Jalapeños grow slowly along all summer, but really shine in the later summer into fall. You may end up with a windfall of fresh jalapeño peppers right as your garden gets its first freeze. Here’s a bunch of my favorite ways of preserving jalapeños.
Canning Jalapeños
There are a few ways of safely canning Jalapeños. Basically you can water bath process jalapeños in an acidified form.
Classic Pickled Jalapeño Slices:
These are the classic pickled pepper slices you may enjoy on nachos or many other ways. (Recipe at the end of post.)
Candied Jalapeños:
Candied jalapeños are a type of sweet and spicy jalapeño relish. You can find the printable recipe here:
Jalapeño Salsa
Homemade salsa is another way to continue enjoying your jalapeño harvest all through the year.
Smoking and Freezing Jalapeños
Smoked Chipotle Peppers:
Chipotle peppers are smoked fully-ripe (red) jalapeño peppers. You can make homemade chipotles by smoking them 3 hours, then dehydrating them until leathery. They will store best long-term in a bag in the freezer.
Jalapeño Poppers
You can make-ahead Jalapeño poppers by coring them and stuffing them with cream cheese. Dunk in milk and dredge with flour. Dunk in milk and dredge with Panko breadcrumbs. Flash freeze on a sheet pan and store in layers with paper towel in between in an air-tight container or freezer bag. Fry at 365* for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.
These are the classic pickled pepper slices you may enjoy on nachos or many other ways.
Ingredients
Fresh jalapeños
mustard seeds
celery seeds
Brine
1/2 C water
1 1/2 C vinegar
1 Tbls canning salt
1 Tbl sugar
Instructions
1
Slice Jalapeños into 1/4 inch rounds.
2
Place brine ingredients in a small pot and bring to a boil.
3
Pack jalapeño slices into pint jars. Each pint of slices can be seasoned with 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, and 1/8th tsp celery seed. Cover slices with the hot brine. Leave 1/2 inch headspace
4
Store in refrigerator or process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes.
If you’ve had a great year growing peppers in the garden, or just found a great deal on jalapeños at the farmers’ market or supermarket you need a surefire recipe for preserving jalapeños for the long term so they don’t go bad sitting in your fridge. If you’ve eaten enough fresh in recipes like our jalapeño chicken with plum chutney recipe you may want to try canning jalapeños.
Canning Jalapeño Recipe
There are a few different ways you can preserve jalapeños by canning. Frequently people use their homegrown jalapeños in a batch of salsa to can. You can also can up the classic pickled jalapeños, or a batch of sweet and spicy hot pepper jelly. This candied jalapeño recipe is another great recipe for canning jalapeños.
Candied Jalapeño Recipe
Candied jalapeños are a sweet-savory jalapeño relish to use as a topping or ingredient for festive party foods, or just use to dress up a burger or dog.
If you want to use this recipe as a homemade Christmas food gift, use a combination of red and green jalapeños for the festive Christmas colors. Most supermarket jalapeños will just bee green. If you are growing them at home, just leave them on the vine a little longer and they will begin to turn red. You may be able to find a mix of green and red jalapeños at a farmers’ market as well.
Slice Jalapeños in 1/4inch rounds, set aside.
Slice garlic in thin slices.
Combine vinegar with salt, sugar and garlic, mustard seed, and ground ginger in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar.
Add jalapeño slices and lower heat to simmer for 15 minutes, until jalapeños are dark green and have begun to absorb some of the brine.
Spoon jalapeños into jars cover with syrup leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
Wipe rims and add lids and bands. Can be stored in refrigerator up to 3 months.
For long-term storage process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes.
I harvested a bumper crop of jalapeños and I have a lot of things I want to make with jalapeños, but the first thing on my list is always this jalapeño chicken recipe with plum chutney.
Jalapeños and plums are both delicious late-summer seasonal produce and I love that this recipe combines them both. These plums are store-bought, but one of these years my plum trees will produce some plums and I can make this more homemade.
Begin by preparing the fruit and vegetables for the Jalapeño Plum chutney. Chutney is the Indian culinary term for a sweet and spicy condiment made of fruits and vegetables, vinegar, spices and sugar. Dice the onion. Remove the seeds and ribs from the Jalapeño to lower the heat (or leave them in if you prefer) and dice finely. (I always use gloves to work with jalapeños, I have sensitive skin.)
