Category Archives: Food

Growing, Harvesting, & Preserving Your Own Tomatoes

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Introduction

Who doesn’t enjoy eating a fresh tomato? When you grow them yourself, they are so much better than the hothouse ones from the grocery.

Tomatoes can be a hard thing to get to take off at first. But when you have fresh tomatoes of salsa in the summer or tomato juice to make chili in the winter, it is so rewarding! It is also a good time to remember to give Thanks to Yehovah for all things he has given you.

Planting

To start your tomatoes you will want to start them in late winter, in either your potting shed or greenhouse. If you don’t have either of those things, you can always start them in your house.

First, begin by having your trays and potting soil on hand. Really broke down compost makes good potting soil!

Fill your tray(s) with your soil and push it down until it is about 3/4” from the top of the tray. Water the soil lightly. This will make the seed not go down too deep when you water again after you have planted the seeds. Why does that matter? Because if the seeds go down too far, the seed will not sprout; it will rot.

Now, put 1 seed in each cell and cover them by topping off each cell with more soil. Make sure to keep the soil moist by watering them. Keep them as much in direct sunlight as possible. Within 7-14 days, they should begin to sprout, depending on how much sunlight they are able to get. Remember, if you are planting more than one variety, to put markers so you know which varieties are which.

Note: At this point, they may become spindly. If they are still short and just a little spindly, they should end up being fine. If they are VERY spindly, so that they are weak and snapping, don’t worry! They can still be saved.

Very carefully, pull them up out of their cell with your fingers. Do it one sprout at a time so that you don’t end up with a mess. Fill your cell with dirt and make a hole in the dirt by pressing down your finger about an inch and a quarter. Now put your spindly little sprout down into the hole and fill the little hole back in. Your objective will be to have the spindly part covered in dirt up to the leaves.

Taking Care of the Young Plants

Keep a close eye on your sprouts, and make sure that they maintain a good green color. You do not want them to begin turning a pale yellow color. If they start to turn a pale yellow color you need to act quickly so that you do not lose your plants. Put broke down compost around them to ‘feed’ them, because they turn pale from not getting the nutrients they need. This should turn them around pretty quickly.

If it starts to warm outside, into the 50F range or above, you need to bring them outside in the daytime as much as possible to make sure they get as much sunlight as possible. But be sure to bring them in when it is cold, you don’t want them getting frosted on!

Transplanting

About 35-40 days after planting, your plants should be too big for their cells. It is time to transplant them.

We transplant ours from their cells right into 9 oz cups. You should be able to find this size cup at pretty much any store. Either plastic or thick paper work well. You want to make a little hole in the bottom of each cup to make sure the excess water can drain out.

Fill your cups a little over 1/4 way full of potting soil/compost and put your plant in. Then fill the rest of the cup with soil until it is all the way up to the leaves. When finished, water them. Keep in mind not to let your plants be in too cold of temperatures or get frosted on!

Planting Outside

The timing on planting outside is all going to depend on where you live. Look up the last frost date for your area. Sometimes it will frost after the ‘last frost date’ but it will give you a pretty good idea of when it is safe to move your plants outside for good. We usually plant our tomatoes outside within the week after the last frost date for our area.

This gives us a pretty good chance of having some really early tomatoes.

To plant, just dig a hole in the ground, put compost, water, and your plant all in the hole and cover with dirt. We plant ours between about 4 rows of corn. This helps keep them shaded and prevent sun-scalding from happening to the tomatoes when the fruit begins to come on them in a few months.

Keep your plants moist and watered until they are established.

If they start looking pale, or you don’t see them beginning to bloom, or even not too many blooms, compost your plants. You should also put a small handful of Epsom salt in a gallon of water and put it on your plants. This brings up the magnesium and help your plant have more (and more productive) blooms.

When your plants get bigger, you may notice they start to cover your walkways and take over the garden. It’s time to tie them up!

Set posts on each end and in the center of your rows as close as they need to be to keep a straight line and not have the plants sag. Run your string post to post, tying up your plants as you go. The end result should look something like this:

Keeping your plants tied up will help to prevent blight. More tomato related issues, and how to deal with them , to come in another post soon!

Harvesting

This is one of the things we all look forward to every year! Who doesn’t look forward to eating a fresh tomato? And harvesting tomatoes is simple; all you have to do is just pick them off your plants!

Be sure to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for his wonderful blessings. And remember to bless others with the first-fruits of all your increase! (Prov. 3:9)

Preserving (Canning) Tomato Juice

There are many different ways to preserve tomatoes. But we are going to focus on canning them as juice today.

