"Picking" Horseradish

Luke gave me permission to "pick" all the horseradish I wanted from his garden. If fact, he actually helped me pick it. The leaves only became a feeding ground for little critters over the last two weeks. Doesn't hurt anything and letting them eat protects the "organic" aspect of the garden.

The big job is cleaning the roots. They all need to be peeled and brown spots cut out. Then I used the grinder on the cleaned roots. Yes, that is our table on the deck. Fumes are too strong to process inside. After grinding, all that needs to be done is put in jars and fill with vinegar. The longer you wait to apply the vinigar the hotter the radish will be.

The pure horseradish is certainly worth the effort. Frank Mestecy had af ranch hand in Colorado named Clo. Clo was, among other things, a horseradish expert. He would only dig and grind in months with an "r".

Harvest Moon - (almost)

Last night at 20 minutes after 7 I noticed the nearly full moon next to a colorful maple tree lit by the last rays of sunshine for the day. It is only 86% full today, on the 14th it will be the full Harvest Moon.

Watercolor Wednesday

Yesterday we had a overcast drizzling day that muted the fall colors and made things look like watercolor paintings. Certainly is beautiful.

Salsa to Go - Salsa Leathers

Invited out to dinner an needed to take something to contribute. Decided I would make use of the beautiful tomatoes and peppers from my nephews garden.

Salsa is always good but with fresh from the garden ingredients, it is even better. Since there was more than I needed for dinner, it seemed like a good idea to experiment making salsa leathers.
After mixing the tomatoes, peppers, garlic, sea salt and cilantro, I put part of the batch on drying trays. It did not take long to dry. Now I need to figure how to use it.



I now have "salsa leather" and need to figure out how to use. It has been suggested by Culinaria Eugenius* to try some on cheese. I will let you know.

*http://culinariaeugenius.wordpress.com/

Peppers for the Winter

Since I received the Excalibur Dehydrator, everything in sight is going in it. Some items require some thought as how to use. That is not the case with the sweet peppers. The farmers at our twice weekly market have had large selections at very reasonable prices.


Preparing them for drying is very simple. After rinsing and draining, I simply removed the core and ribs. Then sliced them, some in circles, some in strips.
Unlike some of the other dried foods, these maintain their flavor and can be put in stir fry or dumped in with a roast. I have been enjoying these.

Beautiful Dried Raspberries - Now what?

Our neighbor called and asked if we were interested in some fall raspberries. The Rodericks always have great raspberries but the strange weather in the spring meant no berries. So hearing that the fall berries are really nice, I said sure, we want some.

I ended up with four pints. Two pints were dedicated to my breakfast and general snacking. The other two pints went into my new dehydrator. They dried to beautiful berries - you would not know they were dried unless you touch them.

So, now I have these beautiful berries, what do I do them now??? I appreciate any thoughts.



Here are some suggestions that I have received. Thanks

Keith - Put them in oatmeal, pancakes, cookies or bread. The cooking process will re-hydrate them to some degree. If this sounds questionable you could always just give them away, to me.
I will be very interested to hear how you use them. They are beautiful.
Bill

Keith
They are beautiful. Toss them into a salad with toasted pine nut. Does your store sell a salad dressing called "Brianna's"? If so, get their poppy seed dressing - itis so good and it would be great on nice greens - and I would probably put in feta cheese. Ummm
Diana

Keith, I have a bag of dried raspberries in my refrigerator from early summer. They actually don’t recommend drying them! The problem is that they really do turn out seedy, and not very sweet (although maybe the fall raspberries are sweeter…) I think they’re beautiful, though, and I like using them as “croutons” in salads with a sweetish dressing, or to toss them in oatmeal and cold cereal in the morning for a little visual interest.

Eugenia

Preserving Gala Apples for Winter

The fall apples at the Cadillac Farmer's Market has really been great. I bought a half bushel of Gala apples and wanted to share them with my daughter in Kotzebue, Alaska. I decide to try dehydrating them to make apple "leathers". The maker of my dehydrator sells some chemicals for pre-treatment. I decided to simply soak the slice in a solution of citric acid for 5 minutes. It should help keep the slices from turning brown.


I did not core the apples, simply sliced them. Seeds fell out by themselves while I was slicing. It took about 15 hours at 135 degrees to get the results shown below.


They taste great and you can tell they were made with Gala apples.