Grate fresh ginger. You can also substitute fresh ginger with 1/2 the amount of dried, ground ginger. Dice the plums in 1/4 inch dice.
Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a preheated saucepan on medium-highalong with the onion and jalapeño. Allow that to cook for about 3 minutes, or until softened.
Add the plums, ginger, sugar, vinegar, and curry powder. Bring the chutney ingredients to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until the plums are softened and the liquid is slightly thickened.
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the chicken is opaque throughout and nicely browned, about 5 minutes per side.
Transfer the cooked chicken to a plate. Add any chicken juices to the chutney and serve chicken with a spoonful of chutney on top.
Enjoy this spicy/sweet chicken perfect for late summer or early fall.
Jalapeños and plums are both delicious late-summer seasonal produce and this recipe combines them beautifully.
Ingredients
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
Salt and ground pepper
3 Tbl olive oil
1/2 medium onion
1/2 jalapeno
3-4 red plums
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbl apple cider vinegar
3/4 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp fresh ginger
Instructions
1
Begin by preparing the fruit and vegetables for the Jalapeño Plum chutney. Chutney is the Indian culinary term for a sweet and spicy condiment made of fruits and vegetables, vinegar, spices and sugar. Dice the onion. Remove the seeds and ribs from the Jalapeño to lower the heat (or leave them in if you prefer) and dice finely. (I always use gloves to work with jalapeños, I have sensitive skin.)
2
Grate fresh ginger. You can also substitute fresh ginger with 1/2 the amount of dried, ground ginger. Dice the plums in 1/4 inch dice.
3
Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a preheated saucepan on medium-high along with the onion and jalapeño. Allow that to cook for about 3 minutes, or until softened.
4
Add the plums, ginger, sugar, vinegar, and curry powder. Bring the chutney ingredients to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until the plums are softened and the liquid is slightly syrupy.
5
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the chicken is opaque throughout and nicely browned, about 5 minutes per side.
6
Transfer the cooked chicken to a plate. Add any chicken juices to the chutney and serve chicken with a spoonful of chutney on top.
Notes
To save on dishes you could cook the chicken first and set aside to rest. Then cook the chutney right in the same pan with the chicken juices.
Our friend had an abundance of apples to share from her trees, and she invited us over to pick our fill. We still have quite a bit of apple sauce canned from last fall so I wanted to do something different. I remembered that we hardly made any apple butter last fall (We skipped our annual apple butter festival) so that is the inspiration we needed to make this simple apple recipe.
Apple butter is a great fun fall treat. It’s almost like a spreadable apple pie filling. We love it just on toast, but we have made it into apple butter cinnamon rolls before as well. Serve it on a cheese board or smothering the top of a baked brie cheese!
Making apple butter is very straightforward. You can make it completely to taste and you can can up any extras for your long term storage.
Core and chop apples. Peel them as well, if you do not have a strainer.
Use a mix of sweet ant tart apples for the best flavor.
Add a 1/2 inch of water to the bottom of the pan. Cook apples on low with the lid on for a few hours until soft. You can do this in a roaster pan, crock pot or on the stovetop.
You should be able to easily mash an apple chunk with the back of a spoon.
Put apples through a saucer, strainer or food mill, puree with an immersion blender, or mash with a potato masher.
The product you are left with should be plain apple sauce.
Return apple sauce to a slow cooker or a pot over low heat. Add sugar and spices, vinegar and lemon juice.
Cook for 4-6 hours until spreadable consistency (without excess liquid) is reached–stirring occasionally to keep from scorching.
You may check to see if a mounded spoonful stays mounded when cool. Or see if a spoonful on a plate stays in a mound or if liquid seeps out around the edges. If it does– continue cooking down longer.
Apple butter can be canned for long storage. Pour hot butter into sterile half-pint or pint jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Process 5 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Quart jars are processed for 10 minutes and need not be presterilized.
Apple butter is a great fun fall treat. It's almost like a spreadable apple pie filling. Delicious just on toast. Or serve it on a cheese board or smothering the top of a baked brie cheese!
Ingredients
Mix of apples to make puree -around 5lbs
for each 3 quarts of apple puree***
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
2 dashes ground cloves
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T lemon juice
Instructions
1
Core and chop apples. Peel as well, if you do not have a strainer.
