Sep 11, 2015

Homemade Sriracha Hot Sauce Recipe (sugar-free)

After a long blogging break, I'm back with an amazing hot sauce recipe for you to make and enjoy for many months. I grew a lot of hot peppers in my garden this year, in fact my garden has been extremely bountiful this year! Up until recently, I've sort of taken my garden for granted.

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Sep 07, 2012

Simple Ways to Preserve Fruit

This time of year the fruit is falling off the trees and many people wonder how they can preserve it. A lot of fresh fruit ends up rotting. Maybe this is part of nature's grand design to add compost to the soil surrounding the roots? I don't know, but this time of year is very busy for most folks who have fruit trees and berry bushes.

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HOW TO MAKE LACTO-FERMENTED VEGETABLES
Feb 13, 2012

How to Make Lacto-Fermented Vegetables

Lacto-fermented vegetables are cultured vegetables. You've probably heard of sauerkraut, kim chi, and sour dill pickles, right? These are all forms of lacto-fermentation. Many people use whey as a starter but it is not necessary as long as you use enough salt. Making your own lacto-fermented vegetables is so easy that once you start you'll be hooked! Traditionally, lacto-fermentation was used to preserve the harvest and store vegetables for the winter. If you have a garden full of cabbage, cauliflower, beets, carrots, and green beans and don't know how to store them all, consider making a few batches of lacto-fermented vegetables. These veggies can be stored in your refrigerator for months....if they last that long!

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Fresh Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce
Sep 30, 2011

Fresh Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce

This recipe in not the traditional way to make pasta sauce using fresh tomatoes. I take the easy and fast route. I just don't have time to remove the skins and seeds from 20 pounds of tomatoes each time I make sauce!

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How to Make Homemade Pumpkin Puree
Oct 13, 2010

How to Make Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Making your own pumpkin puree is really very simple. But there are a few important steps to ensure a thick puree. The water content of fresh pumpkin puree and canned puree can vary widely. Cooking pumpkin with water creates a thin puree, which will then cause your breads, muffins, cookies, and pies to be overly moist.

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Jul 15, 2010

How to Make Honey-Sweetened Jam

Homemade jam is usually so full of sugar, but it doesn't have to be! Using Pomona's Pectin, you can make low-sugar, honey-sweetened, or fruit juice-sweetened homemade jam. This particular pectin comes from citrus peel. The jelling is activated by calcium water (monocalcium phosphate), which comes with the pectin. It’s so easy to make jam from all of your freshly picked fruit of the season. Making and canning jam is one of the best ways to preserve the harvest! Last year, I experimented quite a bit with some of the hundreds of pounds of fruit we harvested.

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