Juice

Wash your tomatoes and cut them in quarters. Put a pot on to cook down and keep it stirred. If they are not already juicy enough and, even when stirred, seem to want to burn easily, you can add a little water if need be.

When your tomatoes have cooked down (you’ll be able to tell as they will just seem like ‘mush’), run them through your food mill, the same as you do applesauce. (see post here)

When you have finished this process, put your jars into the oven on ‘warm’ setting, or the lowest your stove will go (most go down to 170F and this is suitable)

We are going to do what you call the “water bath” method.

Fill your canner half full of water and turn your burner on.

Now you should have hot juice, hot jars, and a hot canner ready to go. Ladle that hot juice into your jars and wipe the rims clean. Then, place your lids on your jars and screw on the rings tightly. Place in your canner and put on the lid on, but do NOT lock it on. When your water starts to boil, set your timer for 35 minutes.

The next step is taking them out of the water. Start by placing a towel on your countertop and then put your jars on top of the towel, using a jar lifter to keep from getting burnt. A jar lifter is pictured below:

Let your jars sit on your counter for 12 hours. Check seals and store.

The reason you want to check the seals is to make sure they are all secure before you store them.

You check the seals by tapping the jar lids with one finger. As you tap them, listen for a jar that sounds different than the rest of them. It will usually make a hollow sound.

If you find a jar that hasn’t sealed, put it in the fridge and use it soon. If you are planning more canning, you can try to can it again. Make sure there are no nicks in the top of jar and a good lid on it.

Growing Your Own Lettuce

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Put potting soil or compost in a sour cream container that has holes in the bottom. Water the soil and then sprinkle your lettuce seeds over top. Sprinkle soil about 1/8” over the seeds. Water daily, making sure you don’t water too much or the seeds will wash down and won’t sprout.

Once your lettuce is 1-2” tall, transplant them individually into a small cell tray. Once they’ve reached 4-5” tall, it’s time to plant them outside.

Plant them about 8” apart in rows. We put manure and water in the holes before planting. Water everyday until they’re established.

We lightly mulch around ours to keep mud from splattering on the lettuce when it rains.

Our Beets and Lettuce growing side by side in our garden

Once they are ready to pick, pick only the outside leaves working from the bottom up, leaving the smaller ones in the middle. Remove any yellow leaves and put them on the compost pile, or feed it to your sheep or goats.

When you notice your plants starting to grow slower, you will need to put manure around them to help feed the soil.

Doing it this way, you will get more lettuce from your plants, the lettuce stays clean and they will produce longer.

“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”

Gen. 1:29

Zucchini: Planting, Nourishing, Harvesting, & Preserving

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Zucchini is one of the easier vegetables to grow, making it very rewarding. If you can take keep the squash bugs away, you can get a lot of zucchini from just a couple plants!

Planting

You want to make sure you get heirloom seeds. We like the Black Beauty variety. We start zucchini in the spring, and then again in the fall. First you will want to make a hill about 6” tall and 1” wide. Then, put two seeds into each hole, 2” apart and push down a half inch. Cover with manure or compost, and water well.

Nourishing

When your plants look like the above photo, it will be time to feed them again. Put 3 TBSP of kelp around the base of each plant, then add some more compost or manure. Continue to water as needed.

If, as your plants grow and start to bloom, you see only male and no female blooms, you won’t get many zucchini without doing something about this.You need males to pollinate the females. The female plants are the ones that will turn into a zucchini. If you do not know the difference in male and female blooms, use the photo below as a guide.

If we have this problem, here is what we do to help.

De-solve 2 TBSP of Epsom salt in a gallon of water and pour it around the base of the plant. Do this for each plant that you are having the problem with.

Harvesting

You can harvest your zucchini whatever size you like them. To harvest, all you have to do is grab the fruit and twist. If you like them small, make sure you keep an eye on them. They get big very quickly! The bigger they get, the more spongy they will be, and are less tasty when they are spongy.

If you are wanting to save seed from them, let one get as big as it will. Sometimes they will turn an orange-ish color once they are big. This does not mean you can’t save seed from them. They are still good for seed.

When you harvest, remember to pray who to give your first fruits to!

Honour Yehovah with thy substance, And with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, And thy presses shall burst out with new wine.

Proverbs 3:9-10

Saving Seed

When you pick the one you have let grow and go to seed, pick it and cut it open. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon, and lay the seeds out to dry on a tray for 2-3 days. Then, store in a jar with an airtight lid.

