My Glass and Stainless Cleaner

As most of you know I rarely buy commercial cleaning supplies. I simply do not think they are a necessary expense as I can usually make something of my own that will do the same job faster and cheaper.  Glass cleaner is no exception. I use this cleaner on not only my china cabinet glass but also mirrors, windows, doors and stainless. On my stainless it seems to help repel those finger prints. I  simply mix this and keep in a squirt bottle but once it sets for awhile you will have to shake it as the corn starch wants to settle to the bottom of the bottle. Just give it a good shake to redistribute all the ingredients and you are ready to go.

 Glass Cleaner

1/4 cup rubbing alcohol

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 Tbsp corn starch

2 cups warm water

 1 tsp laundry bluing

And my favorite thing to use other than old newspapers is my microfiber cloth for glass.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Blessed Rain

We have already had a full morning this morning getting up to dark skies and rain in the air. We rush around trying to get everything fed and watered before the rain comes. Yesterday evening we planted more squash, turnips, beans and lettuce knowing that they were predicting rain for the next several days and we wanted to take advantage of the additional moisture. I am not sure if we are still in a drought but I do know that we are really dry right now. But normally July and August are our driest months. When everything is dry like this it seems that when the rain does come that the earth just breathes a sigh of relief.

As for me I think Paula the chicken, Gypsy and Riley the scottie dogs and myself are gonna bake some zucchini bread to freeze. Lots of walnuts and raisins and the smell of cinnamon on a rainy day sounds heavenly. Maybe some chicken gumbo for supper. I have lots of housekeeping to catch up on since I spent last week canning. I know that if we get lots of rain I will be hip deep in vegetables in a few days.

Hope everyone else out there is getting rain that needs it also!

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Sunday Afternoon

 

It's a quiet Sunday afternoon here on the farm. O Wise One has gone fishing. I got up early this morning and put a whole chicken in the crockpot to bake. Cut corn off the leftover corn on the cob last night and creamed it. Shelled a small pot of horticulture beans and put them in a cast iron pot on the back of the stove, some onion, bacon and a little garlic and slow cooked for a few hours they should be delicious. A skillet of crunchy corn bread is cooling on the counter as I type this. And a yellow snack cake with chocolate icing is in my cake keeper. Sunday dinner is ready when he gets home.

We ended up hatching 18 chicks all together. 11 under the chicken and 8 in the incubator. They were all black but one little yellow one. The eggs were given to me by a friend. We put them all under the old chicken and she took them all except the one little yellow one. She pecked it until she had it bloody before I noticed it. All the little black chicks were pecking it too! I have brought my little yellow chick in the house and it is going to be a house chicken for awhile in here with mama where it is safe. I told Baby O I am going to name it Paula. Let's hope it is not a rooster : )

Next week I hope should be a little slower. Crops to pick okra, blackberries, cucumbers and maybe red beans again and corn. With the heat breaking and cooler weather moving in we are scrambling right now to plant fall crops. Rain is in the forecast for the next 3 or 4 days and it would be nice to get it in before the rain.

For all of you trying my pickle recipes let me know what you think and how yours come out! 

My main objective next week A NEW COMPUTER of my own. I dislike laptops probably because I am not used to them but I should just be thankful Baby O is letting me use it!

Until tomorrow!

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Fermented Pickles

 Every year I make 4 different kinds of pickle product when my cucumbers come in. This year to quote my Mississippi Delta grandmother " we  are sitting in high cotton" ! The cucumber crop has done wonderfully and we are picking cucumbers by the buckets full. WIth peppers on the bush and onions aplenty it is prime pickle making time. I have already made sweet relish. Not much but just a few jars because we don't really use very much. The next pickle product I make is dill relish. We use quite a bit of it. Then I make dill slices that we eat throughout the year on sandwiches. But my favorite pickles of all are the fermented ones.

 These are simply fermented in a water, salt, garlic and dill solution. These are like the pickles you buy in the refrigerator section of the grocery store. I ferment them in gallon pickle jars that we get at the local store that has a small deli. The bad news is that these pickles keep on an average of about 6 months in the refrigerator so I make a big batch and eat through the summer. My kids and grandkids love pickles and these are a healthy snack. Then about the time that the cucumbers are about to finish I will make several large batches to sit in the back of the fridge to eat on through the winter. 

