In my younger days I was never a big fan of basil. This spring while browsing at the Kingsbrae Garden Plant Centre I came across a variety I had never seen before called Spicy Globe Basil.  I was planning on starting a small herb garden, so I added it to my box along with some other herbs grown by the same company, called Sweet Valley Herbs.

Since basil is an annual plant I planted it one of my cedar box planters along with some flat leaf parsley and some dill seeds. This container did quite well over the summer and provided fresh flavour to many summer dishes. The nights are getting cooler and basil seems to be quite tender to the cold, so I decided to turn it into pesto.

Spicy Globe Basil is different than most other varieties that I have worked with because it has small leaves. This proved to be slightly inconvenient for pesto making because I had to pick all the little leaves off all the different stocks. The pesto, however, is very convenient!

The recipe I used was also from Put ‘em Up by Sheri Brooks.

Classic Basil Pesto

1 cup olive oil

1 garlic clove, peeled

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

¼ cup pine nuts

2 cup fresh basil

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

I just put all the ingredients into my blender chopping accessory and let it whirl until everything was puréed. I did not have quite enough basil to make 2 cups, so I did add some Greek oregano and flat leaf parsley in the mix. I think these flavours go well together and the pesto turned out great!

My friend suggested using walnuts in place of pine nuts because pine nuts are very expensive this year. Because I found some on sale I did not try this, but I am sure it would turn out great as well. I may try this in a different batch as I plan on making more with different types of basil. Bunches are usually available at farmers markets throughout the summer months and into the fall.

I reserved a couple of tablespoons to use to add flavour to some mashed potatoes and poured the rest into an ice cube try to freeze in individual portions. My tray is made of stainless steel, and I do not have to worry about flavour transfer. If your ice cube trays are made of plastic you may want to reserve one especially for the purpose of freezing flavour. This way you will not to end up with pesto flavoured ice cubes!

Jennifer Ukrainetz is Kingsbrae Garden’s plant propagator.

Unfortunately my beautiful tomatoes that I was so proud of have been hit with what I believe to be late blight. From what I hear around town I am not the only one either! Even tomatoes that have only been slightly touched by blight should not be used for canning. Blight is caused by a water mould called oomycetes. This is a separate topic I will go into in more deeply in another post.

Tomatoes that have been touched by any type of mould should not be used for canning; mould can compromise the stability of the end product. This being the case, most of my crop has been lost. Unless I find a great deal on bulk tomatoes, I won’t be able to make garden vegetable tomato sauce in my pressure cooker. Maybe next year I will have more luck!

I did harvest some tomatoes before the blight hit. I had to think of something to do with them fast as tomatoes from plants that have been affected by blight can develop symptoms in storage and rot very quickly. I found a perfect recipe in Put ‘em Up by Sherri Brooks.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

5 pounds tomatoes, cored and chopped

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2-4 garlic cloves, sliced

Salt

The process for making this is very easy! You simply remove the cores, chop the tomatoes, and toss with olive oil. I sprinkled in some dried herbs from my garden, coarse sea salt, and freshly ground pepper. I was out of garlic, so I used garlic powder instead. Also, I had less than five pounds of tomatoes but I used the full amount of olive oil because I like it!

I turned the oven on to 350 degrees before I started preparing the tomatoes. When everything was in the dish I roasted them for about two hours, stirring them around occasionally. By this time most of the liquid had cooked off. I then turned the oven off and left the pan in the oven to cool.

This would be the prefect topping to make bruschetta or it can be puréed to make a smoother sauce. This would keep in the refrigerator for 5 days. Since I just had a tomato-based dish for supper yesterday, I chose to freeze mine. I used my mini loaf pan to freeze in individual portions and transferred to a freezer bag the next morning. I buttered the pan before spooning in the tomatoes. I placed a sheet of parchment paper on top of the pan to keep the frost off. They came out of the pan pretty easily using a butter knife to free them. I used a straw to remove excess air from the bag before I sealed it. I plan to use these frozen roasted tomatoes to add to Spanish Rice or as a pizza topping.

