Freezing Vegetables

"Freeze only prime vegetables that are garden fresh and tender-young-younger, usually, than for canning. Freeze them in small batches, refrigerating overnight if you can't freeze them promptly the day they are picked. Any vegetable that cans well freezes equally well at home, with only several exceptions. These, in their raw state, are whole tomatoes, greens for salads, white ("Irish") potatoes, and cabbage. Because they have a high water content, home-freezing allows large ice crystals to form and rupture their flesh; the result, defrosted, is flabby or shapeless.
Certain vegetable varieties are better for freezing than others, so read your seed catalogs to see which ones you'll have the most luck with. Or ask your County Agent for good performers in your area."
Quoted from the book " Putting Food By".

The Ant and the Grasshopper by Aesop

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest. "Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling in that way?" "I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and recommend you to do the same." "Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; "We have got plenty of food at present." But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger - while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew: It is best to prepare for days of need.

You don't have to grow it!

I just realized something. I am not thinking far enough outside the box. Up until now I had always though about canning and freezing in terms of saving the things that I grew in the garden. Today It occurred to me that I can also preserve a lot of things that I don't grow. In our small town we have a small but growing farmers market and they sell all sorts of things. It also occurred to me that people who don't have the room or the inclination to grow a garden can also freeze or can food that they buy at the farmers market. Something to think about.

Poppy Seed Dressing

This recipe, is actually a variation of the mayonnaise recipe I posted previously. Like the Basic Mayonnaise recipe, it comes the book, The Art of Salad Making by Carol Truax, published in 1968.

1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vinegar
2 teaspoons onion juice (optional)
1 cup salad oil
2-3 tablespoons poppy seeds

Combine sugar, mustard, salt, vinegar, and onion juice. Put in blender or mixer at low speed and add oil in a very slow stream.
You may make this with a rotary hand mixer beating steadily.
Add poppy seeds. A sweet dressing for dessert.

Basic Mayonaise

One of the lost household arts, is the making of the simplest ingredients. We take for granted that stocks and staples that we use for cooking, come in jars, pre-prepared, dependable and consistent.

It wasn't always this way. Many of these canned pre-cursors were whipped up in the kitchen. But now we buy them in cans and jars. But there is a price paid. The very consistency, can make them a bit boring, and the long shelf life of these products is often due to added chemicals, to stabilize these products.

Everything you can find in a can or jar, can be made from scratch. After all, what you buy in a store was cooked up in an industrial kitchen. The only difference between making it yourself or buying the product in a jar, may likely be freshness and preservatives.

The following simple recipe comes from The Art of Salad Making by Carol Truax, published in 1968.

BASIC MAYONNAISE

1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4-1/2 teaspoon dry mustard (optional)
1 cup oil
1-2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice

Mix the egg yolk, salt and mustard if you wish, together in the bottom of a bowl. Add the oil, drop by drop while stirring. You may stir with a fork or rotary beater. when the mayonnaise begins to thicken, you may add the oil in a thin stream, stirring constantly. If the mayonnaise gets too thick, add a little of the vinegar or lemon juice, and then continue the slow addition of oil.

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Now for oil, I use extra virgin olive oil. Give this recipe a try. I think you'll like it. I certainly do.

Hamburger Sauce Mix

(from The Farm Journal)

Good between toasted buns--or use in many substantial, tasty dishes

2 lbs. lean ground beef
2 large onions, chopped (3 c.)
2 (6 oz) cans tomato paste
1 1/2 c. water
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

- Cook beef and onions in large container until meat browns. Pour off fat.
- Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes.
- Pack at once into hot pint jars. Adjust lids. Process in pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure (240f).
Pint jars 75 minutes
Remove jars from canner and complete seals unless closures are self sealing type. Makes about 3 pints.

Note: If you have large enough kettles, double the recipe and precook mix in two of them. Process quarts 90 minutes.

Pickles And Onions

(from The Farm Journal)

Old-fashioned, country fresh flavor

8 (4") cucumbers, cut in 1" chunks
3/4 lb. small white onions
Vinegar
Water
5 tsp. salt
2 c. sugar
1 pt. vinegar

- Cover cucumbers and onions (2 1/2 c. large onion slices may be used) with equal parts of vinegar and water; bring to boil. Remove immediately from vinegar and water; discard liquid.
- Fill hot jars with pickles and onions. Add 1 tsp. salt to each half-pint jar. Combine sugar and 2 c. vinegar; boil 2 minutes. Pour over pickles. Adjust lids at once. Process in boiling water bath (212f) 5 minutes. Remove jars from canner and complete seals unless closures are self sealing type.

Makes 5 half pints.