Despite 2 power outages within just 8 days (one for 14 or 16 hours and
the other for 7 hours) and despite a refrigerator fiasco, I'm still
putting things by and the garden is still going strong this year. I
tell my daughter, "Make hay while the sun shines; who knows what next
year will bring?"

Today, I started by slow-roasting two huge trays of halved cherry
tomatoes. Later, I froze them, in those Ball 1-cup freezer containers,
for later use. I've frozen 6 full trays of them so far (they shrink up
quite a bit after roasting). I just love these and there are so many
great ways to use them and a gazillion recipes. One of my favs is white
bean and slow-roasted tomato "salad" with EVO, garlic and lots of herb
of your choice. I use basil often... especially with a dozen pots of it
on my deck.

Then I blanched and froze the last few pounds of the Bountiful beans
(which I mistakenly thought were Providers). More of other beans are on
the way. I've been picking our pole beans (Blue Lake, Rattlesnake,
Asparagus Long beans, Kentucky) but we've been eating them so far--- not
enough yet to freeze.

And then I made the Old Fashioned Tomato Marmalade from the Small Batch
Preserving book. I have not had tomato marmalade but once or twice
since I was a girl. I remember thinking, when my aunt offered me some,
"eeeew, tomato preserves?". But then I tasted it and could not get
enough. This recipe, which included 5 cups of peeled, cored, roughly
chopped tomatoes, 1 lemon, 2 large oranges and 4 cups sugar, is really
outstanding. I offered it as a mystery jam to my DH but, not having had
it before, he just couldn't place it. He was os surprised when I told
him what it was.

I highly recommend both the recipe and the book (though I've seen some
of you mention the book before). The marmalade is a gorgeous
ruby-colored clear jelly with orange and lemon bits. It's the tastiest
spread I've made so far this year. Any kind of tomatoes are fine. I
had to promise to make more. And even with no added pectin, it set up
beautifully within a couple hours of processing.

Then I made a gluten-free apple cake with the first of our MacIntosh
apples--- my favorite for pies and baking. I tried to puree some raw
apple in my blender (the recipe called for 1/2 cup unsweetened
applesauce in addition to 2 cups finely chopped apples) but I just could
not get the blender to puree it. Maybe the amount was too small (1
apple) but that is why I opted for the blender instead of the processor.
I finally used some store-bought applesauce which was somewhat sweetened
but the cake turned out really good despite that.

Tomorrow, it's more of Barb's delicious B&B pickles, maybe some dill
relish after that, and hopefully something zucchini. I just love these
mediterranean zucchinis. I picked the first two aubergines today---
both the classic eggplant color but the size of large artichokes. These
were planted for a friend. I've tried and tried but have not yet taken
a liking to them.

Egad I am so tired but I feel like I am accomplishing something. But
I'm beginning to worry about running out of lids!

Isabella
--
"I will show you fear in a handful of dust"
-T.S. Eliot

"Isabella Woodhouse" > wrote in message
...
>
> Despite 2 power outages within just 8 days (one for 14 or 16 hours and
> the other for 7 hours) and despite a refrigerator fiasco, I'm still
> putting things by and the garden is still going strong this year. I
> tell my daughter, "Make hay while the sun shines; who knows what next
> year will bring?"
>
Brevity snips!

You've been busy in the kitchen. :^) Tonight after dinner we canned 8
quarts of tomato juice. Another 8 and we'll have our winter supply. The
rest will be made into sauce. The earth here is bone day. We desperately
need rain. I want to get my late beets and turnips planted but the earth has
to contain enough moisture first. I hoped to can a winter's supply of
beets.

