Late Fall Carrots

Here are my late fall carrots that I just harvested. I had lots of late carrots I planted and have been enjoying them immensely. With the warmer weather, I was able to put up these carrots even after several frosts this year. You want to pull them before the ground freezes solid. Otherwise it is hard to get them out and you break them trying to get them out of the hard-as-concrete dirt. Trust me on this, I had that happen last year.

I cut them up a bit and blanched them in boiling water for about 5 minutes.

Once the carrots are blanched, I put them in ice water to stop the cooking process. Next drain them well. Then I froze them flat in a Ziplock freezer bag for use later.

Now next time I need some carrots, I can just pull some out of the freezer bag for use in a stew, shepherd’s pie, or other recipe. It’s wonderful having homegrown carrots available all year around.

Homemade Tomato Sauce Ideas

I had an abundance of tomatoes this year from my garden. I have made sauce, salsa, and frozen cut-up pieces of tomatoes. I decided that I was going to try a new idea where I processed the tomatoes and then froze the sauce in ice cube trays.
Tomato Sauce in Ice Cube Tray

First I cut up a big pot of tomatoes and cooked them for about 45 minutes.

Once the pot cooked down, next I put the tomato pulp through a food mill. The food mill removes most of the skins and seeds as shown in this picture.

I cooked the remaining tomato juice along with a bit of salt, pepper, sugar, and a few other spices (season as you desire) for about another hour. I cooked it over medium low on the stove top. This allows the juice to thicken up and now you can either put it in a jar or put it in an ice cube tray for freezing. The handy thing about freezing the tomato sauce into ice cubes is that you can add a few as needed to any recipe that you are making.

After freezing the tomato sauce in the trays, I did have to let it unthaw a little so I could get them out. Then I moved the frozen tomato cubes to a ziplock freezer bag to keep in my freezer until needed.

These are a few useful ideas for processing your homegrown tomatoes and saving them for use later. Don’t let all those tomatoes go to waste, cut them up and get them cooking so you can enjoy your own homemade tomato sauce this winter.

Zucchini in the Fall

My Zucchini plant is still producing even into Fall this year. I started this plant from a seed in the house and planted it out in the garden early this Spring. It almost died after a big rain storm and hail in early May. I remember having to prop up the seedling with a twig to try and save it.

I have to just shake my head to believe this is the same plant now. It has produced so many Zucchinis this year and is still going even with temps down to 37 last night. They say one key, useful tip is to keep harvesting Zucchinis all season long. According to an old gardening book I have, it says when you continually harvest the Zucchinis, the plant thinks it needs to keep producing. Even now, I have new blooms and Zucchinis growing.

I have frozen Zucchini in the freezer, used raw Zucchinis in salads, stews and several other dishes. I just love Zucchini and have been so happy with the garden output of this plant. So hopefully the frost holds off for a bit longer so I can enjoy even more late Zucchinis this year.

Plantain Tincture

Plantain tincture is very useful and simple to make. Plantain grows wild and plentiful in many areas. I wrote about plantain previously and its many uses in a post here at My Useful Ideas.

Plantain along Driveway

Plantain tincture is very easy to make. First pick the leaves of plantain as shown in this picture. Just look around your driveway or lawn and you will probably spot some. I picked some green, healthy leaves to make a small batch of plantain tincture as shown in the photo below.

I gently rinsed off the plantain leaves and ripped them up to fill this small glass jar.

Next fill the jar to the top with some grain alcohol such as Vodka. This is some cheap 80 proof Vodka that I purchased and have on hand for such projects. Cover tight with a lid and put it in a dark closet or basement. You can wrap a newspaper or paper towel around it to help keep the light out. You want to leave it in a dark place for about 5-6 weeks. I did gently shake the jar a few times during the soaking period.

Here is a photo of the plantain after the soaking period and before I stained out the leaves. Continue Reading →

Honey Bread Rolls

I used some of my long-term food storage to bake honey bread rolls. This recipe is from Augason Farms Honey White Bread & Roll can. I generally followed the small recipe off the back of the Augason can.

Here are my preparation notes for making the Augason bread rolls:

Used ½ cup of water to proof 1-1/2 tsp of dry yeast with small amount of sugar
Used 2 tb-spoons of olive oil
Used 2 cups of flour from can plus a more flour added as needed
Added more water, probably another ¼ cup to bring up to ¾ cups+ total
Kneaded dough for 5 mins approx (by hand)
Divided into 9 balls and placed in well greased 12×12 baking pan
Put in oven with light on and covered with tea towel
I let dough rise for 1.5 hours before baking
Bake at 400 degrees for approx 13-14 minutes until light brown. Top with a little butter
Yield: 9 small rolls

Here is a photo of the nine bread rolls prepared and ready to rise before baking. Continue Reading →

Cooked Whole Wheat

In an effort to use and try out my long-term storage food, I cooked whole wheat this week. This wheat is hard red from a #10 can I bought over 10 years ago. It was never opened until now and the wheat is hard, dry and looks just as good as the day it was canned.

I rinsed and sorted through the wheat kernels before cooking. I opted to use the slow cooker (crock pot) method. I used 1 cup of wheat kernels along with 2-1/2 cups of water with a half teaspoon of salt. I placed all this in my crock pot on low overnight. It may of overcooked as my wheat berries were dried out a bit. It was cooking for about 10 hours which was probably too long.

I tried it as straight hot cereal as the recipe states. I added a bit of milk and sugar to a small bowel. I personally didn’t care for it. But then I tried it by adding a tablespoon to my regular cold cereal with milk and I loved it.

I put the remaining cooked wheat in a jar and refrigerated it. I have been using it daily with my cold cereal and have really enjoyed it.

I had read that it is also a great meat extender. So I added a big spoonful of cooked wheat to my last batch of ground hamburger chili as a test. The results were great and no one even noticed and the chili tasted just fine.

So next time you need a meat extender, you should try using some cooked storage wheat. It was a pleasant surprise and now I know that it is useful and tasteful too. Plus it is important to know how to cook and use your storage food successfully.

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