Pickled Jalapeño Peppers

Save some of the heat from your garden by making pickled jalapeño peppers. These spicy additions can add bite to any dish.

Pickled Jalapeño Peppers

40 jalapeños, approximately

2 Tablespoons pickling salt
5 cups vinegar
2 cups water
garlic cloves, 1 clove per half pint jar

Gloves
Hot water canner

Large sauce pan or soup pot

Ladle

Funnel
Jar Lifter

Jars, lids, rims

Chop or slice the jalapeños with gloves on. Let me repeat... wear gloves when cutting jalapeños, as the oil in the peppers will make your hands feels like they are burning. Place jalapeños in jars.  If you include the seeds, the pickled jalapeños will hotter.  Include 1 clove of minced or chopped garlic to each half pint jar.

Get your jars ready. Jars should be clean, can run through the dishwasher or wash in hot soapy water.

In a medium saucepan; bring water, vinegar and salt to a boil. This is the brine or the liquid for pickling. Fill jars with hot brine, leaving 1/4 inch head space.

If you are new to Boiling-Water Bath Canning, I recommend reading my tutorial on this type of canning.

Wipe rims of jars clean with warm wash cloth. Place hot lids on jars and tighten with rims.

Process in a boiling-water canner for 10 minutes. Remove jars with jar remover carefully. Place hot jars on level surface. I cover my counter top with a double layered kitchen towel and place jars on top. Using a hot pad or glove, check that the rims are tightened.

As the jars cool, you will hear a "ping" when the lid seals. Make sure all of your jars have sealed. They are sealed if the button in the middle of the lid in depressed. If you have any jars that have not sealed, you can reprocess them or store the jar in the refrigerator for use.

Makes 9 half pints.

Please check with your local extension office for any changes due to altitude for times or temperatures.

Above instructions are for elevation 1000 feet or below.

Quick Homemade Applesauce

Nothing says fall like the smell of freshly cooked apples. This recipe is so easy that you can make it quickly to be a side with dinner tonight.

Quick Homemade Applesauce:
4 apples (used Granny Smith variety)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional
1/4 c water

Wash your apples. Peel and core apples. Cut apples into small pieces, about 8 pieces per apple. Or you can use an apple corer for quick work. We have a Norpro apple peeler / corer, that works great.

Place apples into a large microwavable bowl. Add sugar, cinnamon and water. Stir apple mixture.
Microwave covered for 5 minutes on high. Stir and microwave covered another 5 minutes.
Stir applesauce one more time. No need to mash as the apples should not be chunky.

Makes about 6 servings.

I think this applesauce tastes like warm apple pie filling. Who wouldn't love dessert as a side dish with dinner?

Coming up will be my recipe for canning Applesauce. Yum!

Back Yard Wildlife

One of the many reasons we purchased our house was the yard. Our yard is a great mix of mostly wooded, some sun and is positioned on a river. We have been blessed with a wide variety of Wisconsin wildlife. Here is a glimpse at what we can find in our yard.

White Tailed Deer Fawn

Great Horned Owl

Cardinal

Broad-Billed Hummingbird - Female

Monarch Butterfly

Cottontail Rabbit

The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.  - Isaiah 43:20-21

Mulberry Syrup

After discovering a mulberry tree in our yard, I have pounds of mulberries that need a use. There is only so much jam you can make and eat. One alternative to using up these berries is homemade berry syrup.

 

Mulberry Syrup:

6 cups mulberry juice, or any berry juice of your choice
9 cups sugar

Hot water canner

Large sauce pan or soup pot

Ladle

Funnel
Jar Lifter

Jars, lids, rims

Send berries through a food mill to remove seeds and excess pulp. The type of berry you choose will depend on the amount of juice you get. For example the mulberry has a lot of pulp and seed versus the strawberry that does not.

Combine mulberry juice and sugar in large sauce pot. Bring to a full rolling boil. Boil for 1 minute. Skim foam off the syrup and discard.

If you are new to Boiling-Water Bath Canning, I recommend reading my tutorial on this type of canning.

Remove from heat and fill jars leaving 1/2 inch head space.

Wipe rims of jars clean with warm wash cloth. Place lids on jars and tighten with rims.

Process in a boiling-water canner for 10 minutes. Remove jars with jar remover carefully. Place hot jars on level surface. I cover my counter top with a double layered kitchen towel and place jars on top. Using a hot pad or glove, check that the rims are tightened.

As the jars cool, you will hear a "ping" when the lid seals. Make sure all of your jars have sealed. They are sealed if the button in the middle of the lid in depressed. If you have any jars that have not sealed, you can reprocess them or store the jar in the refrigerator for use.

Makes about 6-7 pints.

Please check with your local extension office for any changes due to altitude for times or temperatures. Above instructions are for elevation 1000 feet or below.

Looking for a great sturdy food mill? I love my Squeezo Strainer / Food Mill.

Deadheading in the Garden

As summer winds down, the yard clean up begins. After your beautiful blooms are done your garden is left with spent flowers. Here is a how-to for rejuvenating your plants.

Deadheading... is not what you think it is in the gardening world. But you can rock out to the Grateful Dead and wear tie dye in the garden if you want to. Deadheading in the garden and yard is removing those unattractive spent flowers. Not only will this make your garden appear neater but it helps to strengthen the plant also.

Almost all annuals and some perennials will continue to bloom if the plant is deadheaded.

Daylilly, Columbine and Echinacea.

 

Deadheading can be done by pruning the ended flowers or even by pinching them off with your fingers. Or my favorite method is to let the stem dry out and just snap or pull the stem out of the plant. For plants with a lot of tiny flowers it is easier to deadhead by cutting back the whole plant. If the stem of the flower has leaves on it, try to prune it back so the cut stem is hidden by the rest of the plant. If the stem has no leaves on it like a Daylily, then trim the whole stem to the ground.

You definitely do not have to deadhead your plants. Your garden should be unique just like you are. Columbine is a great plant that if you let go to seed, there will be more plants next year to love. Then you can just move the new baby plant to another area or let the plant fill the planting bed more. I love leaving the Echinacea for the birds to snack on in the winter and the seeds that drop to the ground just make new plants in the spring. Whatever you preference your garden is a labor of love, so just make it your own.