There are some pretty standard Thanksgiving side dishes that are just required to be on the table and cranberry sauce is one of them. Many people I talk to claim to not really like cranberry sauce for me to later find out they are referring to the jellied store bought canned sauce they grew up with sitting on a plate that was still in the shape of the can, ridges and all. Well yeah… that ISN’T very good! If you haven’t had home made cranberry sauce, then you really are missing out! The internet is overflowing with amazing cranberry sauce recipes and each and every one of them are super easy to make!
Fresh Cranberries are cheap this time of year and even freeze really well! I always stock up on them around now. I don’t live somewhere that I can grow them myself or I absolutely would! Grab some extra bags of fresh cranberries and have them handy for after the Thanksgiving rush of baking so you can pull that canner out again! Cranberries are naturally acidic and are very easy and safe to can! You can even try fermenting them! I have some in the pantry now fermenting in honey.
Canning cranberry sauce is a very easy project and you can have home made cranberry sauce ready for whenever the urge strikes you. Simply make your cranberry sauce and can it using the same processing time as mentioned for the juice. Most cranberry sauces consist of only acidic ingredients (other than the seasonings) so safety isn’t really a concern here. Just don’t add any nuts before canning if you like nuts in your cranberry sauce.
Ok so why do you want to can all this cranberry sauce if you only eat it on Thanksgiving and Christmas!? Well that’s easy! Eat it on more than just Thanksgiving and Christmas!
There are tons of ways to enjoy cranberry sauce other than the obligatory spoonful of cranberry sauce on your plate 2 days a year!
My neighbor has a fig bush. This bush doesn’t look that big but let me tell you about how many figs this thing pumps out!! Whew! I can barely keep up. There is an elderly couple who lives there and they like to enjoy a few figs from it but tell me to pick all I can. They say they hate to just see the birds get to them all. One day while I was filling up buckets of them, the man came out and asked me what I do with all the figs. I told him I had grand plans of making all kinds of things with them but that I mostly just stand at the kitchen counter eating them by the handful until I feel sick. He laughed and said I sounded just like his wife! Even after sharing with friends I still managed to freeze a lot of them in vacuum sealed bags and am using them here and there. In an attempt to figure out what in the world to do with ALL THESE JALAPENOS, I decided that fig jalapeño jam sounded like the perfect treat. This stuff is delicious! If you resist just eating it will a spoon out of the jar, you can put them on a cracker with cream cheese, add it to a turkey sandwich, make a marinade out of it or pour it over pork chops or chicken. If you mixed some in some olive oil, you’d have a zippy salad dressing with a nice kick! I was thinking I might even add a table spoon of it to some cranberry sauce and see how that goes! Let me know if you come up with other creative ways to use it!
If you are new to canning, please consult a trusted source for safe canning procedures.
This is a water bath canning recipe.
Fig Jalapeno Pepper Jam
Delicious on cracker with cream cheese, make into a marinade, spoon over pork chops, add to salad dressings.
2 cups bell peppers red, green, yellow, or orange will do
1 cupjalapeños dicedseeded if you want them less spicy
1pkg Sure-Jell
1tspbutter
7 cups sugar
Instructions
In a food processor add the figs, bell peppers, and jalapeño peppers and pulse until desired consistency. I like to leave mine kind of chunky.
Pour the mixture to a large pot and add the vinegar, Sure-Jell and butter.
Bring to a boil for a couple of minutes
Add the sugar, stir, and bring back to a rolling boil for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and ladle into sterilized jars.
Wipe rim of jar, add lids and rings, and place in water bath canner.
Process 10 minutes for 1/2 pints and 15 min for pints.
Remove from canner and allow to cool.
Once the lids are sealed, occasionally gently shake jars to make sure your the pieces are distributed throughout the jar instead of all staying at the top.If you miss this step that isn't a problem. Just mix the jar with a spoon when you open it.
