November 18th, 2009 by DJ
For those not inclined to vegetarianism, Google Books has a multitude of cookbooks available, including Mrs. Hale’s New Cookbook (Philadelphia: Peterson & Brothers, 1857). Check out her recipe for dressing a lamb’s head. (Ick!)
The book is heavy on meat, but also includes churning and curing butter, making two types of cheeses, and cleaning tips for [...]
October 23rd, 2009 by DJ
Some friends gave us a whole box of plums, the variety used for cooking and drying. We ate quite a few of them, but there’s no way we could eat the whole box. So we did the obvious: we made prunes with a lot of them.
Like many other fruits, plums are easy to dry: just [...]
September 16th, 2009 by DJ
As gardens begin to deluge us with fresh vegetables, we may wonder what to do with it all. Give it to the neighbors? Throw it out? Feed it to the chickens?
Don’t despair: one solution is to can foods in canning jars for later use. Most foods will last at least a year when canned; some [...]
September 13th, 2009 by DJ
Apple season is in full swing, now, and many of our neighbors have more than they can use or store. They’re more than happy for us to take what they can’t handle. So we’ve been cutting and slicing, freezing, drying, canning, and making pies. I’m sure we’ll get sick of apples in a week or [...]
September 6th, 2009 by DJ
I love summer fruit, especially peaches. But if you’ve eaten a locally-grown peach, you know it’s nearly impossible to find a good peach in the grocery store. Utah peaches are now in season, and we’ve been eating them up– fresh and in pies, by themselves and with apples and rhubarb. Here’s the dilemma: we can only [...]
August 14th, 2009 by DJ
We’ve been picking up tree limbs and fallen fruit from all our neighbors to feed our goats. Fallen fruit can be a bonanza for us as well. Even though an apple is bruised, or has a blemish on one side, it’ll still make great applesauce or pie. Already, we’ve frozen three quart bags of applesauce for winter [...]