Fermented Pickles

Approximately 35 small to medium sized fresh pickling cucumbers

1 gallon cold distilled water

1 cup apple cider vinegar

2/3 cup pickling salt

8 to 10 cloves garlic

6 grape leaves

6 heads fresh dill

Wash cucumbers , trim blossom ends off and leave whole, slice in half, or slice into spears. In a clean gallon jar cover the bottom with fresh clean grape leaves. (these help to keep your cucumbers crunchy) Now layer dill heads( you can also use dill seed substituting 1 tablespoon of seed for every head), garlic and sliced cucumbers. Now in a pitcher mix together pickling salt, vinegar and water. Stir well to melt salt. Now pour salt solution over pickles and weight down. I fill a small jelly jar with water and put the lid on it and use it to weight down my pickles. I like to lay grape leaves over the top of my pickles and then the weight on top. Cover with cheese cloth or a clean piece of muslin or kitchen towel to keep the bugs out. I leave mine on the counter for about 4 days or until when you bite into one it tastes like pickle and not cucumber. Then I put a lid on the jar and put it in the refrigerator. As long as these stay cold they will remain crisp. I leave the weight in to make sure my pickles stay below the brine. We snack on these crisp juice pickles most of the summer.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

  

 

Dill Relish

This recipe is actually a Ball Blue Book Recipe! That being said I do mine a little different than theirs. I will post their recipe and then tell you how I do mine. This recipe can be found on page 53 of the 100th Anniversary Edition Ball Blue Book(2009).  

Dill Relish

8 pounds pickling cucumbers

1/2 cup salt

2 teaspoons turmeric

1 quart water

1 pound yellow onions

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons dill seed

1 quart white wine vinegar

Wash cucumbers, drain. 

Finely chop cucumbers in a food process or food grinder. 

Place chopped cucumbers in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and turmeric.

Pour water over cucumbers; let stand for 2 hours.

Peel and finely chop onions.

Drain cucumbers.

Rinse under cold water and drain.

Combine cucumbers, onion, sugar, dill seed and white wine vinegar in a large sauce pot, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.

Ladle hot relish into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust 2 piece caps.

Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Now that is Ball's Recipe and it is a good one but I do it just a scooch differently!

1. Yesterday afternoon I cut up 2 batches or 16 pounds of small pickling cucumbers. A heirloom variety called Straight Eight. I pick these fresh right before chopping and small, about 4 to 6 inches so that the seeds and rinds are not very developed. and I bring them in and immediately put them in cold water to keep them good and crisp.

2. I slice them in half and take a spoon and scoop out the seed cavity in the middle of every cucumber. No seeds no matter how small.

3. I chop my cucumbers by hand. Food processors make mush of relish. My family wants theirs a little chunky. I cut mine small but every thing by hand.

4. I cut my cucumbers and onions at the same time and put them in a bowl. Then sprinkle canning or pickling salt over them then half the turmeric. That's right 1 teaspoon per batch. Turmeric adds color to the pickles turning them a beautiful apple green color but my family is not crazy about the flavor so half the amount is a compromise.

5. Once the turmeric,salt, chopped cucumbers and onions are stirred well I do not add the quart of water that Ball calls for. I simply cover them with a clean dish cloth and let them soak overnight with no water as compared to Balls 2 hours in water. During this soaking time they absorb the salt and turmeric and stay crunchy!

6. The next morning I got up early and placed my hot water canner on the stove with my empty pint jars in it and brought the water to a boil to sterilize and heat my jars.

7. I put my lids and rings on to warm.

8. Now I took my cucumber and onion mixture and poured it into my colander and rinsed it very well under cold water. Now taste your cucumbers and they will taste really salty.

9. Put them in a non reactive pot ( stainless or enamel) and add your vinegar.

10. I live in no mans land. I walk in a grocery and ask for white wine vinegar and they look at me like I have 3 heads. I use plain white 5% acidity vinegar. The only difference was that I added about a cup extra. Why? To completely cover my pickles when cooking. 4 CUPS NEVER GIVES ME ENOUGH LIQUID. Now I add  my fresh dill seed and sugar.  If you cut back on the sugar your pickles will taste too salty. The salt and vinegar is necessary to preserve your pickle. The sugar is then added to cut the strength of the salt.

11. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer and simmer 10 minutes. By then your jars should be good and hot. (Boiling) Your lids should also be hot.

12. Now I take one jar at a time out of the water and dump the water back in the pot that continues to boil. I fill that jar and remove air bubbles. Wipe rim clean and place hot lid and ring back on jar. Finger tighten lid. Now take that full jar and place it back in pot of water to keep it hot. 