This is that time of year when everyone is all about all things pumpkin. And I’m here for it all (except pumpkin spice latte.. not my thing). Pumpkins are basically a superfood. They are packed with antioxidants, Beta Carotene, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Iron, and Folate. This means they can be a super booster for your immune system. I don’t need to get into why THAT’S a good idea this time of year. They also have a lot of fiber and are great for your skin. Pumpkin seeds are a whole other powerhouse of nutrition and can also be used as a dewormer for your livestock.
Most varieties of pumpkins store reasonably well (a few months) if you have cool dry place to store them. Lucky for you if you have a root cellar. I’ve had some varieties of pumpkins store for a year or longer just in my pantry so fall is a good time to stock up on them. Jarrahdale pumpkins may be the best storage pumpkins you can get but there are others that also keep well.
Head to your local farm market and see if they have any marked down after Halloween. Often they are trying to clear things out so they can get set up for Christmas. This is also a good place to ask for “gone bad pumpkins” to bring to your livestock. The farm market likely just throws them away. Your pigs and chickens do not care about a little mushy spot on a pumpkin!
Pumpkins do keep fairly well but to make it easier on yourself, you may want to go ahead and roast and puree your pumpkin ahead of time. You can store these in the freezer to use throughout the year. Pureed pumpkin is said to be too dense to safely can but you can pressure can them in chunks according to the sciencey people who give us our “safe canning” guidelines.
The internet has thousands of recipes for pumpkins. Soups, deserts, drinks, biscuits, waffles and pancakes. Pumpkin this, pumpkin that. One of the recipes that my family loves any time of year is Pumpkin Fry bread. I always make it when there’s a crowd for breakfast because it makes a lot. They freeze well so they are nice to pull out on a busy morning.
Pumpkin Fry Bread
This is a delicious easy way to make a big breakfast using up some of those fall pumpkins.
A stand mixer is the easiest way to make it but don’t let that stop you. Use your elbow grease and you can still make this yummy treat!
Blend together the pumpkin, water, sugar, cinnamon and ginger.
Slowly mix in the flour and baking powder.
Mix until dough forms and mix for 2 minutes until the dough is slightly sticky.
Heat oil in pan around 350 degrees F about an inch deep.
Here's the messy part. Flour your hands and pull of pieces of dough and flatten with your hands into a patty the size of your palm about 1/4-1/2 inch thick.
Drop each patty into the oil and fry until brown and flip to brown the other side.
Let your fluffy brown fry bread drain onto a paper towel and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Jalapeños are still in abundance this fall in the garden! One of the ways we preserve the harvest is making Cowboy Candy. Cowboy Candy is something my family, friends, and extended family just simply can’t get enough of. I make well over 2 dozen jars of it every year and still run out. That’s a LOT of jalapeños by the way! They cook down quite a bit so a ton of jalapeños doesn’t actually make that many jars. Cowboy Candy on EVERYTHING! Put it on baked potatoes, chili, sandwiches, or just eat it out of the jar!
I am often asked for the recipe and I like to act like it’s some kind of secret. It’s not though. It’s just a basic recipe that has never let me down. It does make extra brine. Go ahead and put that in another jar and get that canned up too! You can make a marinade out of it or a glaze. I’ve seen people suggest adding some to Bloody Marys. You could give a kick to a homemade salad dressing. Get creative!
I do recommend wearing gloves because when you cut up a bunch of jalapeños, it can be tough to wash the juices off. You do NOT want to be the one who rubs your eye later and have regrets (speaking from personal experience here)!
I personally prefer to cut the slices by hand. My husband loves to help. Okay, I’m joking but he helps anyway.
*If you are not experienced with canning, I recommend you reach out to your local extension or other trusted source for instruction on safe canning procedures.
Cowboy Candy
Water Bath canning recipe. Delicious on a cracker with some cream cheese, in a sandwich or sub, on a baked potato or chili.