2
Add a 1/2 inch of water to the bottom of the pan. Cook apples on low with the lid on for a few hours until soft. You can do this in a roaster pan, crock pot or on the stovetop.
3
Put apples through a saucer, puree with an immersion blender, or mash with a potato masher.
4
Return apple sauce to a slow cooker or a pot on low heat. Add sugar and spices, and vinegar and lemon juice.
5
Cook for 4-6 hours until spreadable consistency (without excess liquid) is reached--stirring occasionally to keep from scorching.
Notes
Makes 5-6 pints.
Apple butter can be canned for long storage. Pour hot butter into sterile half-pint or pint jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Process 5 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Quart jars are processed for 10 minutes and need not be presterilized.
I was looking for a main dish green bean recipe to use a lot of home grown green beans. We wanted to do more than have a side serving of buttered green beans with the rest of our meal.
The green beans are doing amazingly this year and we’ve been picking basketful after basketful.
Dice half a medium onion. Heat fat or oil in the bottom of a medium-sized pan (that has a lid) over medium heat. Sauté onions in fat until they begin to soften, about 4 minutes.
Add 2 cloves minced Garlic and 1 smoked sausage cut into 1/2 inch rounds. Cook until sausage rounds begin to get some brown color.
Add 2 cups green beans cut in 2 inch pieces and cook 2 minutes to blister skin.
Add chicken broth and potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with lid and cook until green beans and potatoes are soft–about 20 minutes.
Smoked sausage can be replaced with bacon. If doing so, you can cook bacon and onions together with no additional oil. Any variety of potatoes may be used, even russet, but small waxy potatoes will hold their shape better.
A classic southern side dish hearty enough for the main course
Ingredients
Fat/Oil
1/2 medium Onion, diced
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 Smoked Sausage, cut into 1/2 inch rounds
2 cups green beans, cut in 2 inch pieces
3 cups gold potatoes, washed, cut into 1 inch pieces
Instructions
1
Heat fat in the bottom of a medium-sized pan (that has a lid) over medium heat.
2
Sauté onions in fat until they begin to soften, about 4 minutes.
3
Add Garlic and smoked sausage. Cook until sausage rounds begin to get some brown color.
4
Add green beans and cook 2 minutes to blister skin.
5
Add chicken broth and potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with lid and cook until green beans and potatoes are soft--about 20 minutes.
Notes
Smoked sausage can be substituted with bacon. If doing so, cook bacon and onions together with no additional oil.
Any variety of potatoes may be used, but small waxy potatoes will hold their shape better.
Mulberries are a surprise luxury that many people overlook.
Don’t be too distracted with the birds making a mess of the mulberries in your yard to realize that they are a wonderful resource for jams and delicious baked goods like these mulberry crumble bars.
When mulberries are ripe they will fall easily into your hand as you grab them. Many people harvest mulberries by laying a sheet out on the ground and shaking the branches of the tree to let the ripe berries fall.
Unlike thimble-shaped raspberries, mulberries retain their small stem. You do not need to worry about removing the stem, you can eat it just like you can eat the seeds of mulberries and raspberries.
If you prefer, you can use a food mill to remove the seeds and stems, but you will need significantly more berries.
Crumble bars are a favorite treat we like to make with raspberries, but mulberries are a great berry to use in crumb bars instead when they are in abundance.
Begin by macerating the mulberries. This means mixing them with sugar to bring out some of the juices. We will also add corn starch and flour to thicken the juices as they cook.
If you have previously made some, you can substitute this set of ingredients with mulberry jam.
Next, make the crumble base by cutting the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter.
Press two-thirds of the crumble mixture into the base of a 9×13 pan. set the remaining one-third aside.
Spread out the berry mixture over the bottom crust. Crumble the remaining dry mixture over the top. Bake, cool, and enjoy!
I grew up in the southwest and was not familiar with mulberry trees, but my husband knew them and we would forage for them.
Our new farm has a number of large mulberry trees, but there are also small sprouted trees all over our property. we have moved a bunch to make a windbreak. So we will be in the mulberries for a long time into our farm’s future!
Place mulberries in a medium bowl, mix berries with sugar, flour, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Set aside.
3
Mix the flour, butter, oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt together into a crumbly mixture. Press two thirds of the crumble into the bottom of a 9×13 pan lined with parchment paper.
