journey to a self sufficient life
Whether you found a great deal on peppers at the farmers market or harvested a bumper crop of chiles, you can turn that bounty into a shelf stable pantry staple that will add lots of flavor to your meals. Here are three ways to dry peppers for food storage. Got peppers? Drying is an excellent way to preserve peppers. Dehydrating…
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Ah zucchini… It’s the crop that just keeps on giving. Here are five ways to freeze zucchini so you can enjoy the harvest bounty well into winter. If you grow zucchini in your garden, you understand how prolific it can be. It is easy to go from nothing to basketfuls of zucchini in a matter of a few days. Luckily,…
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This grilled garlic scapes recipe adds a layer of sweet smoky char to the mild garlicky flavor, and then enhances it further with a simple dusting of sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Love garlic? Then you will love the light garlic flavor of the seasonal garlic scapes. Grilling is such an easy way to prepare garlic scapes that allows…
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This garlic scape lemon balm pesto is a slight twist from your regular pesto. This recipe combines garlic scapes with lemon balm for an early garden fresh variation. Spoon this pesto on pasta, seafood, and even sandwiches. Pesto is extremely versatile. In fact, I rarely stick exactly to a recipe. Instead, I tend to wing it adding a handful of…
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Are your onions getting soft? It is easy to dehydrate onions so they last longer for food storage. Turn your onions into dehydrated onion flakes, minced dried onions, and onion powder. I grow a lot of storage onions that keep in my cool basement for winter. Sometimes, we don’t use them up before they begin to get soft. The good…
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You can’t go wrong with this hearty slow cooker chili recipe. Since the chili simmers in a crock pot all day, it is perfect for a weeknight meal. It is also ideal for bringing to pot-luck meals, office parties, game day, and neighborhood barbecues. Ingredients for Slow Cooker Chili This slow cooker chili is one of my favorites meals to…
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Take advantage of the summer bounty and preserve peppers to enjoy all year. If you don’t grow your own peppers, consider purchasing in bulk from local growers at your farmers market. In 2016 when I originally wrote this post, our summer was a hotter and dryer than usual. That year, the rainfall averaged well below normal in Maine as well…
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Are you sick of Zucchini yet? After you have baked, sautéed, stuffed, and grilled about as much as you can stand, here are three ways to preserve zucchini so you can enjoy the summer harvest bounty over the winter months. Zucchini….It’s the crop that keeps on giving. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the harvest bounty collected from…
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If you are growing an edible landscape, you may wonder how to take advantage of the shady spots near buildings or around trees. Shady areas in your yard may be the perfect spot to plant herbs. Here are 13 culinary herbs that grow in partial shade. A vegetable garden provides plenty of fresh harvests for meals and extra to preserve…
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Growing your own vegetable garden transplants from seed is pretty straightforward, but sometimes you can run into problems. Here’s how to identify and resolve some of the most common seed starting problems you may run into when starting seeds indoors. There is a special sense of fulfillment when you see the plants you have nurtured from tiny seeds grow and…
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