Jennifer Ukrainetz is Kingsbrae Garden’s plant propagator.

Last year was the first year I made pickles, and I really enjoyed the process and, of course, the pickles! I made the first batch and thought, wow these are great! I then decided that I was going to do pickles for Christmas. It would be much easier than going somewhere and picking out presents for everyone, not to mention it would save a whole lot of time and money. Besides, most people I know have enough stuff already!

Everyone likes mustard pickles and Lady Ashburn pickles, so I started looking for recipes. None of my nice cookbooks had what I was looking for. I dug deeper into my cook book library and found some recipes in a couple of unofficial fundraising cook books. The recipes were kind of vague.

I called my grandmother to see if she could help me make sense of these old recipes. She explained her method for putting up pickles. The first step was to peel and remove the seeds from the cucumbers, then chop them up into the size you like. You put them into a large bowl or pot, sprinkle about a ¼ cup of salt on top, cover them with a tea towel and let them sit overnight.

In the morning you drain the pickles then add the rest of the ingredients and cook on a medium-low heat for about 20 minutes or until the pickles are soft. Then you put the pickles into the very clean hot bottles and put the tops on and leave them until the next morning. Then you check the lids of the jars to make sure they all sealed. Now you can store your pickles.

Going on the advice of my grandmother, who had been doing this for longer than I had been alive, I proceeded to make my pickles. Her directions seemed not to follow the directions I had read for canning in my go-to cookbooks. However, all but one of my jars sealed and kept fine. I used that one right away, and I just finished my last jar from last year on Friday.

I enjoyed my experience with pickling so much last year that I bought some books specifically on preservation to read through the winter, so I would be ready for this season. Their guidelines for canning are very strict. They explain that all recipes should be followed exactly and processed in the canner for the stated amount of time to kill all spoilage bacteria. They also say that jars that are processed less than 10 minutes should be sterilized before use.

The canning guidelines are set up for safety reasons and to minimize chance of spoilage. Following proper canning recipes properly will produce a safe, shelf-stable product. By using old techniques you are taking a chance that some of your food may spoil and if consumed can cause food-borne illness. Always refrigerate jars that do not seal and consume the contents within five days.

This year when making my pickles I used the new guidelines and processed my pickles in the water bath canner for 10 minutes. I used jars that had been sterilized in the water bath while I was preparing the pickles, but I still followed the old recipes. My pickles turned out so well last year that I was not going to change them!

I did use my grandmother’s method on a few jars simply because my canner was full, and I had more pickles in the pot. The jars were sterile when I filled them, and those pickles were promptly consumed by friends, family and me.

I will list the recipes I used from my unofficial cookbooks and recommend that you follow the steps outlined in the post on Salsa to process the pickles. I do recommend using jars that have been sterilized and processing for only 10 minutes. Be sure to let jars rest in the canner with the heat turned off and the lid removed for five minutes after processing before removing as removing jars that have not had a chance to rest can spurt hot contents. Be sure to lift jars straight out of the canner. Do not tilt jars as you remove them as this may cause contents to seep beneath the snap lid and prevent a proper seal. Also never process jars that are not designed for home canning especially if they are not affixed with two-piece snap lids.

Mustard Pickles

7-12 large cucumbers, peeled, seeds removed, and chopped

2 lbs onions chopped or button peeled

1 large cauliflower washed well and chopped

½ cup of salt – *do not use regular table salt! Use salt labeled as pickling salt, kosher salt or sea salt. Last year I used kosher; this year I used sea salt.

1 red and 1 green pepper washed and chopped

3-4 cups vinegar

3-4 cups of sugar

3 tbsp flour – *due to celiac disease in my family I do not use flour. I have used both corn starch and arrow root powder in its place with great results.

