I'd like to start off 2011 with a post about goals. As a family, we have a couple large and many small goals for 2011; we have several financial goals, several renovation goals, several homesteading goals, a couple of exercise-related goals, and I have several fun goals. Two of those fun goals relate to my gardening, at least in a peripheral manner!
1. I have been meaning for several years to try my hand at homebrewing, and picked up 2 books on the topic after Christmas. Next step, acquiring the supplies. That will likely be a fall project, but its on the list for this year. One of the books is about growing your own hops & herbs, so those aspects of making beer may get incorporated into my garden planning in a couple months, so look for brewing herbs in garden posts to come.
2. This is the year for me to start canning our garden produce - heading up the list of things to can this year will be strawberry jam, tomatoes, and applesauce!
These goals obviously mean I will need to make sure I include plants like tomatoes & herbs in my garden planning, and maybe some hops! Hope you all have been having a great 2011 thus far!
I'm sure you can acquire a lot of recipes from eastern Ontario, but I have one dandy - a fruit chili that was my grandmother's and is as close to no fail as anything I have ever tried. You do it with the sterile jar method and you Check The Jars for mold (moould?cripes!) but it's terrific. And I know a lady called Marion Paul who has the ultimate in tomato chili recipes.
ReplyDeleteMe, I have quit canning. Forever. But I still have the scars.
;-)
Those recipes sound great (especially the no fail part!). I'll have to remember to pester you for yours (and to see if you can get Marion's for me too) come summer! Mom's family does a salsa/chili type recipe, but I don't know of any other family ones.
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