If you have children, your pantry likely has in it some snack food items you wouldn’t be proud of. Mine sure does. Fortunately they do love fruit and veggies but they very much enjoy munching on some crunchy carbs. Goldfish, pretzels, chips, popcorn, and crackers are regularly requested. The convenience of packaged junky snack food easily creeps into our lives over and over. When the prepackaged food is so easy to just buy, open, and eat, it’s easy to eat a little too much and a little too often. There is something special about participating in the preparation of your food. The love and work that go into something is important. The appreciation for the effort involved in food preparation helps you to take a moment and be present instead of just gobbling up the convenience food around you. Making things from scratch isn’t just frugal. Going through the process of start to finish, from-scratch cooking, connects you to your food, allows you to savor every bite, and can help to be mindful of portion control.
When you or your children really just want crunchy carbs, try making some homemade goodies with real ingredients and no chemical preservatives! Homemade crackers are easy to make and fun to do with the children. Who doesn’t love using a cookie cutter?! A few simple ingredients you already have and you can whip some up.
The spices you can use for this recipe are endless. You can make them sweeter and add cinnamon, you can go savory with garlic and onion. Really whatever makes you happy here! Get creative!
Homemade Crackers
Easy to make with ingredients you already have. Fun for kids. Great with soup, jam or a stand-alone snack
Mix together your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt/pepper, and spices of your choosing in your mixing bowl.
Make a well in the center of your flour and add oil and water.
Incorportate the oil and water into the flour mixture until it forms a ball of dough. If the dough is too wet, add small amounts of flour until you are able to make a dough ball. You want the dough to still be somewhat tacky.
Onto a floured surface, roll out your dough evenly and very thin, no more than 1/4 inch thick.
Use cookie cutter (or pizza cutter or knife) to cut out your crackers.
Transfer crackers to a lined cookie sheet.
Use a toothpick to "prick" each cracker 3-5 times each.
Using pastry brush, brush oil onto each cracker.
Sprinkle the crackers with course salt.
Bake in oven at 400 degrees F for 12 minutes.
Allow crackers to cool and store on counter in sealed container. These crackers do not have preservatives in them and the humidity in your home could affect how long they can be kept. Store in fridge if you need to store them for more than a few days.
Every year I tell myself this year will be the year that I do not procrastinate. This year I will start my Christmas gift preps early. I will make a plan and get things done long before Thanksgiving. Well.. it IS before Thanksgiving but I wouldn’t say its “long before” Thanksgiving. Maybe I’m writing this to inspire myself to get on the ball and perhaps to help you to get on the ball if you haven’t made your plans yet. This is the time of year that the big box stores have Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas decor out all at once. It is a big fat reminder that the last three months of the year just zip by in a blur. From costume parties, Thanksgiving dinners, and all the holiday parties that get crammed in December, it’s very easy to get overwhelmed trying to plan Christmas gifts especially if you’re trying to make homemade goodies for the people you love. I find the best thing to do is to make a list of all the people you give gifts to and fill in with ideas for what kinds of home made goods you could make for them. Pinterest boards with gift ideas are a great way to help you sort through all your ideas.
Homesteaders tend to come with an array of different skills from sewing and crocheting/knitting to wood working, soap making, home brewing and so much more. Use the skills you already have! This might be a fun time to step outside the box and learn a new skill! Look around and see what kinds of things you can do with what you’ve got. If you have bees, obviously honey and beeswax products are a good place to start. Getting the kids involved is the best especially if the gift is for the grandparents!
Below is a list, in no particular order to help inspire some gift ideas. A launching point, if you will. Quite a few of these require some advanced planning times. You may have to add some of these to next years list. Thats ok! Get a head start on next year’s planning! There are so many more things that can be added to this list. Please feel free to comment on this post to help expand the list!
-DIY flower press (or gifts made with flowers you pressed) This is a fun gift for a child or adult so they can make their own pressed flowers. Out of the pressed flowers you can make all sorts of things from jewelry to stationary, magnets, sun catchers etc.
-Rag rug. This may be one of those “learn a new skill” kinds of things.
-Woodworking and wood burning. The options here are endless. (Porch sign, wooden tray, noodle board, bird house or feeder)
-Grape vine wreath. If you have grape vines or access to wild vines, making wreaths are a fun way to use them.
-Gourd bird house or other gourd crafts. Put part of the garden to use in growing your own gifts!
