This is a bad year for apples in our neighborhood. The Golden Delicious tree I usually pick from only produced a handful of apples at the highest branches (ten pounds at the most), and the tree with the red Jonagold-type fruit produced only about 100 apples, most of which the bees and worms got to first. I’ve picked maybe a dozen … Read more
If I had to pick a favorite wild berry, the black raspberry would probably be the winner. Also known as blackcaps or Rubis occidentalis, they grow wild throughout much of the eastern and midwestern United States, but can be cultivated anywhere in USDA zones 4 through 8. If you have a some near you, brave the brambles and try a few. … Read more
This is a more adult version of the classic – more sophisticated and better for you than condensed Campbell’s, but just as quick to make. It also tastes phenomenal. I used home-canned tomato juice as the soup base, which guarantees very tomato-y flavor (Brandywines are my favorite for juicing). But this recipe will work with tomato juice from the grocery … Read more
Where I live, there is an abundance of apple trees growing untended on public property. Local ordinances allow anyone to pick the apples, and still most of them do to waste – although I do my part that from happening. Most years, I dry several bushels so I have something sweet to put in my oatmeal the rest of the year. I … Read more
I am really into home food preservation. I have an annually rotating stock of hundreds of jars of canned applesauce, canned pears, apple chutney, tomatillo salsa, jams, jellies, apple butters, tomatoes, tomato sauce and fruit juices. When I worked on a farm and had access to surplus vegetables, I also pressure canned lots of green beans, beets and soups. Every … Read more
Last week, I noticed a couple huge cherry trees on the edge of a park that on my route to work. The fruit hung down in racemes like chokecherries, and the ripe ones were very black. I had never seen a chokecherry tree that big (25 feet or so), plus the tree had rough and shaggy bark (chokecherry usually has … Read more
I am glad to report that I am finally done processing the 250 pounds of apples that Dekalb and I picked a week before my birthday. (I am sure that Dekalb would like me to note here that they were all free or he wouldn’t have found any thrill at all in harvesting them.) This is what 250 pounds of … Read more