Preserving

The best way to preserve your zucchini is to either freeze or can it.

To freeze the zucchini, first you need to shred it. We have not had good success with freezing slices. When you have finished shredding the zucchini, squeeze out the juice/water. Put in a Ziploc bag and freeze.

To can, we use the following recipe:

Want a way to use your shredded zucchini? We enjoy making Zucchini bread, too! You can even use the above recipe for Pineapple Zucchini in place of the regular shredded zucchini the recipe calls for. We love using the recipes from America’s Test Kitchen, and this is one of them.

Growing Onions

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It is always rewarding, and in our opinion better tasting, when you grow food yourself on your own land. You know where it came from, what you put in to it, and each step in between.

“Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.”

1 Cor. 3:8

Getting Your Onion Sets

You should be able to find onion sets at most local farm stores. You will usually find yellows, reds, and white. In our experience, the reds (AKA purple) store the worst, yellows the best, and whites in the middle. We usually plant three of the bags that the farm store has. We have a good time each year playing ‘How many are in the bag’ as a family!

Planting

Early Spring is the time to plant your onions. We prefer to plant our onions on little hills. We found that planting them in little ditches makes them hold the moisture in. In our experience, this causes the onions to rot and not store well.

So, with a hoe, make small hills, about 6 inches tall. Once you have finished, push your onions one by one into the top of the hill, leaving only the stem sticking out of the ground. You want to place them about 4 inches apart from each other, so they have room to get good sized.

Nourishing the Plants

We like to put grass clippings (from the yard, not hay necessarily) in between our onion rows. We add another layer every couple of weeks. This helps to add nitrogen to the soil for the onions, as well as keeping in the right amount of moisture for the onions as they grow. This is very important when the heat of summer comes. The grass clippings also help a lot in keeping the weeds down in the onion patch. If you start to see buds come onto the tops of your onions, clip them off if you do not want them to go to seed. If they go to seed, the onion itself will not be good for eating. But if you want to keep seed, you can let a few go ‘bolt’ and there will be seeds for you at harvest time.

Harvesting

When the tops of your onions bend over (die), it is time to harvest! The onions will not continue to grow after this happens.

To harvest your onions, all you have to do is pull them out of the ground and lay them out to dry. The below idea will help them to dry out as fast as possible. Make sure you have them under a roof, out of the weather. You don’t want them to have any moisture in them when you store them, or they will rot, regardless of the color.

If you decide to lay them on a flat table, you will need to be flipping them every few days so they will continue to dry and not just send the moisture deeper into the onion.

Pulling your onions and seeing how much they have grown is a VERY rewarding time, and it is a great time to Praise Yehovah for your blessings and give him thanks!

Storing your Onions

When most of the tops of your onions are brown and there is no moisture left in it (rather than being bendy, the tops will be brittle) it is time to store them.

We like to braid our onions, the same way we do with our garlic. See below, and also our Garlic post.

When you have finished braiding your onions tops, hang them in a cool, dark, dry place.

I hope that this encourages you to grow your own onions this year! May Yehovah bless you this growing season and in the coming ones!

Making Soft Flour Tortillas From Scratch

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Makes about 20-8” tortillas

We’ve tried many different tortilla recipes over the years. Many times we’d end up with tortillas that were too hard, not flexible, or too thick. We’ve been using this recipe and found it to work best, and we no longer have any of these problems. If you find you have any of these problems, go back through the recipe; you may have missed a step or over worked your dough.

Ingredients:

4 cups flour + extra for counter

2 tsp real salt

1 1/3 cups warm water

8 TBSP melted butter (1 stick)

  1. Put flour in medium size bowl. Add melted butter and mix well.
  2. Dissolve salt in warm water. Pour most of the salt water in and mix until a shaggy dough forms. If your dough is still a little dry add the rest of the water.
  3. Once your dough comes together, put it on a floured counter and knead for about 5 minutes. Lightly oil your dough and place a bowl upside-down over it. Let rest for 15 minutes or up to 1 hour. (Letting your dough rest makes it easier to roll out your tortillas.)
  4. Divide your dough into small balls. On a floured counter, roll out each ball. You can roll them all out and put parchment paper in between each tortilla, or, like we do, you can roll the next one out while you have one cooking in the skillet.
  5. Heat a skillet (cast iron is best) on medium-high heat until really hot. Once your skillet is hot, carefully, put a tortilla in and turn your heat to medium-low. Let cook for about 25 seconds. You should see bubbles starting to fill with air. Flip over and let cook about 10-15 seconds.
  6. Put your cooked tortilla on a plate and continue to cook the rest of your tortillas. Adjust heat as needed.
  7. Store your leftover tortillas in a Ziploc bag. These are softest when warm so if you want to fold them, we recommend warming them back up.

