically turn on in the early morning so the chickens have enough hours of light (14) to continue laying eggs.

FRUIT TREES

• Anchored trees that needed help growing straight.
• Cut off fire blight from pear tree.
• Planted another pear tree.

GENERAL

• Turned off automatic sprinkler system  and water valve so sprinklers can drain.
• Removed hoses from hose bibs.
• Winterized small engines (lawn mower, rota-tiller, weed whacker) by adding fuel stabilizer to gas tank.  After running engine for a few minutes, dumped out fuel.  Then ran until dry.
• Applied last fertilizer treatment on grass so grass will green up quicker in the spring.

With the final garden picking, we had a LOT of peppers.  Since I've already frozen quite a few peppers, I need to follow my mom's example and dehydrate this final batch.  

To dehydrate peppers, they just need to be chopped beforehand.  A food processor makes this step easy.  Be sure to wear gloves when working with hot peppers.  Otherwise, your hands will sting for quite awhile after you are done handling the hot peppers.

 Peppers ready for the dehydrator.

  Stacks of peppers on trays drying.

 

From the dehydrator to the freezer in plastic bags separated by variety - bells, sweet bananas, jalapenos, salsa, and red peppers.  Keeping them in the freezer retains better color and pungency.

Thanks to my mom for sharing her pictures.  Don't the dehydrated peppers look pretty?  Now if only my peppers were also already dehydrated and in my freezer!

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WHAT ELSE DO YOU DO TO PREPARE FOR WINTER?  ARE YOU READY?

Dehydrating Fruit

First, let me say I LOVE my dehydrator!  This is my second harvest season with a dehydrator and it has been a big hit.  It is great to have another avenue for putting up all the fruit that seems to be coming out of our ears each fall!  I'm amazed by how many things you can actually dehydrate, but so far I have only tried a few things that we've needed preserved.  This post will share what has worked the best for us.

We had a lot of blackberries, peaches and raspberries this year, so fruit leather was the way to go.  It is so easy, not to mention yummy!

Once the fruit has been washed and any pits or bad spots removed, put the fruit in a blender with honey and lemon juice if desired.  I did use lemon juice with the peaches and some honey with all.  I do not remove the peach skins as my blender is able to puree the skins as well as the fruit.

4-5 c. blended fruit

1-2 T. honey

optional for added sweetness

1-2 tsp. lemon juice

optional to keep peaches from browning--not needed for berries

Pour the fruit puree 1/8" thick onto your dehydrator trays.  The more consistent you keep the thickness, the more evenly the fruit leather will dry.  Dehydrate at 140 degrees for several hours.  Just check on it periodically and you'll know it is done when you are able to peel it off the dehydrator sheets or trays.  If you leave it too long, it will become brittle.  The peach has more of a tendency to become brittle than the berries, especially on the edges.  Brittle pieces are still tasty and my kids had no problem eating those since they didn't roll up well for storage.  Use a pizza cutter to cut the sheets of fruit leather into serving size pieces.  Each piece can then be placed on plastic wrap and rolled up.  Store in an air-tight container.  They will keep for a year if kept in the freezer. 

 
Apples need to be made into applesauce before drying as fruit leather, so I dehydrated apple slices instead.  This was much easier, especially since I used an apple corer and peeler.  I've heard people complain that their apple corer and peelers don't work well.  I think mine works great as long as the apples are firm.  Mine is from Back to Basics.  After the apples are in slices, I sprinkle them with Fruit Fresh so they won't brown.  You can also use lemon juice.  Lay the apple slices on the dehydrator racks and dry at 140 degrees until leathery and dry to the touch.  Store in an air-tight container.  They will store for 6-9 months in a cool, dark place and even longer if kept in the freezer.

Apples don't need anything extra, but it is fun to dry a batch or two with cinnamon or Jell-O.  For cinnamon apples, simply sprinkle the apple slices with a little cinnamon before drying. 

For dried apples that basically taste like candy, coat the apple slices with Jell-O powder before drying.  You can do this by either stirring the apples and Jell-O together in a bowl or shaking them together in a gallon Ziploc bag.  Jell-O covered apples take longer to dry than plain or cinnamon apples.  Any flavor Jell-O works.  So far we've tried and had success with strawberry and raspberry flavored Jell-O.