4
Pour the mulberries and accumulated juices over the bottom crust. Spread into a single layer. Sprinkle the top with remaining crumble mixture. Bake for 40 minutes.
5
Cool before slicing into bars.
Notes
Store up to one week in airtight container.
Mulberries may be replaced with raspberries or any berry combination.
I love fun drinks. When I heard of bubble tea, or boba tea I was definitely intrigued. But I don’t drink tea made from tea leaves, so I knew I would have to make a homemade version if I wanted to try it.
I’m using chai spiced milk in place of the milk tea. Essentially I use all the spices in chai infused in milk, but I don’t add any tea leaves or tea powder. This chai spiced milk is also awesome for making hot cocoa as well, by the way.
The “bubbles” or boba are actually made from large pearl tapioca (amazon affiliate link-I may earn a small commission). Mine are large pearl, with the only ingredient being tapioca. If you find something different use the instructions for cooking on your particular package.
If you can only find small pearl tapioca you can still use it. You just don’t need the extra large milkshake or smoothie straws (amazon affiliate link–I may earn a small commission). You will be able to drink it with normal sized straws.
Start by getting your tapioca cooking. Cook for 30 minutes, then remove from the heat and let sit 30 minutes . Then rinse. Test the boba to see if they are done. If you have extra-large tapioca you may need to repeat this boiling a second time. The boba should be chewy, not mushy and they do not have to be clear all the way through to be “done.”
Make brown sugar syrup and stir the boba into it to sit an absorbent flavor and dark color.
Crush chai spices to infuse better. Or you can use powdered spices if you want. Split vanilla bean. Add to 2 cups water and simmer 15 minutes. Add 2 C milk and cook 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and strain. Allow to cool.
Split boba between cups. Swirl boba syrup around in the cups up the sides. This will create a swirly design on the sides of the cup when you add the milk. It’s what they do at bubble milk tea shops!
Add a scoop of ice. Pour in milk.
Serve immediately with a milkshake straw. You can cut the tip of the straw at an angle to allow the boba to slide into the straw easier. Enjoy!
The tapioca, once-cooked, is best used the same day for the best texture.
Make the chai-spiced milk early enough in advance to cool it down before layering your drink.
Bubble tea is a fun drink from Taiwan that gives you the experience of chewy bubbles in your drink.
Ingredients
Brown Sugar Bobas
1 C white pearl tapioca
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons molasses
Chai-Spiced Milk
6 cardamom pods
4 whole black peppercorns
4 whole cloves
2-inch piece of crystallized ginger
2 cinnamon sticks
1 whole allspice
1 star anise
½ vanilla bean, sliced down the middle
dash nutmeg
½ pinch of fennel seeds
2 C milk
1/2 C sugar
Instructions
1
Cook tapioca in 16 Cups water for 30 minutes, then remove from the heat and let sit 30 minutes. Rinse. Test the "boba" to see if they are done. If you have extra-large tapioca you may need to repeat this boiling a second time. The boba should be chewy, not mushy and they do not have to be clear all the way through to be "done."
2
Make brown sugar syrup by mixing 2 tablespoons water with the brown sugar and molasses and stir the boba into it. Set aside to absorb flavor and dark color.
3
Crush chai spices to infuse better. Split vanilla bean. Add to 2 cups water and simmer 15 minutes. Add milk and sugar and cook 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and strain. Allow to cool.
4
Split boba between 8 8-oz cups. Swirl boba syrup around in the cups up the sides. This will create a swirly design on the sides of the cup when you add the milk.
5
Add a scoop of ice. Pour in milk--divide between the 8 cups.
6
Serve immediately with a milkshake straw. Enjoy!
Notes
You can cut the tip of the straw at an angle to allow the boba to slide into the straw easier.
You can use powdered spices if you want.
Fall has arrived in our neck of the woods. So we love to make our favorite fall cookies.
I love pumpkin spice as much as the next girl. But molasses is another fall flavor that is great to really lean into this time of year.
These molasses cookies have crisp edges, but are nice and chewy on the inside. The creamy molasses buttercream frosting is a great addition to take these cookies to the next level, but is not strictly necessary.
Enjoy these cookies with a steaming mug of spiced cider and enjoy the best of what the fall season has to offer.