Making Vinegar Cheese

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Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

Job 10:10

In our family, we usually don’t have a lot of leftover milk from our Milk Goats or Milk Cow. But, if we ever start getting quite a few gallons backed up, we like to make vinegar cheese!

It is one of our families favorites, and has a higher, better tasting yield when made from milk a few days old (but not sour).

Here is the recipe we like to use, and that works best for the amount we usually have that needs converted to cheese. You can half or double it and get the same result.

Homemade Vinegar Cheese

*Have your ‘candy’ thermometer on hand to monitor temperature

1 gallon milk (goat or cow)

1/2 c. White Vinegar

2 tsp. Real Salt

Pour your milk into a large pot and turn your stove on medium heat. Stir your milk and check the temperature frequently to keep it from scorching. When it reaches 180°, turn off your burner and add in your white vinegar. Cover with a lid, and set your timer for 20 minutes.

When your timer has went off, remove the lid. You should be able to see that the curds have separated from the whey.

Line a colander/strainer with cheese cloth/butter muslin, and pour your curds and whey into it. Tie the top of your cheesecloth/muslin and hang. (If you haven’t made cheese before, remember to put a bowl or pot underneath your hanging curds; this is to catch the whey as it drains out.)

You can let your curds hang for 1-24 hours. We like to just let it hang for an hour or two. The longer you let them hang, the drier the curds are. We just prefer ours more moist.

You can also take this recipe, and instead of hanging the curds, squeeze out most of the whey and put the remaining curds in a bowl. You can then add a little cream, and have something similar to cottage cheese. We enjoy it both ways.

Making Your Own Butter at Home (Without a Churn)

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“Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter…” Pr. 30:33

One of the joys of having a family milk cow is all the different uses of the milk. In our home, we use a lot of butter….and we like fresh, raw butter the best.

Instead of shaking the cream in a jar for a few hours, we found the following way that is easy, works quickly, and we get the same result!

Step 1:

The first step is to skim the cream off your milk that has set in the fridge, preferably at least overnight. Take your cream and put it into a quart jar. Set your cream out until it reaches room temperature. If it is too cold, it will take much longer to turn into butter.

Step 2:

Pour your cream into your food processor, up to the ‘max liquid’ line. Put your processor on medium speed. DO NOT leave your processor. If your cream goes too long, it will turn into butter, and then go back to liquid again. After it goes back to liquid again, it is very hard to get it to go back to butter the second time.

Watch your cream closely, and you will see it begin to ‘gather’. At first, it will go through the stage where it looks like Cool Whip; don’t stop it here, let it keep going. You will see it turn yellow, and the buttermilk will be the liquid that is left. Stop it here! Take off your lid, and you will be able to see clumps of butter floating around, stuck to the sides or middle.

Step 3:

Drain off your buttermilk into a jar (if you want to keep it) and put your butter into a bowl. Press it down with a spoon, and you will see more buttermilk come off; Pour it out of your bowl. Continue to do this until you press and no buttermilk comes out.

Step 4:

When you are finished, and no more buttermilk comes out upon pressing, rinse your butter with cold water, pour it off, and pat it dry.

Step 5:

Salt your butter (if you like it salted), and it is ready to enjoy.

How to Preserve the Fall Harvest: Persimmons (Recipe Included!)

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Persimmons are a fruit, often wild, that is ready for harvest in the fall. Wild persimmons are native to most of the US, and can also be found in orchards in places like Oregon and California.

Harvesting

To look for a persimmon tree, in the fall you will look for the fruit hanging in the tree. In the summer it will be smaller and green, and plump up and turn color (to orange) in the fall. In the spring, you will want to look for their signature ‘bumpy’ bark, pictured here:

When you find a persimmon tree, see if it has fruit on it, or if it is spring, check back as time goes on to see if it starts to get fruit. You will know the fruit is ripe and ready for harvest when they are orange and squishy. Sometimes they will have a tinge of purple, too. You DO NOT want to eat green persimmons! They will dry out your mouth and give you a belly ache!

Often, when they are ripe, they will fall from the tree. This is when it is ready, and it has all the enzymes in it for digestion. This is the best time to eat them! Pick them up off the ground and put them in your container. You can wash them later. If you shake the tree, or if you had a recent windy day, the ones that are ready will also fall.

