There’s not much that you really need to get started canning. A canner with rack and some canning jars with 2-piece lids will get you started. And maybe a jar lifter, magnetic lid wand, funnel and timer. Altogether all of this can cost you as little as $10 if you buy it at rummage sales…

We’ll talk more about canning later in the year, but since we have a goal this month of Learning a New Skill, I thought I’d mention canning as a good skill to learn. Once you learn to can, you can be canning something almost every month, putting lots of ready-made dinners into your pantry. Which…

Have you ever had one of those weeks? The week where everything seems to go wrong and you find your finances, time and patience put to the test? Maybe you’re having a busy week shuttling kids to activities two or three times a day, lots of home and garden chores plus a rush of other…

Sometimes it’s hard to get enough vegetables into your family’s diet. You think picky toddlers are difficult? Try stubborn teenagers. One of my favorite ways to hide veggies is using veggie powder. You can put it into soups, casseroles and (my favorite) meat loaf or meat balls. I use it in the place of crackers…

This week I dug up about 1/3 of my Jerusalem artichokes. The yield was 15 pounds  of tubers. Pretty good for a crop that you plant just once, huh? What’s Jerusalem artichoke? Well, for starters, it’s not at all like an artichoke. It bears no resemblance to the artichoke and is only a distant cousin. The…

As you first start using whole wheat flour, you will find that it doesn’t quite “behave” like the flour you buy in the store. You may find the bread doesn’t rise as much as your white bread and you are left with a denser, heavier loaf of bread. What’s the problem and what can you…

A creative Wonderbox My sister, Cynthihah, had some red fabric that came to her free. So she used it to make a Wonderbox. But she thought this red was just a little too…RED. So, since she lives in Washington, she did the only logical thing: she turned it into an apple! How creative is that?…

So, last October Ross’ co-worker gave him two kohlrabi—two GIANT kohlrabi. Normally kohlrabi is about the size of an apple or orange, weighing about  6-10 ounces each. But these were HUGE, each one weighing twenty pounds! I would have expected them to be woody and not very tasty. But I was wrong. These mega-veggies were tasty,…

Let’s make canning less of a chore Canning can be a pretty overwhelming task, especially if you want to put up enough food to last your family all year. But if you have the right tools for the job, you can make the job a lot easier, saving your hours of work and headache. Let’s…

At the height of summer it can seem like there are more herbs coming from your garden than you could ever use in a hundred years. But you don’t want to waste a single bit of herb goodness coming out of your garden this year. So what can you do to make sure you get…

In the dead of winter, when everything is frozen and bleak, Mother Nature blesses us with a ray of warm sunshine: Citrus fruit. This is the season that citrus fruit is harvested and so there’s plenty. It’s abundance means it’s on sale a lot. And a good thing too–this is when we are most prone…

I hope you’ll try this Last year I told you about how I preserved 5 lbs of lemons in salt. This was a new experiment for me and I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. Well, I’m happy to say, it was all I hoped for. Today, one year after putting the lemons in…

This is the time to sprout This time of year, winter colds and bugs may be starting to get to your family. Your bodies need an extra boost of nutrition and fresh vegetable goodness. All that food we preserved from last year’s garden is dwindling and it will be a couple more months before we will…

No garden should be without kale and collards. These easy-to-grow green leafy vegetables are both  from the Brassica family (which includes cabbage, kohlrabi, Brussel sprouts and broccoli.) What makes these so great? Well, first of, they are packed with nutrition. Studies show that they may prevent several kinds of cancer. And they taste good! These are…

Safety note: Whenever handling hot peppers, always wear disposable plastic gloves. Always. And wash hands thoroughly with soap and hot water after taking the gloves off.  This last week I finished making our family’s favorite: Sriracha. All the men in our family love this spicy condiment and chances are yours do too. It’s on our…

November sales There are lots of great sales in November. I hope you are taking advantage of them. There’s turkey (of course), spices, flour, sugar, evaporated milk. And…celery. Well, I’m going to get eight bunches of celery. Because this is the perfect time to make celery powder. And nothing could be easier. Just rinse the…