Chewy molasses cookies with crispy edges, chewy middle and creamy molasses buttercream frosting on top.
Ingredients
COOKIE
1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
½ cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 large egg
¼ cup light unsulfured molasses
FROSTING
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
2 Tablespoons light unsulfured molasses
1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2
In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter together. Beat in egg, then molasses, until smooth.
3
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
4
Gradually add flour mixture until a nice dough forms.
5
Drop by tablespoonful onto baking sheets covered in parchment. Leave plenty of space between as cookies will spread in the oven.
6
Bake until edges start to darken, 11 to 13 minutes
7
Make molasses buttercream by beating butter with molasses until they are combined. Gradually add in powdered sugar, and mix until smooth and spreadable.
Notes
If you don't have any brown sugar, just substitute with white sugar and add one more tablespoon molasses to the dough.
The cookies are delicious on their own without the buttercream as well.
You may have never heard of perennial garlic before. Perennial garlic is actually just hard neck garlic treated differently and harvested more minimally over the course of a year than traditionally planted garlic.
Before I really started growing it I start I always assumed that hard neck garlic would be best for storing because I figured it would be sturdy to hold up to storage. But in reality is not as good for storing. I like to remember “s” for soft neck, and “s” for storage. This is the kind that you’ll braid and keep in your pantry until next year.
I have been growing hard neck garlic perennially in my orchard. Garlic provides some excellent permaculture benefits to the orchard. Garlic has a pungent smell that deters some of the bad pests. Also, it grows as a bulb. Bulbs help in preventing the encroachment of grass around your trees. You really want to avoid the grass around your fruit trees as it will take nutrients and water away from your trees.
Garlic Reproduction
There’s two different ways that perennial garlic reproduces. In the spring the garlic will send up a flower spike. People know this as a “garlic scape” –they’re edible and delicious. Many people harvest these garlic scapes at the stage when they are curled around themselves in order to enjoy eating them, or to encourage larger growth of the garlic bulb . (Read my seven steps for growing large garlic heads here.)
When you cut off the garlic scapes you send more of the energy of the plant towards producing large heads of garlic because if you don’t the flower will put energy into the fruit, which for garlic is these small garlic bulbels.
These bulbels can be eaten, they have a garlic flavor and you can use them as little cloves of garlic.
Self-Perpetuating Garlic
If you leave the bulbels in place the stem will eventually weaken as they grow bigger and the stem will topple over. Then the bulbels will root into the ground to grow more heads of garlic. You can aid in this process, if you desire, by separating the individual bulbels and spreading them out evenly to plant.
The main head of Garlic can also be harvested like traditional garlic or left in the ground.
If whole bulbels are allowed to fall on the ground and grow, or if whole heads of garlic are left in the soil, they will go dormant in freezing weather. Then the following spring, rather than just a single head of garlic growing there, each one of the bulbels or the cloves from inside the head of garlic will sprout and grow into a new head of garlic.
It is very interesting the way that these heads of garlic grow because all the garlic cloves are in this floret shape around the center stem. So the new heads grow out from each other in this floret shape.
When they grow together from the head like this that they end up a little misshapen because of their being crowded. So these heads of garlic are not perfectly round they’re a little bit lumpy and flat on some sides because of how they pushed up to the other garlic.
Maintaining a Perennial Garlic Patch
Like many other perennial plants you need to thin out and divide your perennial garlic every few years at least or else they will start to outcrowd themselves. You can spread this garlic out throughout your garden. You can also just harvest portions to eat every year while leaving some behind.
Hardneck perennial garlic can be clipped a half inch above the head to remove the stock. Also you can cut of the roots. Store these heads in a basket or another breathable container in a cool dry place, to use as you need it.
I definitely had some heads that ended up bigger than others, but my biggest heads of garlic were the ones that I had left in the ground a whole year in this perennial fashion.
Don’t get worried in the fall if the foliage is turning brown and dying back. It will put on some new green growth in the fall or it’ll start first thing in the spring next year. Let me know in the comments if I left anything out, or if you have any more questions about growing garlic perennially as a part of a fruit tree guild or even just a part of a permaculture garden.
My garden grows wonderful, delicious, life-sustaining food for 165 days out of the year. But what do I do about those other 200 days of the year? How do I provide food for my family during that time?
