Harvest Savers - Apricots

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned getting 9 lbs of apricots from a "good neighbors" yard that I had met just before she moved. Last weekend past we put up most of those for use later on through the year and processed some for our use now. It's something that we're trying to do more of, canning and preserving that is. Last year we did can some pickles and a little of this and that but this year we are making a concerted effort to do all that we can to eat what we can and can what we can't. This applies not only to food that we grow on our own, but as well to foods that we get at good prices from local farmers and you-pick-it farms and even to foods that are basically foraged such as the apricots we had this weekend. Foraging is not something that I'm too proud to do. In years past it was often looked at disdainfully to waste food. That includes food that grew wild, or was left unattended. I see it as a waste of Gods bounty and when I am able to take advantage of it (within the law and the bounds of good ethics of course) I will.

The apricots that we were able to get were very near there peak of ripeness and only a few of them were of sufficient firmness to be able to handle traditional canning without turning to mush. Because of this A~ decided to process nearly half of them into Apricot syrup to enjoy with our Saturday sourdough-pancake feasts. It came out incredible!

That's them in front, we got two pints and one half pint. In back you can see the three quarts and one pint of canned apricots. Of course we ate quite a few of them fresh as well. When we were processing for the canned apricots, we ended up with a few pieces of softer sections that wouldn't have canned well, but the rest of the fruit was firm. We cut those pieces off and A~ found a recipe for an apricot basil dressing that sounded tasty so we made up a big batch.

We've used it so far as a marinade for some chicken and it gave it a great flavor (although in the future we would salt the chicken before grilling it.) Have some extra apricots or find a great deal on some at the farmers market? Here's the recipe.

Apricot Basil Dressing
2 apricots
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. sugar
1tbsp fresh basil (or 1 tsp. dry basil)
1 /4 cup vegetable oil

Combine 2 fresh ripe apricots (pitted), 2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar and 1 Tbsp. sugar in blender, whirl until blended. With blender running, slowly add 1/4 cup vegetable oil until thick and smooth. Stir in 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried basil. Makes 1 cup.

More canned stuff to come later. How're things canning up around your 'stead? Any great success? Failures? (They happen to us all... we lost a couple of cans of carrots earlier in the season, but I'll cover those to come.)

Have a great weekend all.

P~

The logo used at the top of this post is for the Harvest Keepers challenge sponsored by Path to Freedom.

Back in town and "good neighbor" apricots

Hi again, I'm back!! Actually in the interest of full disclosure I've been back since Thursday but have been trying to get caught up with things and honestly just taking a little bit of "me time". I was getting a bit burned out toward the beginning of last week and just needed to catch up and relax a bit. A~ and I had an opportunity for a free trip out to our favorite local vacation area on Wednesday so we took advantage of it and spent some quality time together. I wanted to let everyone that took the time to comment on my last post. I had noticed a marked increase in people stopping by, and I guess I was just curious about what's bringing folks over here. I appreciate you humoring me.

Now, what's this about "good neighbor" apricots? It's a long story...here goes.
A while back I posted about a missed opportunity to meet a new neighbor. I ignored the chances that I may have had to meet her, but lucky for me I'm able to learn from my mistakes.
This Friday A~ and I were walking around the block again and as we came around the corner to where our neighbor had lived, she's moved now, and found a couple of her next door neighbors out enjoying the "fruits of her labors". The raspberries on the side of the house were ripening and they were gathering them up so I decided to not miss another opportunity and stopped by. We met a woman from next door and another from across the street. I don't know that I would have met either of them if I hadn't stopped by. We talked gardens for a while; one of the ladies desperately wants to claim a few of the raspberry canes for starts for her house but says that her husband has "issues with growing food in their back yard" and that it's "white trash". Too bad for her, hopefully she can pirate some of the canes and maybe claim they threw long shoots over there.
The other neighbor was really nice too. She grew up in farming country north of here and wishes she had a garden in her yard now. Sounds to me like I have my work cut out for me...*smile*.
After the pleasantries were passed, we noticed that the "good neighbor" (yeah Phelan I stole your term. It just seemed too good not too.) had some neglected apricots in her backyard and well, now that she had moved on, I felt duty bound to take care of them for her. So this weekend we harvested 9 lbs of apricots from her back yard. It's not the first time we've taken advantage of free fruit but that's another whole post in and of itself. You should have seen the boys though, they've really been trained well. One word about free fruit and they were into action; one ran home to grab a couple of old plastic bags and the other two just started picking. I think I only had to pick f or ten myself.
So what to do with all of those free apricots? More to come on that soon so stay tuned.

