Crock-Pot Apple Butter

Apples, peeled, cored and finely choppe (Jonathan or Granny Smith)

4 cups sugar or less
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt

Fill a slow cooker heaping full of apples. Drizzle the sugar (4 cups is for very sour apples; sweet apples will require less), cinnamon, cloves and salt over apples.

Cover and cook all day (or night), the first hour on high, then on lower heat.

Cook until thick and dark in color, stirring occasionally.

Put in small jars. Crock-Pot Apple Butter can be used short-term in the refrigerator, made into freezer butter or sealed in a water bath for 15 minutes.

Source: "Preserving Perfection," Janice Neighbor, Benton County Daily Record, Aug 4, 2o1o

Huckleberries Grow Locally

We were excited to learn last Saturday, during our visit to Hobbs State Park Visitor's Center, that huckleberries do grow locally. No wonder they were selling huckleberry taffy, suckers, and pretzels.

Darned I was so surprized that I forgot to take a picture of what a huckleberry plant looks like! I promise to post at a later date a picture.

On a road trip last summer to Idaho, my husband's uncle introduced us to wild huckleberries that he and others picked off the side of a mountain. A new love was formed, as he served us pound cake drizzled with huckleberries and topped with whipped cream and then my favorite a huckleberry shake!

Luckily for us the 'Huckleberry King' aka Uncle Pat sent us home with two jars of huckleberry jam!

Latter in the year we made a stop over to War Eagle and discovered they carried wild huckleberry preserves and huckleberry flavored hard candy. To my daughters disappointment we sent off the hard candy off to Uncle Pat.

Follow the links to read two articles the Visitors Center share with me:
http://wildhuckleberry.com/category/growing-wild-huckleberries/
http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_vame.pdf

Blueberry-Lime Jam

I found this recipe in todays newspaper!

My children love homemade strawberry freezer jam! My daughter, who is a blueberry lover, recently asked that we expand her jam options. My sister has suggested we look at exchanging homemade gifts again this Christmas. It looks like my daughter and I will be spending some time together soon to make some jam!

4 1/2 cups blueberries
1 tablespoon grated lime peel
1/3 cup lime juice
6 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 pouches liquid pectin

Place blueberries in large pot, add lime peel, juice and sugar, and mix well.

Bring mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Stir in pectin, bring back up to a rolling boil for one minute.

Pour into sterile jars, leaving 1/4-inch of headspace.

Adjust caps and process 15 minutes in boiling water bath.

Yields five 12-ounce jars.

Source: "Preserving Perfection," Mary Loftus, Benton County Daily Record, Aug 4, 2o1o

Since Sure Jell is easy to find and I try to keep it on hand I searched the Internet for a recipe using it. I was pleasantly surprized to find out my Ball Blue Book of Preserving had one. This was my first canning jam on my own! I ended up giving one jar away as a birthday present and several others as family Christmas presents.

Bagworm Outbreak

2010 Garden Visitors

1st Place Cabbage

My daughter brought home a Bonnie Plant giant cabbage starter plant from school to grow. This photo was taken 14 days before it was picked. Can you imagine how much more it grew in those last 2 weeks?! Pictured next to it is a normal cabbage plant started from seed. She was so excited to come home and announce her cabbage will be representing her grade in the statewide contest. The final weight without the outer leaves and the roots were 4lbs and 2ozs.

I did use dusting powered a little too late to control the bugs, from eating the cabbage, as I am afraid of poisioning my family. I am learning by trial and error.

Elementary School Gardens

Strawberry Picking at McGarrah's Farm

Strawberry Patch address: 14804 Miser Rd, Pea Ridge, AR 72751

From 4 way stop in Pea Ridge (highways 94 & 72) go east on Leetown Rd 3 miles. Turn left on Miser Road. Turn on the only road to the right (~.5 mi) and follow it to the end. Patch is on the left.

http://www.mcgarrahfarms.com/

There #1 strawberry is Darselect and picking season starts around Mother's Day and last for approximately 3 weeks give or take a few days. They recommend you start checking their website around the 1st of May for updates.

Knowing what type of plant a local grower has the most success with in taste and productivity gives me an indication of what type of plant I would like to have in my own garden.

I made the mistake of leaving the strawberries on the counter overnight. In the morning, I found that about half of the strawberries have gone bad. We quickly went through them and salvaged what we could. Freezing smashed berries in quart size freezer bags. We have enjoyed pulling out the frozen berries and making freezer jam as needed. My preferred pectin is Sure Jell (in powdered form like Jell-0) enclosed with simple instructions.

P. Allen Smith's Container Gardens: 60 Container Recipes to Accent Your Garden

by P. Allen Smith, Kelly Quinn (Photographer), Jane Colclasure (Photographer)

Wonderful pictures, with illustrations, plant list and dialog.

A very well organized and put together book. [close]

Five Stars

The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening

by Christopher Brickell

This is a great book for any Gardener's library. Information, Information, Information with pictures.

It answers most questions, impossible to answer all!

Four Stars

Landscaping with Perennials (Rodale's Successful Organic Gardening)

by Elizabeth Stell, C. Colston Burrell

This book can be judged by it's cover! Beautiful pictures, diagrams, and dialog.

What I liked so much about this book was the little tidbits of information that was scattered around the page, in addtion to the paragraphs. I was able to gather a wealth of information in a short amount of time.

Five Stars

Creating Beds and Borders: Creative Ideas from America’s Best Gardeners

by Fine Gardening Editors, Lee Anne White (Editor), Fine Gardening (Editor)

This is a great gardening book! I love that several gardeners are featured. Each gardener has their own chapter, sharing their wisdom on their specific strength.

An opportunity for the publisher to make this book better, in the next printing, is to add pictures for ALL plants mentioned by the authors

Four Stars