This year we set out to grow some easy to store survival crops that will feed our family through the winter– even without needing canning or refrigeration.
A lot of easy to store survival crops fall into the category of “starchy vegetables”. They contain more starch so they typically contain more calories or energy and less fiber than some of the other vegetables you might be thinking of that grow in the middle of our summer garden like lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and okra.
Starch is a carbohydrate. Our body breaks it down into glucose that we use as energy so this is where we will get the 2000 calories the standard adult diet requires. We need to get 2,000 calories from somewhere so these starchy vegetables will provide a lot of those calories that we need to have energy for the day.
Potatoes
Potatoes have been the entire mainstay of certain populations over time, so they are a life-sustaining food. Their vitamin C content prevents scurvy which is a disease that comes from malnutrition. But potatoes also provide a lot of potassium which is an electrolyte aiding in the workings of our heart and nervous system.
Don’t forget to eat your potato skin though, because the skins provide fiber which is important for your digestive health.
Potatoes are planted from “seed potatoes” that are saved from the previous year’s harvest. They have “eyes” on them that will start to send out roots and grow the plant. If you want to get the largest potatoes possible you cut the potatoes so that there’s only two to three eyes per chunk of potato.
Typically they start to develop underground for a long time before the plant breaks the surface. They may eventually produce flowers before ultimately dying back. It is when the above ground plant dies back that you know that the tubers underground are ready to harvest, by digging up with a shovel or garden fork.
To get potatoes ready to store for the long term you need to cure them first. This is to take them into a cooler temperature ideally below 60 degrees but with a pretty high humidity, 85 to 90% humidity for about 2 weeks. So what we did to keep the humidity high is we took ours indoors and then we covered them with a tarp while they were curing.
When they’re curing this is a time when little nicks or cuts can heal over with kind of bit of a scab that helps to keep them protected so that they don’t rot when they’re in storage. After you cure them, sort through and make sure there’s none that are kind of squishy or smell bad and take those ones out.
The rest can be stored in a dry container like a cardboard box or a basket. They need to have some ventilation but you want to keep them in the dark. The light will cause them to turn green and produce toxins that you’d rather avoid. Potatoes can be stored all winter in a cool dark place 45 to 50 degrees.
Potatoes are great baked and eaten as a main dish, fried up for a side dish, or added to things like stews. I’ve never tried it, but Jeremy swears he had a delicious potato pizza one time.
Corn
Corn is one of the most widely consumed cereal grains. Just like potatoes it’s very high in carbohydrates. This is this is the energy that we need, but its also high in several vitamins and minerals including manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, copper.
What we’re talking about growing for storage is “field corn” also you can also grow popcorn for storage.
Field corn and popcorn are both allowed to dry before picking. As long as you’re not having excessively rainy weather it’s fine to just let the corn completely dry on the stocks. You can take them insideand place the ears on a slatted table or some other place with good air flow to make sure that the ears get evenly dried out. You know the corn kernels are fully dry when they are brittle and shatter if you try and hammer it as opposed to denting or bending if you try and hammer it.
Then you can remove them from the cob. They sell a cylindrical tool that you slide the cob through to remove kernels if you don’t want to pry the kernels out by hand. If you’re going to store the corn on the cob you should at least remove the husk, because that can store moisture and lead to molding.
Corn is easy to grow from seed. You just plant it right into the ground about an inch deep, six inches apart. And I’m always amazed when I see the corn start popping up. It doesn’t need a ton of watering to germinate, after a good watering in when I plant it.
Field corn is the type of corn that you typically are going to grind up into cornmeal polenta corn flour and popcorn obviously is used to pop and make popcorn but popcorn is also good to use for grinding into cornmeal as well
Butternut Squash
Winter Squash is good to grow for good long term storage and survivability. It is lower in Calories than potatoes, but very high in vitamins and minerals. It provides vitamins A, B, B6, C, and E and is also high in magnesium, potassium and manganese which play important roles in bone health. Orange vegetables and fruits have been shown to be particularly effective at protecting against heart disease.
We choose to grow butternut squash as they are particularly resistant to squash vine borers, and squash bugs. We have a lot of trouble with squash pests in our area of the country and the butternut squash hold up a lot better.
