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How to Dry Chives and Garlic Chives

admin — Sat, 08 May 2010 23:27:16 +0000

It’s time to harvest chives and garlic chives before they flower. Just use scissors to snip off the plant leaving 2 inches of foliage so the plant won’t go into shock. Chive plants are very hearty and will start producing new springs in a few days. I actually waited too long because my chives do have buds but that won’t hurt anything because I can use them in a bud vase in my office.

After you snip the chives you’ll need to rinse them under cold water to rinse all the dirt off. Place chives on a paper towel to drain all the excess water off. Next you can dry them in a dehydrator or dry them on a cookie sheet in the oven by preheating to 110 degrees. Start out with one hour and then check the chives. They should be brittle when done if they are not brittle then they need more time to dry. They may take 3 to 6 hours depending on how many are on the cookie sheet and how they are spaced out. When they get close to being done let them cool on the tray and when completely cook place the dried chives into a glass jar with a lid and store in a cool dry place.

How to Freeze Broccoli or Cauliflower

admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:55:55 +0000

Our garden is overflowing with broccoli and cauliflower and there is just so much you can eat before looking for ways to preserve it for later use. One of those ways is to freeze cauliflower or broccoli and store it up to 9 months in the freezer. You’ll want to pick only just ripened vegetables to freeze, any vegetables that are past have black spots and are not suitable for freezing.

Remove leaves and thicker stems from vegetable and cut into pieces for stir fry’s or other dish sizes. Dunk the cut broccoli or cauliflower in a bowl of warm water which will dislodge any dirt and bugs. Bugs and spiders don’t like the warm water and will crawl out of the vegetable if there are any.

Drain and then dunk the whole bunch into boiling water for 3 minutes, making sure the water covers them. At exactly 3 minutes drain them quickly and dump them into either a bowl of cold water or a bowl of ice water which stops them from cooking. Once they have thoroughly cooled strain them again and let them sit until most of the water is off of them. Before you place in freezer bags shake florets in the sink to get excess water off. The more water you get off the less ice crystals and the better they freeze. Before sealing the freezer bag squeeze out any air which will also helps to eliminate ice crystals. Immediately place bags in freezer in single layer so they freeze quickly.

The frozen broccoli or cauliflower can go from freezer to pan without thawing in stir fry’s or other dishes. Cook these the same way you would cook frozen vegetables from the store.

One Potato Makes Many Potatoes

goodfood — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:42:54 +0000

I had 3 potatoes that started to sprout so I left them in the wicker basket where I keep my potatoes, onions and garlic. These were red potatoes and they started developing leaves instead of the regular root sprouts that I am accustom to seeing in regular potatoes. So I let the new growth develop for a coupe of weeks. Finally I could wait no longer and put them into soil in a container from a shrub I purchased last year. I guess I get a brownie point for recycling that container. After 2 weeks my potato plant looks like this.

Healthy Potatoe Sprout

Sprouting Seeds at Home

goodfood — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:13:30 +0000

Growing Sprouts at Home

The cost of sprouting your own seeds cost substantially less than buying them fully grown from a store. Prices on fully grown alfalfa sprouts at a supermarket can cost anywhere from $1.69 to $2.99 for a plastic pint container. Alfalfa seeds are lightweight and an 8 oz bag of organic alfalfa seeds only costs $5. Non organic alfalfa seeds cost $5 for about 16 oz.

Read more on how to sprout seeds for less at www.simplifymyfoodchoices.com/sprout-seeds-for-less.html

Seed Sprouter