The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

How to make strawberries last longer

10.9 years ago perserve, puree, recipe, strawberries

My youngest (2 years old) decided to venture out and too a little strawberry picking this weekend.  It took her a little while (probably a solid pound of berries) to figure out we were supposed to be picking berries and putting them into our flat and not her mouth.  Thirty minutes later and $11.50 paid I left with my full flat (11.5 pounds of berries)

The great about thing picking fresh strawberries is they are ripe and delicious, but the bad thing is you only have a few days before they start to go bad.  Knowing that my little strawberry monster (and her older sister) would not even be able to get through over 11 pounds of berries in 3-4 days so had to start considering preservation methods.

Prevent the strawberries from molding

Here is an easy technique to extend the life of your berries by a few days to even a week.  Prepare a solution of 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water (example for pint of berries I prepared above I did 1/8 cup of vinegar and 1.25 cups of water) Add your strawberries and given them a quick spin.  Next you can optionally rinse them (solution is pretty weak so I do not taste any vinegar taste if I don’t rinse) and then place on an open air container.

This technique also works for other berries that may have molding problems and can enable your berries to last about a week or even up to 2 weeks depending on the actual ripeness when they were picked.

Sugar coat them

Though fresh organic strawberries are sweet enough all by themselves but adding about a teaspoon of sugar to a pint of cut strawberries will generate some strawberry syrups which can easily give you a week in the fridge.  This can be a great topping to ice cream, pound cake, angel food cake, or even by themselves topped with a little whipping cream.

Strawberry Jam

This was the first obvious method of saving some of these delicious berries for next year.  I picked up some new 1/2 cup jars since we typically do not make it through a full cup jar once the 3 week timer starts after cracking the seal.  Also great size for sharing with the neighbors.

The recipe for any type of jam can be found in your box of pectin but I will repeat it here since I personalized some techniques to speed up the process.

Ingredients

• 5 cups of strawberries (4 cups crushed)
• 7 cups white sugar
• 1 package of pectin (I personally prefer the liquid form)

Directions

1. Wash and cut tops off berries and crush them.  I personally add them to my food processor and given them a little pulse to chop them up.  Be sure not to over do this you want some chunks in there not a smooth puree.
2. Add berries to large pot or saucepan and heat at medium high and add sugar.
3. Let berries and sugar come to a rolling boil (when you still bubbles continue)
4. Add pectin and wait until rolling boil returns and let boil for 1 minute while constantly stirring
5. Remove from heat and fill cleaned a boiled jars/lids with 1/8 inch gap at the top being careful to remove any jam on the top of the jar.
6. Once all jars are filled add to large pot filled with water on rolling boil (be sure to account for the displacement that will occur when you add your jars)  The directions say you should have 2-3 inches of water over your jars.  My tallest pot doesn’t allow this even for these 1/2 cup jars but have gotten good seals with 1/2-1 inch of water above in the past.
7. Let boil for 10 minutes (more if higher altitude but see directions on pectin) and let sit at room temperature.  Check the button on the top to see if you have a good seal.  If one doesn’t stay down, no worries just through it in the refrigerator and that will be the first jar you consume.  Let the remaining sit a room temperature for 24 hours, checking the seal again.

Your jam should be good for up to a year with a solid seal and up to three week refrigerated after opening.

Freezing Strawberries

Freezing strawberries is a very easy option for preserving your produce. What I do is wash the berries and remove the tops and split any berries that are significantly larger than the others. Place on a cookie sheet and freeze for 8-12 hours and transfer to freezer bags and remove air with a straw (poor mans vacuum sealer) or use real vacuum sealer like I did below. With this technique the berries should not stick together and all ready to make some shortcake next winter.

Zucchini Muffin Recipe

11.7 years ago recipe, zucchini

This is the time of year when you have more zucchini in your garden than you can deal with.  You neighbors are closing their blinds when they see you coming up the street, here is a delicious option to make use of some of the fruits of your labor.