In order to get the squash to store the longest you’re going to need to let the vines die back. At the least the stem where the squash meets up to the plant should be dried and brown. When you’re harvesting squash for storage it’s a good idea to leave an inch or two of the stem attached. When you pull the stem entirely off the plant you often open up a place for mold or other pathogens to get into the fruit itself. You can lay out the fruit and cure it in the field for five to seven days or cure indoors at around 80 to 85 degrees in an area with good air ventilation.
Ultimately you’ll store the cured squash at about 50 degrees in the dark.
Pumpkin
Pumpkins are actually higher in calories than butternut squash and higher in fat which is a necessary macronutrient that we need to have in our survival diet. It also has a lot of the vitamin A precursors beta-carotene and alpha carotene, which is what your body turns into Vitamin A after you consume the plant.
Winter squash seeds are planted straight in the ground in the spring. They need a very long growing season–usually over 100 days to maturity. We love to keep pumpkins around for the fall holiday season as decor and then turn them into delicious food. You want to make sure and harvest after the plants kind of die back in the fall but before you get any frost. Once these go through a frost they will get soft and squishy and will spoil really easy. If you’re using them for decor on your porch, bring them in at night when it looks like it might frost, and put it back out again in the morning when it’s warmer.
Try and leave the stem on if you can to prevent breaking the protective skin and store these on cardboard or on straw in a cold area.
Squash and pumpkin are good in all the traditional baked goods. They can be used in pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread. But squash is really good also with pasta or even pureed and blended into a pasta sauce. Also don’t forget about the classic pumpkin soup.
Sweet Potato
Sweet potatoes are actually not a potato, but a different type of tuber. They are high in beta carotene, an antioxidant. They are high in fiber and very filling.
Sweet potatoes can be eaten in a lot of ways: baked steamed, and fried, so they’re very useful the growing form of sweet potatoes is very unique.
You plant sweet potatoes from “slips” which are a little plant that grows off of the tuber from the previous year. You can mail order these slips and they arrive somewhat wilty. You just rehydrate them in water for about 48 hours and then they get all perky and ready to plant. Dig a nice hole for the roots, and pack the bottom inch of the slip into the soil.
The potatoes take off and they spread all over the place and cover your whole garden. In the fall you wait for the vines to start to yellow a little bit and then you can harvest them. Alternately you can actually check on the sze and harvest them earlier if you want a more manageable size tuber. We want to get the most food possible from our plants so we let them get nice and big.
They need to be cured at a pretty high temperature and pretty high humidity. We will go ahead and put them in our greenhouse because it needs to be about 85 degrees. Cover them with a tarp just like the potatoes too keep the humidity up. Leave them about 2 weeks. After that they need to store at a cooler temperature in the 50 to 60 range but they need to continue to have that high humidity so move them with the tarp to a cooler location.
It takes about six weeks to fully finish curing, and this actually helps develop the flavor. So they will be the most flavorful after that complete curing time. After that just keep them stored away in a dark cool place. Just like the potatoes, if they start sprouting by spring you will just be ready for next year’s planting.
We love sweet potatoes in pancakes or or a sweet potato pie. Also, I have a couple great pasta recipes with sweet potato in them and I have really great recipe for sweet potato and black bean chili.
Dry Beans
Dry beans have been eaten around the world for thousands of years and are still an important food source worldwide. They are unique among the plant world in providing such a high protein content, so dry beans are really important in our survival garden. Dy beans are really high in fiber which is important–particularly when you’re eating a lot of starchy food like some of the other vegetables in our survival crop list.
Pinto beans are one of the most nutrient dense foods at 245 calories per cup of beans.
Beans grow from seed. Their growing season is short enough that you can tuck beans in bare spots throughout your garden as some of your other earlier crops come out. This can help you increase your yield of dry beans. Another benefit to dry beans in the garden is they actually improve the fertility of your soil for the rest of the crops by fixing nitrogen in the soil.
Beans can be left on the plant until the pods get dry and brittle. If you shake them you can sometimes hear the beans rattling in the pod. Crack open the pods to remove the beans. Once your beans are completely dried out you can store them in mason jar or you can reuse other food safe plastic containers like a juice jug. For best storage and quality you can throw in an oxygen absorber.
Beans can be added to all sorts of dishes they help make vegetable dishes more filling. My hambone beans recipe makes a delicious pot of beans from something many people throw away.
Loading...