My kids can't seem to get enough of the fruit leather and dried fruit.  The dehydrated fruit works great in their school sack lunches or as a snack.  The only problem I have is trying to keep the kids from eating the dried fruit while we still have so much fresh fruit that needs eaten!

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What do you dehydrate?  What tips do you have?  Please share!

Freezing your Harvest

There are many ways to preserve your harvest.  Lately I've been using my freezer and dehydrator more and more.  We now get enough produce that we definitely need more ways to preserve our produce than just canning.  This post has a few tips for freezing, but I'll post on dehydrating soon--promise.

When deciding how to preserve produce, consider the following:

• What will my family eat?
• What is needed in my food storage?
• How much work and time is involved?

After considering these questions, it made sense for us to freeze peaches, blackberries, raspberries and peppers.  All of these are very quick and easy to prepare for freezing--big bonus.  Plus, we already have plenty of canned peaches and various freezer jams to last throughout the year. 

Berries are so simple.  First wash them and make sure the excess water has drained through the colander.  Then spread on a jelly roll pan and place in freezer.  If you don't drain the excess water well, the berries will freeze in little pools of water and make it difficult to remove from pan.  Once the berries are frozen (after several hours or overnight), place frozen berries in freezer bag.  Freezing them first on a jelly roll pan keeps them as individual berries and not one solid blob of frozen berries.  That allows you to be able to use as many or as few as you need each time.

 

When freezing peaches, wash, remove pits, remove any bad spots and quarter.  As with the berries, place on jelly roll pans until frozen before placing in freezer bags.  It is also a good idea to label and date your freezer bags for anything you put in your freezer.

Since we use our frozen berries and peaches for making smoothies throughout the year, I do not remove the skins.  Once the peaches have been through my Blendtec blender, the skins are not even noticeable and the book that came with my blender says removing the skins is unnecessary.  Does anyone know if this is the case for all blenders?  I'm sure it would also be true for Vitamix blenders, but wondered about the average blender.  Not removing the skins is sure a huge time-saver. 

Using the frozen fruit for smoothies works wonderfully.  The flavor tastes fresh and no ice cubes need to be added to the smoothies.  I wonder if all blenders are capable of blending peaches straight from the freezer.  Anyone have experience or insight with that?  I would hate for someone to try this only to wind up with a broken blender.

Now on to peppers!  This year was a bumper pepper crop for us.  We had more than we needed for eating fresh and making salsa, so freezing was an easy way to preserve the excess.  I cut the bell peppers into strips after the seeds were removed so they would be ready for fajitas.  Again it is important to freeze them on a jelly roll pan before putting in a freezer bag so they freeze individually.  I can now pull out as many peppers as I need each time I make fajitas.  They obviously can be used for other things, but I know our family will probably eat them all in fajitas.

Our Banana Peppers were also prolific this year.  Banana Peppers or Hungarian Wax Peppers (whichever plants we happen to find for that year) are mild peppers that we love to cook with our zucchini and summer squash.  They can be substituted for recipes that call for a can of diced green chilies or any recipe that would benefit from peppers, such as enchiladas or soups. To prepare for freezing, just chop in a food processor.  I did not include the seeds because we like the more mild flavor.  Put the chopped peppers into ice cube trays and freeze.  The chopped pepper freezes together into little pepper cubes.  Pop the frozen pepper cubes out and put into a freezer bag.  For my peppers, each pepper cube equaled a little less than one pepper.

 

Zucchini (mostly in bread form) is another one I fill my freezer with.  I also can't forget the freezer jam since that is almost a daily staple with as many school lunches as we pack each week.  Freezers really are an easy way to enjoy your produce all year!

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Please share if you have other ideas for freezing your harvest or if you have answers to our burning blender questions!  What do you freeze?

Pickles In the Sun

My mom is a wonderful example to me as I try to develop more self-reliance.  She has taught me so much and could have taught me so much more had I paid better attention to how she did things while I was growing up.  Thankfully, it is easy to pick up the phone and call her with all my many questions.  Today, you get to learn from her too!  (Aren't moms the best?!)