13. This recipe for me always makes about 5 pints. By the time I get that 5th jar full and back in the pot the jars are all heated in that boiling water.They are hotter than a firecracker.

14. I then take my jars out and place on a cutting board on the counter and cover with a heavy bath towel to hold the heat and walk away. I let them set for the rest of the day wrapped in that towel. It is now 6:00 pm and the last jar just sealed about 20 minutes ago.

I DO NOT WATERBATH THESE PICKLES FOR 10 MINUTES. IF YOU DO THEY WILL BE MUSHY.

Now on most things I do follow the USDA standards for canning with the exception of pickles. I do not water bath my pickles because I do believe the heat degrades the product. If you are uncomfortable with that then by all means water bath your product for 10 minutes. This blog is about how I do things and for me it is useless to make mushy pickles and then have to throw them out because my family will not eat them. Doing my relish produces a nice crispy and slightly chunky relish that my family eats in potato, tuna and ham salads. I use this relish to make tartar sauce and put on hot dogs. And have for years. This is what works for me and my family. I urge you to take the original recipe and find what works for your own family and their tastes.

 

Now I am sure someone out there in blog land will feel the need to be the self appointed representative  of the canning police club. Keep it polite or I will delete you!

As for me and my family we are going to sit down to a dinner of venison stew loaded with potatoes, carrots and onions picked this morning. As a side we have smothered fresh squash and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. Add to that some fresh corn on the cob the neighbor brought me in trade for some fresh homemade refrigerator pickles. He smelled them from across the holler I think. He doesn't care in the slightest that they aren't water bathed he just cares that they are crunchy and delicious : )

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter  

Saturday Morning

Good morning from Hickery Holler Farm. It's a beautiful Saturday morning here! It seems that we get a break from those sweltering summer days with temperatures only in the 70's today. Tonight's low in the 50's. As I sit and drink my coffee I already have 12 pint jars sitting on the stove heating and lids in a small pot beside them warming. I hear chicks peeping in the background from the next room. The old hen has 11 little chicks nestled beneath her out in the barn and we have 8 so far in the incubator. As soon as they dry off they will be placed under the hen also. She will definitely have a full nest but she can handle it. She can raise those little guys much better than we ever could!

I have 12 jars of new potatoes washed and drying on the kitchen table waiting to be labeled and put in the pantry. I also have a big bowl of chopped cucumbers and onions that have been soaking in salt all night. As soon as I finish this I will start cooking my relish. For all of you waiting for recipes I will post them this afternoon. Just a word of warning that they will not have pictures but just recipes. Until I get my new computer I have no way of downloading my pictures. I do not want to load all my photo programs and such to Baby O's little laptop and bog it down. I'll post the recipes and once I get everything up and running again I will have to come back and add the pictures. I'm taking plenty as always though.

My plans for this evening is to take advantage of this cooler weather pattern and plant my fall turnips.

I look forward to a Sunday day of rest. Next week I will have another week of canning blackberries and more beans. Okra , squash and more beans and possibly corn. Tis the season!

What have you canned this week?

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Canning New Potatoes

Today the canning job is new potatoes. With rain moving in the area O Wise One dug them yesterday afternoon  for me, washed them off and they are waiting in the back sink. Canned new potatoes are such a useful food. They can be added to stews, green beans and soups, creamed with peas and onions or used for mashed potatoes. They can be cooked in a skillet with butter and fresh dill, or butter,parsley, garlic and then parmesan added.

If interested in canning potatoes you can find a tutorial for them and other vegetables under my canning recipe link above.

Other farm news the little yellow hen that was setting hatched yesterday. She is not done but she now has chicks peeping under there. The chicks in the incubator are also peeping this morning as they are hatching also.

Yesterday was a day of critters for the dogs. Riley dug a mole up first thing that morning, then Moxie caught a mouse and drug it around half the day and kept trying to give it to me. The big black snake that lives in the shed bit her the day before on the lip. The day before that Marlowe had caught a rabbit and did not eat it but played with it half the day until OWO took it away and disposed of it. Just typical farm dogs helping to keep the critters down. We have been watching

the corn extra close for coons. It is just starting to get small ears.

Yesterdays canning totals 5 pints dill relish, 3 quart bags frozen red beans, 1 quart frozen broccoli florets.