3-4 tbsp. dry mustard

1 tbsp. turmeric

2 tsp ginger

* I also added 2 tsp. paprika or cayenne and some freshly ground pepper. This would depend whether or not you like these spices. The cayenne pepper was actually a mistake in my second batch because I thought it was paprika. Both patches turned out great and many people that I gifted them to confessed to eating them straight for the jar!

Method

Prepare cucumbers, cauliflower and onions. Cover with salt and let sit overnight.

In the morning drain and add chopped peppers. Place in large pot, add the rest of the ingredients and cook gently for 5-20 minutes. The cooking time depends on how soft you want your pickles to be.

Remove from heat and pour into hot sterilized jars and seal.

Lady Ashburn Pickles

6 large cucumbers, peeled and seeds removed

¼ cup of salt

1 qt. onions cut fine

1 pt. vinegar (2 cups)

1 ½-2 cups sugar

3 tbsp. flour * see note in previous recipe.

1 tbsp. dry mustard

1 tbsp. turmeric

2 tsp. mustard seed

2 tsp. celery seed

Method

Cut cucumbers very fine and place in large pot.

Add salt and let stand overnight.

In the morning drain liquid and add onions, vinegar and sugar.

Combine remaining ingredients and add to pot.

Cook gently on top of the stove for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and bottle immediately in hot sterilized jars.

As you can tell by the old recipes, they lack proper instructions. By following the new canning guidelines and using the proper amount of vinegar to create an acidic environment, you will surely come out with a safe shelf-stable product.

Please follow this link for more information on home canning.

Jennifer Ukrainetz is Kingsbrae Garden’s propagator.

I was planning on revising a blog I thought I remembered writing last season at this time. A friend at the St Andrews Farmers Market asked me for my recipe for Healthy Chocolate Zucchini Muffins. First I went to my files to read through the posts I did last year on kingsbreagarden.com. I didn’t find anything on zucchini!  This leads me to believe that last year I had a great idea, but never got around to writing about it.

At this time of year anyone who planted zucchini in their garden probably has way more than they know what do with! If this is your problem, then this is your lucky day because I am going to share some ideas on what to do with all of that lovely summer squash.

Zucchini is one vegetable that freezes well with little preparation. My neighbour, who has been a great help assisting me in my preservation endeavours, gave me some ideas last season. She makes a lot of it into a relish that her family enjoys daily throughout the year, uses what she can fresh in summer in stir fries and baking, and she freezes the rest. Her method of freezing is to shred it using a cheese grater or food processor then freeze in portions in plastic freezer bags. Since zucchini is very abundant this would use a lot of freezer bags. Always wanting to use less, I came up with a plan. I shredded the zucchini then placed it in greased jumbo muffin cups, popped them into the freezer for 8-12 hours then transferred them to one large freezer bag.

These individual portions can be put directly into simmering soups and pasta sauces or they can be thawed and added to meat loafs or baked goods. She said by doing this she is able to “hide” the zucchini in different dishes and increase her family’s vegetable intake. Using this method I was able to add Carrot and Zucchini Bars to my Christmas Cookie Tray which my hubby told me were the first items to disappear when he took the tray to work last holiday season.

 Healthy Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

¼ cups unsweetened coco powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp.  baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

1 tbsp. instant coffee

¼ cups flax meal or ground flax seeds

½ cup apple sauce

¼ cup melted butter of coconut oil

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup buttermilk, sour milk, or milk w/1tsp vinegar

2 cups grated zucchini

1  semi sweet chocolate square- grated

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease or line 18 muffin cups.

In a large bowl sift or blend together dry ingredients then whisk in flax meal and toss with shredded zucchini, and make a well in the centre.

In medium bowl blend melted butter or coconut oil with sugar then mix in apple sauce, eggs and butter milk and grate chocolate square into wet ingredients.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened.

Spoon the batter into prepared muffin pans and bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into centre comes out clean.

*If using frozen zucchini thaw and add with wet ingredients. This recipe was adapted from the Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook by Audrey Alsterburg & Wanda Urbanowicz.