Guest post from Narene Ireland:

During the early years of our marriage, I made a variety of pickles. I made my mother's "Virginia Chunk" sweet pickles that took six days to process with the changing of the brine each day before canning. I liked these, but my husband preferred dill pickles. I got his mother's "Garlic Dill Pickles" recipe and made those for years along with the Virginia Chunks, Bread-and-Butter Pickles, Cinnamon Cucumber Ring Pickles, and even Crispy Watermelon Rind Pickles.

However, my husband who is not fond of vinegar in recipes, told me he really liked the no-vinegar dill pickles his mother used to make. By this time his mother had passed on, so I asked his two sisters about this recipe. Interestingly, they did not remember having these no-vinegar pickles; and we agreed that to make pickles you needed vinegar, and I was already using his mother's dill pickle recipe and had been for years.

Well, thanks to the coming of the Internet, I did a search one day and, lo and behold, I found a recipe for no-vinegar dill pickles that you place in the sun for 4 to 6 days to process. I tried it, and my husband enjoys these pickles; so I have been making them ever since. We will be eating from a new batch today.

 Ready to make "No Vinegar Dill Pickles."

3.5 - 4 lbs. small pickling cucumbers (not waxed)
15 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved
6 bay leaves
8 cups of water
5 tablespoons canning salt
2 - 3 fresh, small green peppers (we like Jalapeno or Anaheim)
1 large bunch fresh dill (or 1 Tb. dill seed and 1 Tb. dill weed)
8 whole black peppercorns

Place the cucumbers in a clear glass gallon jar. Use whole or spears depending on preference and size of cucumbers. If using spears, trim away and discard portions with larger seeds. Place the cucumbers in layers, between which you place the bay leaves and other spices (not dill or salt). Mix salt and water until turns clear; pour into the jar and then stuff the bunch of dill on top so that it rests in the water. Place peppers on top.

 Let the jar stand in a sunny place where it won't be knocked over.

Heat is not as important as direct sunlight.
You may open the jar after 4 to 6 days;
when done, place in the refrigerator.
(Whole cucumbers may take longer in the sun.)

My daughter shared a favorite refrigerator dill pickle recipe her family enjoys; and I have a batch of these ready to eat, too. They keep in the refrigerator for two months or longer.

 

  Refrigerated Dill Pickles

Brine, heat to boiling:
9 c. water
3 c. dark cidar vinegar
1/2 c. canning salt
1 tsp. powdered alum

Place in bottom of 5-quart ice cream bucket:
2 big heads of fresh dill (or 1 Tb. dill seed and 1 Tb. dill weed)
1/2 medium onion, sliced not too thin
Clove garlic, optional

5-inch long cucumbers, slice lengthwise into spears.
Place spears on end in ice cream bucket while tipping on side.
Pour hot brine over cucumbers. Cool and put in refrigerator.
Ready in 4 days.

Insect and Disease Newsletters

The USU Cooperative Extension provides free newsletters with current insect and disease issues affecting Utah plants.  We have found the newsletters helpful to know what to watch for and what to do when we see specific bugs or diseases.  You can click here to sign up to receive the free newsletters via e-mail.  This is the website's description for their newsletters:  "Plant pest advisories provide information on current pests in landscapes, fruits, and vegetables, and how and when to manage them.  They are delivered periodically through the growing season to your email inbox as links to an online newsletter."  When you sign up for the newsletters, you choose which newsletters are applicable to you and that you'd like to receive.

Even if you don't live in Utah, you may find it helpful since many things like squash bugs certainly are not isolated to Utah.  The squash bugs are bad in our garden right now and have even killed a couple of our plants.  Are you fighting squash bugs too?  Read how to treat squash bugs in the latest pest advisory newsletter for small fruits and vegetables by clicking here.  

 

Although probably the best attack we've found is giving our boys the job to hunt and squish the bugs!  My boys really don't seem to care, but I give them latex gloves because it just seems like a good mother thing to do!