In article >,
"Marie Dodge" > wrote:

> "Isabella Woodhouse" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> > Despite 2 power outages within just 8 days (one for 14 or 16 hours and
> > the other for 7 hours) and despite a refrigerator fiasco, I'm still
> > putting things by and the garden is still going strong this year. I
> > tell my daughter, "Make hay while the sun shines; who knows what next
> > year will bring?"
> >
> Brevity snips!
>
> You've been busy in the kitchen. :^) Tonight after dinner we canned 8
> quarts of tomato juice. Another 8 and we'll have our winter supply. The
> rest will be made into sauce. The earth here is bone day. We desperately
> need rain. I want to get my late beets and turnips planted but the earth has
> to contain enough moisture first. I hoped to can a winter's supply of
> beets.

I hope you get some rain soon. This local rainy season ends our
several-year drought so that is why I've been on a treadmill getting as
much done as possible. You never know what next year will bring,
especially with the climate change. We used to be zone 5 here and now
we've been designated as 6. Our fall crop beet (and other) seedlings
are out on the picnic table in flats. I think he's going to plant them
out soon. I would love to finally have some beets. One of my favorite
salads is raw baby beets sliced very thin mixed with a big handful of
watercress & some EVO & a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Isabella
--
"I will show you fear in a handful of dust"
-T.S. Eliot

"Isabella Woodhouse" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "Marie Dodge" > wrote:
>
>> "Isabella Woodhouse" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> >
>> > Despite 2 power outages within just 8 days (one for 14 or 16 hours and
>> > the other for 7 hours) and despite a refrigerator fiasco, I'm still
>> > putting things by and the garden is still going strong this year. I
>> > tell my daughter, "Make hay while the sun shines; who knows what next
>> > year will bring?"
>> >
>> Brevity snips!
>>
>> You've been busy in the kitchen. :^) Tonight after dinner we canned 8
>> quarts of tomato juice. Another 8 and we'll have our winter supply. The
>> rest will be made into sauce. The earth here is bone day. We desperately
>> need rain. I want to get my late beets and turnips planted but the earth
>> has
>> to contain enough moisture first. I hoped to can a winter's supply of
>> beets.
>
> I hope you get some rain soon. This local rainy season ends our
> several-year drought so that is why I've been on a treadmill getting as
> much done as possible. You never know what next year will bring,
> especially with the climate change. We used to be zone 5 here and now
> we've been designated as 6. Our fall crop beet (and other) seedlings
> are out on the picnic table in flats. I think he's going to plant them
> out soon. I would love to finally have some beets. One of my favorite
> salads is raw baby beets sliced very thin mixed with a big handful of
> watercress & some EVO & a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Now that sounds great. Believe it or not my favorite beet dish is plain
boiled skinned beets! Young, tender and sugar sweet. Delicious. I can them
with onions.... yum! :^) The climate here seems to be getting hotter and
dryer. I'm in central TN, zone 6. In the past few years we've lost native
trees and wildflowers to the endless heat and shortage of rain. The weeds
are severely wilted tonight. If I didn't water my garden I wouldn't have
anything. It's getting costly though as we have three vegetable gardens plus
2 flower beds. Two-spotted spider mites are becoming a real problem also.
They've wiped out one veggie garden completely with the help of white-fly
infestation like I've never seen before.

>
> Isabella
> --
> "I will show you fear in a handful of dust"
> -T.S. Eliot

In article >,
"Marie Dodge" > wrote:

> "Isabella Woodhouse" > wrote in message
> ...
> > In article >,
> > "Marie Dodge" > wrote:
> >
> >> "Isabella Woodhouse" > wrote in message
> >> ...
> >> >
> >> > .... "Make hay while the sun shines; who knows what next
> >> > year will bring?"
[...]
> >> ... The earth here is bone day. We desperately need rain. I want
> >> to get my late beets and turnips planted but the earth has to
> >> contain enough moisture first. I hoped to can a winter's supply
> >> of beets.
> >
> > I hope you get some rain soon. This local rainy season ends our
> > several-year drought so that is why I've been on a treadmill getting as
> > much done as possible. You never know what next year will bring,
> > especially with the climate change. We used to be zone 5 here and now
> > we've been designated as 6. Our fall crop beet (and other) seedlings
> > are out on the picnic table in flats. I think he's going to plant them
> > out soon. I would love to finally have some beets. One of my favorite
> > salads is raw baby beets sliced very thin mixed with a big handful of
> > watercress & some EVO & a splash of balsamic vinegar.
>
> Now that sounds great. Believe it or not my favorite beet dish is plain
> boiled skinned beets! Young, tender and sugar sweet. Delicious. I can them
> with onions.... yum! :^)

I love them just plain like that too... cold with some raw Vidalia
onions and a bit of sweet basil. So delicious. My grandmother would
put a dollop of sour cream on her cooked, cold beets.