-Herbal tea blends
-Soaps
-Crocheted or knitted items
-Candles
-Canned goodies (pickled items, jams etc)
-Baked goods
-Baking mixes. Put together a baking mix into a jar with a cute label with instructions. Everything is better when it comes in a mason jar.
-Soup mixes. Use your home grown beans and dehydrated veggies to put together soup mixes.
-Home made vanilla extract. This takes a little time to be ready but is super easy to make.
-Infused vodkas. This one also takes a while before they are ready but its fun and easy to put together. I like to make a bunch of small ones so there’s a variety.
-Bath bombs
-Dehydrated food. Get creative with your dehydrated goods for the year. Veggies, fruits, herbs, you name it.
-Wood carved items (such as bowls or spoons) This may be another “learn a new skill” gift. It’s always fun to learn a new skill.
-Grow Job’s tears to make jewelry (from these are a plant that produces “beads”).
Are you drooling over homesteading and gardening themed instagram posts and YouTube channels, dreaming of living the farm life, away from the hustle and bustle of the world but it’s just not in the cards right now? There’s no need to hold off on the dream. There are things you can do right now, in your current situation, that can help you become more self sufficient and start to take charge of your own food freedom. If you are serious about wanting to be connected to your food source and provide food security to your family, you may need to get creative. Every homestead isn’t the same and practically none of them “do it all.” The homesteading community is… about COMMUNITY. Don’t get wrapped up in the idea that you have to do all of the things. Just because you don’t have 100 acres, doesn’t mean you can’t make some grand leaps toward achieving your goals and working with others to make things happen!
Below is a list of different ways you can incorporate outside sources in achieving your dreams of providing fresh, homegrown, healthy, local food and other products to your family.
CSA
Community Supported Agriculture is an amazing way the community comes together to support a local farmer. The community comes together before the growing season starts for the year with upfront payment to the farmer. This allows the farmer to run his/her farm for the year. In return, you go and pick up a box of goodies every week. We have been apart of CSAs in the past and it is an amazing supplement to your garden, especially if your garden is small. With a CSA, you often get incredible amounts of produce, eggs etc. that would retail for more than you paid. Many provide weekly recipes and suggestions as well as pick-your-own opportunities not available to the public. One of our favorite CSAs we have done in the past provided hundreds, if not close to a thousands dollars more worth of produce than the share originally cost. This is incredible! Buy a full share and get to preserving, spilt with a friend or buy a half share for a smaller family.
This is an example of a weekly box from a CSA. Check out the bottom left for the total $ info. That CSA share originally cost $800 up front and the total value of goods distributed that year was 1,934.50!
Using land owned by someone else.
If you’ve reached the limitations of your current space, look next door. Do you have a neighbor willing to let you use their space? A friend or relative close by who would be ok with you planting or raising something on their land? Bees are a good one for this. They don’t need daily attention from you so having them “down the road” isn’t the daily inconvenience that other livestock would bring. It is somewhat of an inconvenience to hop in a vehicle and go check on your crops or animals. That being said.. We make time for what is important enough to us. If it’s not, we make excuses. Read that again. Farmers do this all the time. Many farmers in America rent land to do their farming. You may get lucky and be able to find free land to use but if not bartering is a good option. Are you keeping bees on their land? Offer a specific amount of honey to them per year and possibly wax products like candles etc. Do you have a fruit tree or garden planted there? Offering them a portion of that may keep everyone happy. Possibly offering a service to them such as taking over mowing their lawn in exchange for using their land. Renting land is a valid possibility. Get creative!
These jalapeños are grown on my neighbors property. This gives me more room in my garden to grow other things.
Cow share/pig shares and milk shares
I see more and more of this and I simply love it. This is a similar concept as the CSA. The farmer gets up front payment (or sometimes a deposit or monthly payment) ensuring him/her that their product will be sold and allows them to focus on farming. Often you can buy a whole animal, half, or quarter of an animal. With milk shares, you pay a certain amount for a weekly pickup. Raw milk is not legal in many areas and this is one way that people get around it. It is legal for you to drink raw milk from your own animal so in owning a share, you own part of that animal. Not all homesteaders can have large livestock and this is a wonderful way for communities to help take care of each other. By participating in this you help your local community, your local economy and are able to provide your family with farm fresh, healthy, local food!
