How To Preserve Dried Flowers

When Brett and I moved to the country two decades ago, we envisioned having a sunny little orchard where we would harvest bushels of apples, pears and other delicious tree treasure each year.

By the time you get to 8,000 feet, you're adding a full 20 minutes to your processing time.” The guidelines below, based on recommendations from the University of Georgia National Center for Home Food Preservation , will help you convert a recipe so...

Step 2 Note: The cleats that hold the shelves are 1½ inches wide; the spaces between the cleats are 1¾ inches wide to allow a little wiggle room so the bins and shelves can slide in and out easily.Make a story stick (as shown) to help ensure all the...

Long before fridges and canners came to be, food was preserved through fermentation. While we might not realize it, our refrigerators and pantries are full of fermented foods, including buttermilk, yogurt, pickles and coffee.

Replenish Your Energy The last couple hours of the evening can seem like a goldmine in the kitchen, but if you're like us, you need an energy boost that time of day. Cook in Bulk When making a recipe that involves more preparation or multiple steps, cook...

As the sap reduces, simply add more, keeping track of how much sap you've boiled and skimming off any debris (leaves, insects, et cetera) that might have fallen into the collection buckets.

Haying season was hot and grueling, but we got it done. Just use the largest burner and proceed as usual. You've probably noticed when you remove the flat lid that the jar rim leaves a definite depression in the rubber.

Here are six options to consider: Clamps are holes that have been dug below frost level, about 1 square yard. Make a bed of straw at the bottom of the hole, layer produce (potatoes and root vegetables store well in clamps), then cover with additional...

A long chain of drying chili peppers is called a ristra, and there's definitely an art to making a proper one. Over the years we've grown Bulgarian Carrot, Hungarian hot wax, Leutschauer paprika, Big Bomb cherry, Scotch Bonnets, Bird's Eye chilies, and...

This question often confuses me, as it might you, because there isn't a clear distinction between the two—though there is a definite difference! “Pickling is a more general term that refers to various ways of making pickled foods, whether through...

Each strong stem features dense clusters of papery, bell-shaped calyxes, or modified leaves. The bells' color may vary from pale celadon to a green bright enough to rival a Granny Smith apple.

You'll need a calibrated dial or weighted gauge canner, new lids for your jars, and a trusted, timed recipe. Pressure canning meat is often considered an advanced canning skill, but the rewards are too good not to accept the challenge.

Oxymels An oxymel is a sweet-and-sour syrup made with herbs, vinegar and honey, most often used as a home remedy for respiratory conditions. Add to baths along with Epsom salts for relaxation and relief from sore muscles.

Cotton balls, Q-tips. I adore these things, and I'll bet there are 101 uses for them out there (please contribute any ideas you have in the comments below!). Made from scratch salad dressing and pancake syrup.

Add to mashed potatoes or potato salad. Mix pesto into pasta or macaroni and cheese. Dried Tomatoes Dana/Flickr Add to pasta cooking water to plump while noodles cook. Add to a slow-cooker meal.

You can pickle green, unripe tomatoes, as well as ripe tomatoes, with a variety of sweet and salty solutions. Beets Choose fresh, firm, unblemished beets. Some recipes add sweet onions for additional flavor.

“Open Kettle Canning” or “Upside Down Sealing” (still often recommended in European texts) are both vintage sealing methods no longer considered safe. Do not alter the recipe's method of preservation.

Bread flour is unbleached and milled from hard wheat. It is the hardest type of wheat grown and typically works best when making pasta . Sea salt, harvested from evaporated seawater, is as varied in flavor as the many seas it comes from.

Plum trees bear globe-shaped, thick-skinned, red or yellow fruit about 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter. It thrives from southern Saskatchewan east to southern Quebec and Maine, then south to Arizona and Florida, and it grows in every continental U.S. state...

“Sugar syrups will best preserve the shape, color and flavor of canned fruit,” says Loe. You must have a perfect balance of sugar, acid and pectin. A caveat: Don't rush to judgment.

Canning lids Not so many years ago, canning jars were sealed with porcelain-lined, zinc screw-on lids with separate “jar rubber” gaskets. Older models' lids can warp, resulting in unfixable steam leaks.

The twist-on varieties have a heat-activated locking mechanism built into the handles, located on either side of the lid. Admittedly, this does sound more labor intensive than glancing at a dial, but the real beauty of a weighted petcock is that it doesn't...

Beyond these more well-documented caper-alternatives, there is ample room for experimentation. There is no rule saying majoram is the only kind of oregano that can be used for capers, but pickled garnishes made from the buds of this plant are delectable...

It's all too easy to become complacent when you've been canning for decades, but Elizabeth Andress, PhD, professor at the University of Georgia and contributor to the National Center for Home Food Preservation website, sheds some insight on a few practices...

“But there are definitely molds that can be very toxic.” If you find a white mold on the surface, he recommends skimming it off and throwing away any affected vegetables. A lot of people find themselves asking, “What did I do wrong?” The good...

Some home cooks concoct vinegar to create unique flavors from fresh ingredients. Hall experiments with aging vinegars by storing them in vessels to enhance and mellow the flavors. Label the bottles with the date and type of vinegar, and store in a cool,...

If you don't want to re-process jars that don't seal, store them in your refrigerator and consume the contents within a week or freeze for later consumption. Too loose and the lid fails to seat onto the jar rim.