Carrot and Zucchini Bars

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. ground ginger

¼ tsp. baking soda

2 slightly beaten eggs

1 ½ cup shredded carrot

1 cup shredded zucchini

¾ cup packed brow sugar

½ cup raisins

½ cup chopped walnuts

½ cup cooking oil

¼ cup of honey

1 tsp. vanilla

1 recipe Citrus-Cream Cheese Frosting

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

In large bowl combine dry ingredients (flour-soda)

In another large bowl combine all other bar ingredients.

Add wet ingredients to dry; stir just until combined.

Spread mixture into a lightly greased 13x9x2 inch baking pan.

Bake about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near centre comes out clean.

Cool in pan on wire rack.

Frost with Citrus- Cream Cheese Frosting

Citrus-Cream Cheese Frosting

In a bowl beat one 8 ounce package softened cream cheese 1 cup powdered sugar with and electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Stir in 1 tsp. grated lemon rind.

This recipe was taken directly from the  Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.

Jennifer Ukrainetz is Kingsbrae Garden’s plant propagator.

One way to preserve!

There are different methods of preservation. Some have been in use for centuries, others are methods of the new world. Age-old techniques include drying, cooling and fermentation. More modern approaches produce a shelf-stable product. These include refrigeration, freezing, dehydration, and canning. There are even fancy new methods used in the food industry such as freeze drying.

I am going to define each method and outline the pros and cons of some of these different methods so you can decide on the best method for you.

Drying By removing the moisture in food you slow down the natural enzymes that work to decompose the food thus making it an inhospitable environment for bacteria growth. Dried fruit will last longer than dried vegetables and dried foods need to be kept in a sealed container so that they do not reabsorb moisture from the air. Little extra equipment is needed because you can do this in your stove, outdoors, in an attic or other hot dry environment. There are also dehydrators that are used specifically for drying food. Drying food at low temperatures preserves not only heat-sensitive nutrients but also enzymes.  Dried food is light weight and fairly easy to store.

Cooling / refrigeration In today’s world this is probably the most common. You bring home enough groceries to last you a week, put them into the refrigerator and use them as you need them. Before refrigerators were invented people built root cellars.  These were small rooms built into the ground, often with dirt floors. The root cellars would keep things cool in the summer and cold but not frozen in the winter. They were used to store fermented foods like sauerkraut and root vegetables like potatoes. With cooling, your food will stay fresher for longer.

Fermentation An age-old method of preservation that uses naturally occurring lactobacilli to preserve vegetables, fruit, and dairy products. Lactic acid naturally preserves by inhibiting putrefying bacteria.  Examples of this we will all recognize are yogurt and sauerkraut. Fermentation enhances the availability of nutrients and digestibility in foods but does affect the flavour and is a delicate process requiring time.  It does not produce a shelf-stable product; fermented foods must be kept cool to keep foods from becoming too sour.

Freezing is pretty much self-explanatory. Freezing is a great way to preserve the harvest; however, there are a lot of reasons not to freeze everything. Freezing is energy intense and what if the power goes out? Some people have limited space; certain foods need to be blanched; and food loses quality quickly once thawed. Freezing preserves most of the nutrients and enzymes in food, and it is a great place to put things until you have more time to deal with them.

Canning produces a shelf-stable product that will keep for at least a year! The process is accomplished by high temperatures that kill off spoilage-causing organisms within the jars and then seals them off to contaminants. The high temperatures destroy all enzymes and denature certain foods. Canning does require special equipment and it really can turn into quite a project.

As you can tell no method of preservation is perfect and different methods are going to work best with different types of food. By using different preservation techniques you can preserve your own food without “putting all your eggs in one basket”. Throughout the harvest season I plan to explore the methods outlined above and put away some fresh summer taste for the long winter months.  You are going to want to subscribe to this feed if you want to enjoy the flavours of summer while feeding yourself this winter!

Jennifer Ukrainetz is Kingsbrae Garden’s plant propagator.