On the gardening front the next crops to pick should be cabbage and corn. We continue to periodically pick onions, peppers, green beans, horticulture beans, cucumbers, red beans squash and zucchini. We make squash bug raids every morning catching bugs and squishing eggs to keep the numbers as low as possible. When the rain moves through we will put a drop of oil at the end of the corn ears. The second patch of corn is also just beginning to tossle. The okra needs the bottom leaves removed which is one of OWO's jobs for the day along with treating the big dogs for tick control. The tomatoes continue to get larger but no ripe ones yet. The watermelon and cantaloupe are blooming to beat the band and we have both small watermelon and cantaloupe on the vine.

In between canning jobs I borrow Baby O's laptop long enough to update this blog and do a little computer shopping online. It seems to be a good time to be in the market for a computer because of the back to school sales on computers for kids going off to college.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

 

Louisiana Red Beans

Todays project is Louisiana Red Beans. When I first moved to Missouri one of the first things I missed about Louisiana was red beans. A traditional dish that I had grown up on served with spicy sausage and eaten over rice. The local grocery stores had pinto beans but not these beans. The difference is the thick gravy that these cooked down into. So in desperation  I knew I had two choices. I could pay to ship them in or try to grow my own. After trying many different seeds and coming up short I had a brainstorm and had a family member bring me some on a visit and then planted them. Eureka! I had Louisiana Red Beans! Straight off the grocery store shelf!!! Then I just saved the seeds. As you can see in the picture above they are a bush bean and you know they  are ready when the pods turn yellow and the beans inside are a red color.

As you can see they look very similar in appearance to the pinto bean but the difference is the taste and consistency.

  

You can put red beans in jars and can them but my favorite way to preserve them is to simply blanch them

then put them in bags and freeze them.

 Once blanched they are allowed to cool and drain well then put on large trays and  frozen.

 Then vacuum sealed and put in the freezer.

 When prepared I simply add chopped onions, garlic and usually homemade sausage or tasso which is a smoked seasoning meat and simmer slowly on the back of the stove in my cast iron pot until the beans are soft and there is a thick gravy.The trick is low and slow on the cooking.

Served hot over rice with a side of crunchy corn bread hot out of the skillet, some sliced tomatoes, fresh cucumbers and smothered squash  may just be a meal fit for a king. A southern one anyway: )

Well I am off to shell red beans.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Hard At Work

 We finally got some rain yesterday. Just a short summer shower but we will take what we can get right now. I had a productive Tuesday with quite a few jars to add to the pantry. All together I added 8 pint jars pickled beets, 5 pints sweet pickle relish, 6 quarts purple hull peas and 14 quarts of horticultural beans. Not bad for a days work!

We are waiting for a batch of chicken eggs to hopefully hatch any day now in the incubator. On the garden front the squash bugs have made an appearance and we have been going out every morning early and picking eggs and bugs off the plants.

 

We also planted fall crops of squash, zucchini and lettuce this week. O Wise One picked 3 five  gallon buckets of green beans and took them to the produce man. With over 80 jars now in the pantry we just did not need them.  The money made off the green beans should defray the cost of the small amount of seeds that we did purchase this year. The beans will be sold at the farmer's market in Kansas City.

We also picked 2 five gallon buckets of dill heads. The seeds are removed from the dried heads and used to flavor the upcoming pickles. Part of those seeds will be kept for planting next year.  We also collected seed heads off the garlic chives.

 

Next on the canning list is chicken in jars, new potatoes, hamburger dills and dill relish. We are getting lots of cucumbers right now and with plenty of onions and dill on hand it has been perfect as far as timing for pickle making. The next crops should be red beans, cabbage and corn. We continue to pick side shoots off the broccoli and freeze as well .No ripe tomatoes yet but we have some nice ones out there on the bushes. 

 

Our fall broccoli, cabbage and lettuce seedlings are growing fast now also. Soon we will begin hardening them off to plant out in the fall garden. But for now we concentrate on harvesting and canning those summer crops still in the field.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter 

High Canning Season!

Yes indeed that time of year is here. You know high canning season has arrived at my house because as I type this I have a giant bowl of pickle relish sitting on my table soaking in salt. Tomorrow that will be the first order of business.

I also have jars of pickles sitting on the other table fermenting. These pickles are the kind thatgo in the refrigerator and are crunchy. 

And the mountain of cucumbers, squash and zucchini piled on my counter to be cleaned, blanched and frozen. There is also a big bowl of shredded zucchini in the refrigerator awaiting being made into bread and frozen.