You can use this same recipe to make a large loaf of bread, but I like the muffin option since it is easier for my kids to grab a snack without having to pull out a knife to slice it up.

Zucchini Muffin/Bread Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups finely grated zucchini (2 medium or 1 large zucchini)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Stir flour, sugars, spices, baking powder/soda, salt, and oats into large bowl.
• Combine eggs and vanilla to a small bowl, beat and add to larger bowl
• Squeeze out liquid from grated and combine to large bowl until well combined.  Add chocolate chips and stir until well incorporated
• Add batter to 9”X5” loaf pan or into 24 muffins.
• Bake for 60 minutes (bread loaf) or 45 minutes (muffins) and allow to cool for 10 minutes before attempting to slice/consume.

Tags: recipes

Harvesting some Bok Choy from my winter garden

12.5 years ago bok choy, recipe, winter garden

I got my first harvest from my winter garden, I could have given this a couple weeks more but the plants were starting to get crowded.  Not ever cooked Bok Choy I went with the idea that everything is better with bacon and made some Bok Choy with bacon…or maybe could call it Bacon with some Bok Choy.

Not only delicious but given its low calorie count (14 calories per 100g) and being high in Vitamin A/C/K and a good source of folates, calcium, and iron.

Saving some more pumpkin puree

12.5 years ago pie, pumpkin, recipe

I cooked up another pumpkin to make some more puree to last be though the rest of the year.  This time I used silicon liners which made the removal of the frozen pumpkin pucks a piece of cake.

Last year I made a delicious pumpkin pie with some of this puree, this year I decided to be a little more health conscious and used this recipe for a low carb, gluten free pumpkin pie.  Just as delicious, but with almost half the calories and none of the sugar/carb rush/

Making homemade pumpkin ice cream

13.5 years ago pumpkin, recipe

Looking for some more ways to use up some of my pumpkin puree, I decided to make some pumpkin ice cream.  Here is the pumpkin ice cream recipe I used.

Tags: pumpkin

How to make Peach Jam

13.7 years ago jam, peach, recipe

While heading to a friend’s house we came across a local fruit stand selling fresh peaches.  With the great quality and low prices I couldn’t help leaving with a couple dozen peaches.  By the time I made it back to the car, I knew there is no way we were going to eat this many so Maddie (my recently turned 6 year old) and I decided to make the homemade peach jam.

Now the other than Maddies “pinches of love” we simply followed the recipe on the package of Pectin.

• 4 pounds of peaches (or about 8 peaches)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 1 packet of Ball Fruit Pectin
• 5 pinches of love (each jar)

Now I will share with you a couple of techniques for “cutting up the peaches” I did this by hand because I did not take the time to learn these (yeah I was in a hurry)  First which I like the best is cut the peaches in half (remove pit) and then simply use a citrus juicer to get the meat off.  This also mashes them up a little for you and safe of kids to help out.  If you don’t have a citrus juicer, you can also use the same technique for removing skins off of tomatoes.  Boil the peaches for 30-60 seconds then dump them in an ice bath and the skins should slide right off.  If they still have trouble try leaving them in for another 30 seconds (given they are probably not completely ripe) and you should have better luck.

Add the peaches, lemon, and pectin into a pot over medium heat stirring constantly as it comes to a full boil.  Add sugar then let boil for 1 minute then remove from heat.  Fill jars up to 1/4 inch from the top add lids/rings and boil for 5 minutes and you should have yourself some delicious peach jam which is good for about 12 months in your pantry.

The more educational part of this post is my demonstration of how to improvise when you are missing fancy tools like a water bath canner (ok it is just a large pot) that barely covers the top of the jars.

Here is our “jar tongs” to get the jars promptly out of the water bath using my BBQ tongs.

In the end the jam setup well and all five jars remained sealed.  Though I think I either need to get a bigger pot or some half pint jars for the next time I try this.

As a finishing touch my daughter insisted on this custom make labels using some mailing labels I had lying around.

In the end the jars look pretty good and she is excited to start selling them…though we probably will opt to keep a couple jars for ourselves and share a few with some friends/family.