Oh yeah, and I have a really really special announcement for you all around the end of next week. This is just a teaser though, you'll have to wait a little while for more.

P~

Weed 'n' Feed

Last year I found a new plant in the garden late in the year. It's one that I really enjoyed in the small amounts that were available in the fall, but this year I'm really looking forward to taking more advantage of it's plentiful nature. Can you see it?

It's so plentiful in fact that regardless of it's popularity in many other parts of the world, here in the US it's generally considered a weed. Here's a little closer look. Do you know it now?
OK, let's really get a good look at this versatile little plant. Purslane. I regularly pulled this plant out last year before I learned about it. As it turns out, purslane is one of the healthiest plants that we could ever eat. It contains more of the heart healthy omega 3's that we're always hearing about than any other terrestrial plant on earth and there is it, FREE in most of our gardens and we pull it out as a weed. Go figure?
Well not this year. I let mine come up where it would, and kept an eye on it. Unless you want this plant to be HIGHLY prolific you need to either pull or cut it back before the seed pods form. I went through the garden this afternoon sowing some bone/blood meal into the ground, and took the opportunity to pull all the purslane that I came across.
The plant itself is actually a succulent. The stems are firm and hardy, while the leafs are slightly fleshy and crisp. They are a great addition to any salad raw, or you can stir fry them, add them to soups or any other recipe where you might add greens. I look forward to adding these to a fresh veggie stir fry for tomorrow.

Take a look in the yard next time your out there and I'd be surprised if you don't find some of this somewhere. If you don't, you can find seeds for this great "weed" at many of the finer seed catalogues online. This year I am going to let some of mine that is in a separate container go to seed so that next year I can have a dedicated pot for them. Maybe I'll share some with some of you.

hope you all had a great weekend.
P~

Weed and Feed

Yes my garden is still organic; I didn't cave and break out with the ORTHO. I did do a little weeding tonight with my 10 and 12 yr old sons however, after learning a little about what I had growing wild in the garden.
I have to preface this by explaining that I was checking out a new blog yesterday, Red State Green where the author was talking about making soup for the local food challenge with chicken and purslane. I wasn't familiar with this ingredient so of course I googled it. Turns out that purslane is a very common vegetable plant that I just came in contact the other night while out in the garden, pulling it as a weed from my mulch path.
I'm a firm believer that we live in a wonderful world that is filled with opportunities to explore even in our own backyards, so of course I had to take this opportunity to try something new. (This isn't something new to our house as I have brought home wild asparagus and dandelion greens in the past. )My sons and I went out to the pumpkin patch, Which I may add has only one pumpkin in it, and weeded out a good bit of wild purslane. It's an odd plant, low growing and of very similar texture to a succulent. I washed it and tried a taste of the raw plant. It was very mild, slightly sweet and not bitter at all.
I decided to try the bulk of it as I might tend to have it with a meal in order to really get a feeling of how it might fit into a diet. I sauted it for a few minutes, maybe 5, with some butter and garlic and gave it a try. Very tasty. My 12 yr old C~ loved it. It was more substantial than a traditional greens dish like chard or spinich, but somewhat similar in taste.

I encourage you to take a second look at what's in your yard that maybe you didn't put there. It's been said that there are in the neighborhood of 50,000 edible plants known to man, but that the average person only eats around 30. As always, be safe and research anything that you're going to try to consume. I have found Wildman Steve Brills web site to be one of the best that I have seen with very good pictures and information.
Bon Appetit!