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How to Store Strawberries 12 Ways – Plus Tips to Keep Berries Fresh

June 2, 2018 By Laurie Neverman 23 Comments

How to Store Strawberries for Fresh Eating or Year Round Use

Perfectly ripe strawberries are yummy, but strawberries also top the “Dirty Dozen” list for highest amounts of pesticide residue. We're lucky enough to have an organic strawberry farm nearby that uses no pesticides, so when strawberry season comes around, we stock up! In this post, I'll share how to store strawberries 12 different ways, plus how to keep strawberries fresh. We cover freezing, dehydrating, homemade fruit leather, strawberry kombucha, freeze drying, strawberry jam (regular and low sugar), and strawberry wine and mead.

25+ Healthy Asparagus Recipes Plus 4 Ways to Store Asparagus

April 18, 2018 By Laurie Neverman 18 Comments

Spring asparagus is a wonderful blessing after a long winter. Those first tender stalks are absolutely delicious raw, straight out of the garden. If you have large home patch – or want to take advantage of the seasonal abundance in stores and farm markets – it's great to have an assortment of asparagus recipes on hand and to know how to preserve asparagus for later use. This post features over 25 healthy asparagus recipes, including soups, salads and main dishes, plus instructions on how to store asparagus and preserve it for later use. [Read more…] about 25+ Healthy Asparagus Recipes Plus 4 Ways to Store Asparagus

5 Ways to Preserve Peaches, Plus the Easiest Way to Peel Peaches

August 13, 2016 By Laurie Neverman 31 Comments

My youngest loves peaches, so we make sure to preserve peaches for year round use. We always get a case or two of peaches for a local fundraiser. We're still working on trying to get peach trees to survive as part of our permaculture food forest. We're right at the edge of peach friendly territory, but our place gets a lot of wind, which the trees don't like very much.

Each year I use a variety of peach storage methods, stashing some for us to enjoy and some to use as gifts. (I have yet to find someone who does not appreciate homemade peach jam.) In this post I'll cover the easiest way to peel peaches, as well as canning peaches, dehydrating peaches, freezing peaches, peach jam and freeze drying peaches. [Read more…] about 5 Ways to Preserve Peaches, Plus the Easiest Way to Peel Peaches

Spiced Crabapples and Honey Cinnamon Crabapples

September 15, 2011 By Laurie Neverman 35 Comments

Last week I got a call from my neighbor, Betty, about crabapples being ripe at another friends' home. (Everyone should have a neighbor like Betty. 🙂 Never one to let produce go to waste, I warned the boys that we were going to go pick crabapples. My eldest, wanting to get done sooner, headed out to the wild trees at the border of out field. These are normally so bug infested as to be inedible, but this year one had a bumper crop, and we were able to pick quite a few that were in nice shape. [Read more…] about Spiced Crabapples and Honey Cinnamon Crabapples

Preparedness – Homegrown Medicinals

May 21, 2011 By Laurie Neverman 40 Comments

While I'm out working in the garden, I'm not just tending standard food crops, I'm also tending herbs and “weeds”. Some I use for culinary purposes, some for medicinal, some for both. (Don't you love it when you can get multiple uses from one item?) With many medicinal herbs now being outlawed in Europe, and increasing odds that the US is likely to follow Europe's lead (thank you, Big Pharma), I've been learning more about plants that I can grow in my own yard for medicinal purposes. You'd be surprised at how useful “weeds” can be. [Read more…] about Preparedness – Homegrown Medicinals