> ...The climate here seems to be getting hotter and dryer. I'm in
> central TN, zone 6. In the past few years we've lost native trees
> and wildflowers to the endless heat and shortage of rain. The weeds
> are severely wilted tonight. If I didn't water my garden I wouldn't
> have anything. It's getting costly though as we have three vegetable
> gardens plus 2 flower beds. Two-spotted spider mites are becoming a
> real problem also. They've wiped out one veggie garden completely
> with the help of white-fly infestation like I've never seen before.

Extreme weather does seem to be an increasingly frequent event. I've
never had to water so little as this year with all the rain but we're
still not caught up in average annual rainfall since our drought. I
assume that you mulch to help keep some moisture in the soil. We used
to not do that at all but are increasing that practice. We've taken to
spot watering all our plants in dry spells instead of overhead
irrigation. Very time-consuming in large gardens however. This year,
we've seen so many new creatures, mainly insects, that appear to have
expanded their range.

One thing we did to help control the insect population was to install a
bat house (up in a tree). Certain kinds of bats consume hordes of
insects daily. Some people don't like the idea of bats though. They
are insect-devouring machines though.

Isabella
--
"I will show you fear in a handful of dust"
-T.S. Eliot

On Wed 13 Aug 2008 11:58:11p, Marie Dodge told us...

>
> "Isabella Woodhouse" > wrote in message
> ...
>>
>> Despite 2 power outages within just 8 days (one for 14 or 16 hours and
>> the other for 7 hours) and despite a refrigerator fiasco, I'm still
>> putting things by and the garden is still going strong this year. I
>> tell my daughter, "Make hay while the sun shines; who knows what next
>> year will bring?"
>>
> Brevity snips!
>
> You've been busy in the kitchen. :^) Tonight after dinner we canned 8
> quarts of tomato juice. Another 8 and we'll have our winter supply. The
> rest will be made into sauce. The earth here is bone day. We
> desperately need rain. I want to get my late beets and turnips planted
> but the earth has to contain enough moisture first. I hoped to can a
> winter's supply of beets.
>
>

That should make Barb happy! :-)


--
Date: Saturday, 08(VIII)/16(XVI)/08(MMVIII)

*******************************************
Countdown till Labor Day
2wks 1dys 15hrs 4mins
*******************************************
Is it possible to feel gruntled?
*******************************************

In article 7>,
Wayne Boatwright > wrote:

> On Wed 13 Aug 2008 11:58:11p, Marie Dodge told us...
> > desperately need rain. I want to get my late beets and turnips planted
> > but the earth has to contain enough moisture first. I hoped to can a
> > winter's supply of beets.

>
> That should make Barb happy! :-)

She can't grow dirt chunks, eh? Well, now, i'n't that jist a damned
shame! The world is safe for another day.

Jeez, I could take care of a winter's supply of beets in about half an
hour, I'll bet. Faster if the compost heap is right next to the garden
plot.
--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
http://web.mac.com/barbschaller, blahblahblog is back and
most recently updated last night, 8-14-2008 after the Taste of the Fair.
Check it out ‹ a good story.

"rec.food.cooking Preserved Fruit Administrator
'Always in a jam. Never in a stew.'" - Evergene

On Sat 16 Aug 2008 12:52:09p, Melba's Jammin' told us...