  

And a giant bowl of pink eyed purple hull peas that I just got finished shelling to be canned tomorrow also. For the rest of the week there are chickens to be butchered and canned. New potatoes to be dug and canned. The corn should be ready with a week or so also. Not to mention 4 rows of red beans and a row of horticultural beans that should be ready to pick within days. 

And just to keep things really interesting my computer died this morning. A moment of silence please! After 9 years the old gal has finally bit the big one. That final fatal error. I will continue to post for the next few days while I shop for another computer in all my spare time.Baby O has generously allowed me to share her laptop occasionally when I can find the time. I will not be able to answer as many emails until the new computer is up and running. 

I hope all of you that follow this blog will bear with me through the transition as I take the time to purchase a new computer, install software and learn a new operating system. I may not post as often and may have to use photos out of the archives in the interim. 

Blessings from the holler

The Canned Quilter

Roasted New Potatoes, Peppers, Onions And Sausage

 I post quite a few recipes on this blog. Not because I am a gourmet cook by any means but more to show you simple everyday food prepared by what is coming out of my garden or pantry at that time and how to prepare it. Right now  I have lots of new potatoes, onions, broccoli, squash and cucumbers. I take some of my new potatoes and put them in jars to enjoy through the winter. And there is nothing like a pot of fresh green beans and new potatoes or creamed peas, onions and new potatoes. But the other day we ate over at my oldest daughter Fred's house and she served roasted new potatoes, onions, pepper and sausage. All roasted in the oven. It was delicious so I decided to try it myself.   

First I cooked a couple pieces of sausage until pretty well done and let it cool and then cut it into bite size pieces. 

Then cut up about a dozen new potatoes into about 1 inch cubes. Peeling and all.

Then I also cut up a bell pepper and onion into about the same size pieces as my potatoes.

Now take boiling water and cover the potatoes only and let sit for about 20 minutes. It starts to cook the potatoes. 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. 

Then take the potatoes after 20 minutes and drain them and dry them well with a clean kitchen towel. 

Now put the potatoes alone back in the dry bowl and add about 2 tablespoons olive oil and toss to coat well. 

Then I placed these potatoes on parchment paper in the hot oven and baked for about 25 minutes.  Then take the trays out and flip the potatoes to the other side and bake for another 20 minutes.  Now I had one tray on the top shelf and one on the bottom and then rotated them about half way through.

After the potatoes start to show some color then I added the onions and peppers also tossed in olive oil and let them cook for about another 20 minutes.  Then add your sliced sausage and mix them all up good to get the sausage flavor on the other vegetables and return the mixture to the oven to finish off. Remember the sausage is already cooked so basically you are just warming it through. Basically you want the potatoes cooked through with just a little browning and the onions and peppers roasted soft with maybe a little color.Once out of the oven I tossed with a little sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper and a dusting of Mrs Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning.

Served with a salad this is a great meat and potatoes meal for my husband and the hardest part is probably all the chopping.

Just another idea for those new potatoes.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Cylindra Beets

Recently I picked my beets and pickled part of them. This year I tried a new heirloom beet called Cylindra. In the photo above you can see the two Cylindra beets on the left and the two Detroit Dark Red beets on the right.

Now I have grown Detroit Dark Reds for years and it is a good beet but what I like about the Cylindra is the shape. Notice it is long like a carrot and can grow to 8 inches long. This is great for pickling because you have all those uniform slices. And the taste and texture are wonderful. 

You can't let a Detroit Dark Red get larger than say a baseball or it won't fit in a standard mouth canning jar. But these Cylindras because they grow long will give you more beet for the same growing space. Now because I have rocky soil I did grow mine in my raised bed.  

Oh but look what beauties and I still have beets in the ground to can. And being an heirloom I am leaving some in the ground for seeds. So if you like canned beets I give Cylindra a good recommendation.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

It's A Hank Holiday : )

 Lots of Tomato blooms right now they are loving this heat..

It's been a busy week here but it seems to have flown by. Today we have our grandson Hank for most of the day while his Mom takes the baby for a checkup and immunizations. So since we don't have him as much as we used to now that he is a big boy and will be starting preschool soon we are spending the day concentrating on him. I'll leave you with a few Hickery Holler pictures till tomorrow.

 

Dried basil ready to be broken up and stored

 Grapes on the vine

Althea or Rose of Sharon in the summer sun

Daylillies everywhere.....

 

Sure am glad that job is done : )

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter