Thank you for the responses on my last post. I got some great advice on what to do with all my produce. At the bottom of this post I have shared some recipes.
I especially want to thank Carolyn for the dilly beans idea. I love dilly beans. My grandma used to make jars just for me because I love all things pickled. Her mixture of dill, garlic and cayenne pepper made them divine. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. I’ve decided I need to ask her for her recipe so I can pass on the treasure.
Thinking about dilly beans brought back a lot of warm memories from my childhood about my grandparents. I am extremely fortunate that at 30 years old all of my grandparents are still living. Both sets of my grandparents keep large gardens. At some level I think their gardens have probably attributed to their long life spans. It makes me hopeful that keeping my own garden will help keep me and my family healthy. And someday in the distant future I can give a pickle loving grandchild a jar of dilly beans.
Food is unique in the way that one can attach memories to it and I hope while I fuel the bodies of my children they might take away some warm memories as well.
Is there a recipe you love because it reminds you of your childhood? Please share!
As promised here are some of the suggestion I received. Thanks again!
Here’s a link shared by Shelley that had good advice on freezing eggplant:
http://www.pickyourown.org/freezingeggplant.htm
Here’s some advice on freezing green beans from Les:
Bring water to a rolling boil – boil green beans for 3 to 3-1/2 minutes and then use a spatula to take them out of the boiling pot and put them into an ice water bath (I use the kitchen sink) for 3 to 3-1/2 minutes. Pat them dry and then put into Ziplog bags to freeze.
And here’s a tomato sauce recipe I tried off of Allrecipes:
- 8 pounds tomatoes, seeded and diced
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
- 1 large onion, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- In large saucepan, cook tomatoes and basil over medium-low heat until tomatoes are soft.
- Meanwhile, in medium skillet, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are translucent.
- Add onion mixture to tomato mixture and add salt and pepper. Let simmer on low heat for 2 hours or until thick.