How do you fight squash bugs?  What resources do you use to learn about pests and diseases?

Canning Chicken and Beef

When Todd and I were first married, we received a box of canned beef from my mother-in-law.  At first, I really wondered what in the world I would do with it as it didn’t look particularly appetizing.  However, it didn’t take long for me to appreciate it as I discovered many yummy ways to use the beef.

Canned beef and then later canned chicken have both become must-haves in our food storage.  We tend to go through quite a bit more chicken than the beef, but both are staples.  I love being able to open a can and have it immediately ready in cubes or easily shredded with a fork to add to any recipe that calls for chicken or beef.  I also love that processing it in a pressure canner makes the meat extremely tender and very flavorful.  In addition, any fat separates and floats to the top and is then easily removed. 

Recently chicken went on sale again and we bought 200 pounds.  So far 40 pounds canned, 160 more to go.  That sounds a little daunting!  However, I know it will be worth it and I’m anxious to see my shelves filled up again. 

If you have access to a Fresh Market grocery store, they have chicken on sale for $1.39/lb.  It is boneless/skinless chicken breasts and come in 40 lb. boxes.  Even if you don’t plan to can chicken, this is a great price to stock your freezer. 

If you are considering canning, most everything you need to know is found right in the book that comes with your pressure canner.  If you have any other questions, extension services are the experts and are a free resource.  [See the link on the side bar.]  To help get you started, I’ll answer some questions you may have.

How much should I buy?

1 pound meat = 1 pint or 2 cups (approximately)

2 pounds meat = 1 quart or 4 cups (approximately)

What is the shelf life of canned meat?

I couldn’t find a good exact answer to this question.  Many sites said canned meat lasts for several years, while others said 2-5 years.  I did also read that the meat is still good after 5 years, but the flavor and nutritional value may be diminished.  Contrast that with meat in the freezer that only lasts 9-12 months.

What kind of beef should I buy?

Any kind of beef (or other type of meat for that matter) can be canned.  Since the pressure canner tenderizes the meat so well, you can buy the cheapest cut of beef available.  This is usually London Broil or Round Steak.  You can also can ground beef, but I haven’t tried that.

Can I use a pressure canner on my smooth-top stove or my camp stove?

Cook Surface Precautions for Home Canning

Do I have to use a pressure canner to can meat?

Yes!  That is the only safe way to can low-acid foods like meat and vegetables.

Is there a difference between a pressure canner and a pressure cooker?

Pressure Canners:  Not the Same as Pressure Cookers

What are the basics of using a pressure canner?

Principles of Pressure Canning

Should I use quarts or pints?

It is a personal choice.  I really like to have both on hand.  For example when making enchiladas, I want a pint of chicken.  When making barbecue beef sandwiches, I’ll use a quart of beef.  If I had to choose just one size, I’d choose pints.  You can always open two pints if you don’t have a quart!

How do I make sure my canned food is safe to eat?

Avoiding Common (Major and Minor) Canning Mistakes

How do I can chicken?

Canning Chicken

How do I can beef?

Canning Beef

What would I use canned chicken in?

It is great in any recipe that calls for cubed or shredded chicken.  Here are some examples:

chicken enchiladas

chicken noodle soup

chicken salad sandwiches

tacos or burritos

chicken pot pie

barbecue chicken pizza

chicken ranch pizza

chicken alfredo pizza

What would I use canned beef in?

It is great in any recipe that calls for cubed or shredded beef.  Here are some examples:

tacos or burritos (You’ll never use hamburger again!)

barbecue sandwiches

beef stroganoff

stew

barbecue beef pizza

As you can probably guess from my food list, we like to make homemade pizzas.  I use the canned meat in many more things than what is listed, but all the canning would be worth it just for the pizzas alone.  With the canned meat, gourmet pizzas are easy and so yummy.  I promise to share the pizzas in another post!

Canning in a pressure canner is really not as intimidating as it may seem!  Are you ready to try canning meat yet?  If you’ve canned meat, how do you like to use the meat?   

Zucchini, Zucchini and More Zucchini

I visited my daughter bearing gifts: summer squash from my garden. 