You will want to get them as they fall, because otherwise the deer, or other animals, will beat you to them!

When the persimmons are ripe, they will have a very sweet taste.

Processing

Take in your persimmons and wash them well. Pick off the stems that stick to them when you pick them or they fall. Put your remaining fruit in a pot, and smash it until it becomes the consistency of pudding. Keep in mind that there will be a lot of seeds, but we will deal with those next.

The next step is to run your persimmons, seeds and all, through a food mill, like the one shown here:

Put your hand crank food mill over an empty stock pot and run it through. The result will look something like orange pudding. This is called ‘persimmon pulp’. You can freeze this or make persimmon pudding! Below is the recipe we like best of the ones we’ve used.

Remember to thank God for providing, and for giving the strength to harvest what he has provided!

Walnuts: A Fall Harvest

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The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. Pr. 13:4

Harvesting/Picking up the Walnuts

Walnuts are ready to harvest each fall. Some years there will be a bigger harvest than others. This can depend on the weather, or whether or not there had been a big harvest the year before.

When you see that the walnuts are falling/have fell off the trees, they are ready to harvest. Get yourself some boxes, containers, milk crates, totes, buckets, or whatever you prefer and just simply pick them up! There is also a special tool made specifically for this job, called a “nut picker upper”. (see photo on left)

It is always a good idea to bring along a hammer and go ahead and crack a few open to make sure there are actually nuts inside before you spend all the time gathering them! Wear gloves while cracking them, so you don’t get the green juice on your hands. (More on this in another post here)

Drying

Lay the walnuts in the sun to dry on a tarp, until the hulls are brown/black. You may need to flip them over if the bottoms are not drying well. They will dry faster if you do not allow them to get rained on.

Hulling

When you peel off the husk, it should come off easily. If there is any husk left sticking to the nut, you can use a wire brush to get off what is sticking. This is optional, but is a good idea if you are not planning on cracking them right away.

If any of your nuts are still wet, lay them back out in the sun to prevent molding.

Storing the Nuts in Shell

When all your walnut shells are dry, put them into whichever type of storage container you choose. It will not matter if it has small holes or not, just as long as you put it in a place where they can stay dry.

Cracking

ALWAYS BE SURE TO WEAR EYE PROTECTION WHEN CRACKING WALNUTS!

There are a lot of ways to crack walnuts. You can use a nutcracker (there are many different kinds), a hammer, or a vice.

Most nutcrackers will come with instructions, or you can easily find a video on how to use them from YouTube.

When using a vice, pieces of the nut sometimes like to fly off. But it works good and breaks the shell apart to get the nut out easier and in pretty good sized pieces.

We have found if you use a heavy piece of metal (like an anvil or something similar) to set the nut on when you are cracking using a hammer, it breaks apart to get out the nut easier. If you just use a piece of wood, it usually just drives the nut into it, and the nut and shell just breaks into little pieces.

Storing the Nuts

When you have finished all your nut cracking, just put your nuts in a ziploc bag. You can store them in the fridge for up to 3 months. Make sure to keep them in the bag and keep the bag closed, as walnuts can soak up smells and tastes from foods with strong odors, like garlic or onions.They can also be frozen for up to a year…But they never last that long around our house!

The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want. Pr. 21:5

Making Homemade Hummus

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When you make your own hummus, it just tastes better!

For starters, you need garbanzo beans. They are the base ingredient in hummus.

If you are starting with dry beans, you need to measure out 2 cups. Put them in a bowl, and make sure there is room in the bowl for them to expand. Cover them with water, and let sit for 24-48hrs. If you let them sit for 48hrs, you want to drain off the water and refill it after the first 24hrs. (If you buy canned garbanzo beans, skip this process, and just use two cans, as they are precooked)

Once they have finished the soak, drain and rinse them. Put them on to boil in a stock pot until they are soft. This usually takes about 3-3 1/2hrs.

After they are done boiling, rinse them again. If you like a more creamy textured hummus, take of the little peel around each bean. This is pretty easy, but it is tedious and does take awhile. If you don’t mind a nuttier texture, you can leave the peels on.

After you are done, put your beans in your food processor, and process them until crumbly in texture. While your processor is running, add in the water, olive oil, and tahini. (We like the tahini imported from Israel, Simple Truth Organic) Process until it has that hummus texture.

Pour your hummus into a bowl, and add in the salt, and lemon juice; stir until well mixed.

Top with paprika, and any other seasonings of your choice. You can also add more olive oil to the top if you like.

Enjoy!