> In article 7>,
> Wayne Boatwright > wrote:
>
>> On Wed 13 Aug 2008 11:58:11p, Marie Dodge told us...
>> > desperately need rain. I want to get my late beets and turnips planted
>> > but the earth has to contain enough moisture first. I hoped to can a
>> > winter's supply of beets.
>
>>
>> That should make Barb happy! :-)
>
> She can't grow dirt chunks, eh? Well, now, i'n't that jist a damned
> shame! The world is safe for another day.
>
> Jeez, I could take care of a winter's supply of beets in about half an
> hour, I'll bet. Faster if the compost heap is right next to the garden
> plot.

:-) I'll bet you could, too!

--
Date: Sunday, 08(VIII)/17(XVII)/08(MMVIII)

*******************************************
Countdown till Labor Day
2wks 22hrs 43mins
*******************************************
If it looks like a duck, acts like a
duck, and quacks like a duck it is
probably just a tool of the conspiracy.
*******************************************

In article
>,
Isabella Woodhouse > wrote:

> quite a bit after roasting). I just love these and there are so many
> great ways to use them and a gazillion recipes. One of my favs is white
> bean and slow-roasted tomato "salad" with EVO, garlic and lots of herb
> of your choice. I use basil often... especially with a dozen pots of it
> on my deck.

> Isabella

OK, Toots, just how in hell many people are you feeding? I will not use
the product from ONE very-nicely-growing-thank-you pot of basil. What
in the name of Saint Pectina are you doing with all that friggin' basil?
Really.

--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
http://web.mac.com/barbschaller , blahblahblog is back and
is being updated quite regularly now, most recently 8-12-2008.
"rec.food.cooking Preserved Fruit Administrator
'Always in a jam. Never in a stew.'" - Evergene

In article >,
Melba's Jammin' > wrote:

> In article
> >,
> Isabella Woodhouse > wrote:
>
> > quite a bit after roasting). I just love these and there are so many
> > great ways to use them and a gazillion recipes. One of my favs is white
> > bean and slow-roasted tomato "salad" with EVO, garlic and lots of herb
> > of your choice. I use basil often... especially with a dozen pots of it
> > on my deck.
>
> OK, Toots, just how in hell many people are you feeding? I will not use
> the product from ONE very-nicely-growing-thank-you pot of basil. What
> in the name of Saint Pectina are you doing with all that friggin' basil?
> Really.

LOL. Well, first of all, it really looks pretty out there on the deck.
Lots of pots give me adequate basil early in the season when the plants
are still small. It is mostly Thai basil, the kind I like best. I use
it for so many things; in the summer, it's the herb of my choice. I
trim out all the shoots that look like they might flower. I use LOTS of
basil and I give lots of it away too. One rosemary plant is adequate
however. I wish there was a basil jam and more uses for canning &
preserving; I just love it so much. Going to freeze some this year. We
have basil growing between all the tomatoes as well. It keeps a lot of
bugs away from the tomatoes. Oh, I also put it in short vases around
the house because it is so fragrant.

Isabella
--
"I will show you fear in a handful of dust"
-T.S. Eliot

In article
>,
Isabella Woodhouse > wrote:

> trim out all the shoots that look like they might flower. I use LOTS of
> basil and I give lots of it away too. One rosemary plant is adequate
> however. I wish there was a basil jam and more uses for canning &
> preserving; I just love it so much.

I won a blue ribbon at my state's fair some years ago made from purple
basil. Used the mint jelly measures but using the basil instead. A
friend's husband loved it on a pb sandwich. Go figure.


Going to freeze some this year. We
> have basil growing between all the tomatoes as well. It keeps a lot of
> bugs away from the tomatoes. Oh, I also put it in short vases around
> the house because it is so fragrant.

Understood. I have a small vase of it on the side of my fridge just
because it smells good and is pretty darned green!

