Great canning blog

Photo from Food in Jars

I've starting reading this great local canning blog, Food in Jars and thought I would share it with IMBY members.

It's written by a Philadelphia named Marisa McClellan and she says "the goal of this blog is to document this canning journey and get as many people excited about canning as is possible. In between canning projects, I also write about some of my favorite cookbooks, participate annually in the Dark Days Challenge (cooking locally during the winter months) and occasionally offering up a recipe that makes use of all those canned goods I make."

She has great photos and recipes, and explains canning clearly - check it out!

Tea from your garden!

The New York Times had a great article on Making Tea From Plants Grown in the Backyard.

If you start thinking ahead now to the colder winter months, you can lay in a stock of dried material and have your tea bags all ready to go for the first cold of the season . . .

Sally mentions that IMBY has these ingredients in the yard, look for them the next time you are picking up your share! She thinks they'd all work as well as drying and grinding cayenne pepper. Adding our locally grown honey makes it especially potent as an herbal fortifying, healing, enhancing drink.

basil (Genovese & Lemon)
burdock (weed)
calendula
chamomile
cilantro
dandelion (weed)
dill
echinacea
garlic
lemon thyme
lovage
plantain (weed)
rosemary
savory
sage
tarragon
thyme
verbena
and more!

Solution to 2 lbs of tomatoes in your IMBY share

Tomato soup!

Between our IMBY CSA share and my husband's grandmother's backyard tomoatoes, we had 7 1/2 pounds of tomatoes in our kitchen. We used them up in one delicious recipe.

Whole Roasted Tomatoes, from Everyday Food, April 2010

Spiced Tomato Soup, from Everyday Food, April 2010

The croutons are from the tail end of a loaf of bread we made on Friday, cubed and browned with a bit of butter and salt in a frying pan.

White Sandwich Bread, King Arthur flour

Article on value of local organic foods

From MSNBC:

Nutritional value of fruits, veggies is dwindling

Bouquet from my garden

Something beautiful from the garden - bolted oregano and mint.

I can't really take credit for this, I saw the exact same shot on a blog and thought, "I can do that!"

Mint Syrup

I saw this recipe for a mint syrup on a blog I read, make grow gather, and thought IMBY members might put it to good use! It looks very easy, just pound the mint with sugar and lemon juice and pour boling water over the mixture.

The blogger says the recipe is adapted from The River Cottage Preserves Handbook by Pam Corbin.

Mint Syrup