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    Beginner’s Guide to Canning Peppers

    Peppers on stems

    Can sweet bell peppers and chile peppers—which can be sweet or hot–preserve your summer harvest? Can peppers after deciding if you want to preserve sweet or heat or a combination of the two? Sweet green, yellow, orange, or red bell peppers are large and thick-fleshed. They have a sweet, crisp flavor. Chile peppers—such as Anaheim, […] More

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    Freezing Blueberries and Other Berries

    Blueberries Frozen

    Freeze just harvested blueberries and also raspberries, elderberries, currants, huckleberries, blackberries, boysenberries, loganberries, mulberries, and strawberries for thawing and using just as fresh next winter. Freeze blueberries and other berries individually—called dry pack—or in sugar and syrup or unsweetened. Use thawed berries in desserts, in pies and other desserts and in smoothies. You will need […] More

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    How to Blanch Vegetables Before Freezing

    Peas cooking

    Blanch just harvested fresh vegetables to set their color and seal nutrients and flavor. Blanching is a method of partially cooking vegetables in boiling water or steam—usually for a few minutes; it’s also called parboiling. Blanching is used to seal the flavor and set the color of vegetables before freezing. Blanched and frozen vegetables can […] More

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    How to Make Orange Marmalade

    Orange marmalade on toast

    Orange marmalade is the most popular marmalade. Marmalade is a soft translucent jelly preserve quite simply made from fruit, water, and sugar. Marmalade looks like jam but it contains thin fruit slices or diced fruit suspended in the jelly. Many say the fine flavor of the Seville orange makes the best marmalade. But you can […] More

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    How to Make Old-Fashioned Applesauce

    Applesauce1

    McIntosh and Granny Smith are two apples that are slightly tart and juicy and well suited for cooking and applesauce making. (Once I have the applesauce, it’s hard to resist the baking up a dozen applesauce muffins.) McIntosh is an East Coast and Midwest favorite. Granny Smith, originally from Australia is a West Coast favorite. It’s […] More

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    How to Make the Best Tasting Grape Juice

    Grape juice1

    The secret to making delicious homemade grape juice is to never boil the grapes. Grape juice reduces bad cholesterol, helps maintain healthy blood pressure, prevents damage to blood vessels in your heart, and reduces the risk of blood clots. Do you see a down side to drinking fresh-made grape juice? Concord grapes are great for […] More

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    Vegetable Home Canning Cautions

    Canned carrots1

    Vegetables—unlike fruits–are low in acid so it is important to use prescribed methods and equipment when canning the overflow of summer and fall harvest. Use a steam pressure canner for vegetables. Low acid foods must be processed in a pressure canner to be free of botulism and other bacteria, mold, and yeast growth risks. (You […] More

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    Piloncillo and Pumpkin Recipe

    Pumpkin in syrup1

    Calabaza en Jarabe is pumpkin in syrup. This is a tasty old-fashioned Mexican dessert that you can serve for Halloween or any time in late summer or autumn. Piloncillo is the traditional cone shape of unrefined sugar commonly used in Mexican cooking. Piloncillo (which means little pylon) is made when sugar cane is crushed, the […] More

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    Seviche Recipe

    Ceviche1

    Seviche is a blend of fresh raw saltwater fish, lime juice, and the addition of vegetables and spices. Seviche is popular as both an appetizer and main course in many Latin American countries. Seviche–which is also spelled ceviche or cebiche–is said to have originated in the ancient Inca civilizations of Peru and Ecuador. The essence […] More

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    Cocido Recipe

    Cocido1

    Cocido is a Spanish meat and vegetable stew that is slowly cooked and then served in three courses or vuelcos (singular vuelco) from the same pot. There are several regional variations of cocido throughout Spain and Portugal–and in other countries where Spaniards have immigrated. While chickpeas are essential to every cocido, the combination of meats […] More