> Isabella
--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
http://web.mac.com/barbschaller , blahblahblog is back and
most recently updated today, 8-14-2008.
"rec.food.cooking Preserved Fruit Administrator
'Always in a jam. Never in a stew.'" - Evergene

Isabella Woodhouse wrote:
> In article >,
> Melba's Jammin' > wrote:
>
>> In article
>> >,
>> Isabella Woodhouse > wrote:
>>
>>> quite a bit after roasting). I just love these and there are so many
>>> great ways to use them and a gazillion recipes. One of my favs is white
>>> bean and slow-roasted tomato "salad" with EVO, garlic and lots of herb
>>> of your choice. I use basil often... especially with a dozen pots of it
>>> on my deck.
>> OK, Toots, just how in hell many people are you feeding? I will not use
>> the product from ONE very-nicely-growing-thank-you pot of basil. What
>> in the name of Saint Pectina are you doing with all that friggin' basil?
>> Really.
>
> LOL. Well, first of all, it really looks pretty out there on the deck.
> Lots of pots give me adequate basil early in the season when the plants
> are still small. It is mostly Thai basil, the kind I like best. I use
> it for so many things; in the summer, it's the herb of my choice. I
> trim out all the shoots that look like they might flower. I use LOTS of
> basil and I give lots of it away too. One rosemary plant is adequate
> however. I wish there was a basil jam and more uses for canning &
> preserving; I just love it so much.
Use a recipe for mint jelly and it would work the same. Probably be
really good on meats too.
Going to freeze some this year. We
> have basil growing between all the tomatoes as well. It keeps a lot of
> bugs away from the tomatoes. Oh, I also put it in short vases around
> the house because it is so fragrant.
>
> Isabella
I generally dehydrate about a quart to use in stews, sauces, etc. over
the coming winter.

In article >,
George Shirley > wrote:

> Isabella Woodhouse wrote:

> > ... I wish there was a basil jam and more uses for canning &
> > preserving; I just love it so much.

> Use a recipe for mint jelly and it would work the same. Probably be
> really good on meats too.

What a great idea! Thank you.
--
"I will show you fear in a handful of dust"
-T.S. Eliot

In article
>,
Isabella Woodhouse > wrote:

> Despite 2 power outages within just 8 days (one for 14 or 16 hours and
> the other for 7 hours) and despite a refrigerator fiasco, I'm still
> putting things by and the garden is still going strong this year. I
> tell my daughter, "Make hay while the sun shines; who knows what next
> year will bring?"
>
> Today, I started by slow-roasting two huge trays of halved cherry
> tomatoes. Later, I froze them, in those Ball 1-cup freezer containers,
> for later use. I've frozen 6 full trays of them so far (they shrink up
> quite a bit after roasting). I just love these and there are so many
> great ways to use them and a gazillion recipes. One of my favs is white
> bean and slow-roasted tomato "salad" with EVO, garlic and lots of herb
> of your choice. I use basil often... especially with a dozen pots of it
> on my deck.
>
> Then I blanched and froze the last few pounds of the Bountiful beans
> (which I mistakenly thought were Providers). More of other beans are on
> the way. I've been picking our pole beans (Blue Lake, Rattlesnake,
> Asparagus Long beans, Kentucky) but we've been eating them so far--- not
> enough yet to freeze.
>
> And then I made the Old Fashioned Tomato Marmalade from the Small Batch
> Preserving book. I have not had tomato marmalade but once or twice
> since I was a girl. I remember thinking, when my aunt offered me some,
> "eeeew, tomato preserves?". But then I tasted it and could not get
> enough. This recipe, which included 5 cups of peeled, cored, roughly
> chopped tomatoes, 1 lemon, 2 large oranges and 4 cups sugar, is really
> outstanding. I offered it as a mystery jam to my DH but, not having had
> it before, he just couldn't place it. He was os surprised when I told
> him what it was.
> Isabella

Thanks for the reference -- maybe I'll make some for sampling at my
presentation on the 25th.

I've made tomato jam before but I can't remember offhand where I found
the recipe.





--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
http://web.mac.com/barbschaller , blahblahblog is back and
is being updated quite regularly now, most recently 8-12-2008.
"rec.food.cooking Preserved Fruit Administrator
'Always in a jam. Never in a stew.'" - Evergene