“What should I do with them?” she asked.

“Whatever you would do with zucchini,” I said.

“All right, we’ll give them to our neighbor.”

(Reader’s Digest, August 2011)

I like this joke even though I usually have no trouble using all the summer squash and zucchini from our garden.  Believe it or not, the thing I look forward to most from our garden each year is the zucchini and summer squash.  I love to fry them with onion, peppers (Hungarian Wax or Banana Peppers), seasoned salt, black pepper, and a very small amount of butter or olive oil.  I especially love it when I fry it long enough that it starts to caramelize.   Frying this long usually means the zucchini and summer squash pieces start to fall apart which doesn’t look as pretty, although we think it is worth it for the extra flavor.  It is still yummy and looks a lot more appetizing if you fry it just until they are tender.  Unless the zucchini or summer squash is a little large, I do not peel or take out the seeds.  All my kids even eat it!

My kids’ favorite though is zucchini bread.  We eat a lot of zucchini bread during zucchini season, but we also eat it year-round.  Zucchini bread freezes great.  Last year I put 30 loaves in my freezer and we just ate the last loaf about two weeks before we were able to start making new ones.  We like zucchini bread for snacks or in school lunches. 

You can also freeze the shredded zucchini for making fresh loaves later.  This takes up a lot less space in your freezer if that is an issue.  I like to freeze my shredded zucchini with each freezer bag containing the measured amount for my recipe.   When it is thawed, the squash will be a softer texture with visible liquid.  Leave the liquid in and the baked product will not be affected by it.  The only problem with freezing the shredded zucchini is that I often have zucchini still in my freezer the next summer, while we always eat all of the loaves. 

Here is my mom’s recipe.  In my opinion, it is the best zucchini bread recipe!

Zucchini (or Summer Squash) Bread

Beat together:

3 eggs

1 c. oil

2 c. sugar

Add and mix:

2 c. raw zucchini or summer squash, grated.

3 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

3 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

chopped nuts, optional

Bake 325 degrees for 45-60 minutes in 2 greased loaf pans.

• If you have a Bosch Universal Plus mixer, you can make 3 times the recipe.  It will be quite full, but works just fine.  Getting six loaves made with one mess is great!
• My oven bakes hot, so I bake mine at 300 degrees.  You may also have to adjust according to your oven and type of bread pans.  You’ll know it is done when a toothpick comes out clean or mostly clean.  It is best moist, so you won’t want to over bake.
• Depending on the size of your loaf pans, you may get more or less loaves per batch.  The pans I use are 9.25x5.25x2.75”.  If you use smaller pans, you’ll need to decrease the baking time.
• You do not need to peel the zucchini or summer squash, but I usually do.  It is just more aesthetically appetizing. 
• If the seeds in your zucchini or summer squash are big, you will want to scrape out the seeds before shredding.  Otherwise, you’ll have little hard pieces in your bread.
• Be sure to add the zucchini before adding the flour.  The zucchini provides the necessary moisture to wet the dry ingredients.  Otherwise, it will be next to impossible to get everything mixed even after the zucchini has been added.  (Trust me on this one.  I will never make that mistake again!)

My sister-in-law made some zucchini bars.  They were so yummy and I didn’t even realize until she told me that she had just used this same recipe.  She baked them as bars instead of loaves and then frosted them with a cream cheese frosting.  For the bars, bake once the above recipe (two loaves worth) in a greased jelly roll pan.  It will take about 30 minutes, but again just bake until they pass the toothpick test.  For the cream cheese frosting, my family can't quite agree on whether 1 or 1 1/2 times the below recipe is the right amount of frosting.  I think I'll probably stick with 1 1/2 times the recipe and those that like less frosting can scrape a little off.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Mix.

1 cube butter (softened to room temperature)

3 oz. cream cheese (softened to room temperature)
2 T. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

powdered sugar (enough for desired consistency)

Our zucchini and summer squash plants are doing really well this year, so I need some variety in how I use it.  How do you use your zucchini and summer squash? 

Please leave a comment and share your zucchini and summer squash recipes and tips with all of us!