Local Farm Markets and Local Farms
If you are unable to have a large garden, orchard, bees, or livestock, and you aren’t shopping from your local farms and farm markets, you are seriously missing the boat! I’m going to say the word COMMUNITY again! Catching the theme?! Relying solely on mono-crops shipped all over the world to grocery store chains by faceless farmers is not good for the land and it’s not good for community. It’s not great for the local economy. It is what it is, we don’t live in a perfect world and we love our farmers for feeding America but if you aren’t supporting your local agriculture, you need to! It is important to eat fresh, in season produce and locally raised meat and eggs, where you can meet the farmer and shake hands with the very person raising your food. People were meant to work together.
Community Gardens
Community gardens are all over the world and are a great way for people, especially in more urban areas, to come together and grow food. At a community garden, you will rent a space that is yours to grow in. There are typically volunteer days to maintain the grounds and manage mulching paths and compost etc. They often have community outreach days and fundraisers as well. Again.. community. Connect with your food and your community. Find your local community garden and see how you can get involved. Can’t find one? Start one. Don’t wait for someone to do the work for you!
Purchasing Land
Maybe you’re happy where you live but wish it had more land. Consider buying land close by. If you’re willing to hop in the car and go, you can raise and grow all your food down the road.
But I’m not done talking about your own current situation. You may think your space is too small. You may think your home isn’t cut out for providing food to your family but I would like to challenge you to dig deep and be honest with yourself. Your current situation is likely capable of more than you are giving it credit for. When I lived in Hawaii, I noticed how small everyones property was. So many apartments and homes with small yards. Their balconies were overflowing with plants. Many of them were edible some even had cages with quail or rabbits. You don’t need a huge plot of land to grow your own food! Balcony gardens can still rock. Look into hydroponics indoors and micro greens! Have an HOA? Quail could be the answer. Go to Pinterest and look for ideas on how to “hide” veggie plants in your landscaping if your HOA prohibits vegetable gardens (and then petition your neighbors to help change that ridiculous policy). Also, many medicinal herbs are beautiful and would fit in those flower beds nicely.
Someone recently gave me some advice.
He told me to make a list of everything I would love to do. Everything, no matter how unachievable I thought it might be. Just write it all down. Then make two categories. The first one is things that I can immediately do without having to ruffle my life too much. An example for me might be micro greens. I have room here for that. I cold do that. Just a little money to set up and it could be done. Then in the next category you put the things that you would really have to work around some obstacles to achieve. Instead of marking these things off the list because of the obstacles in the way, you go down the line and work out what it would take to make each of those things happen. Not everything on your list is going to come to fruition. You have to prioritize.
If your dream is to build a life where you are as self sufficient as you can be, where you are connected to your food source, and where community comes together to provide sustainable, healthy, local food, then work out the kinks and make it happen. Find your niche and find your angle. It’s there if you work for it. I have a list a mile long and I am constantly evaluating and reevaluating what things my family is willing to do to make our dreams a reality.
My great grandfather was a hunter, fisherman, and a farmer and lived in a time where people raised and grew their own food. At least some of it and you were better off if you could grow and raise most of it. They had chickens and a garden of course. There were pigs too. As time went on, those things faded away. They got older and could no longer farm and keep up with chickens and pigs etc. Modern ways snuck into their lives bit by bit. Now when you walk that property there’s no evidence of many of those things. I couldn’t tell you where the chicken coop was kept or where their garden was. I don’t know where they kept the pigs. (When I was a young child, there were pigs managed my him and my grandfather in a separate location. That I do remember) What IS left though is the gift he planted for the future.
When my great grandfather buried 3 pecans in the dirt and nurtured 3 small pecan trees into full grown producing trees, I wonder if he was imagining his great great grandchildren running around in the fall and picking them up off the ground. Could he fathom how special it would be one day when his great great granddaughter would help pick all the pecans out of the shells so her 9 year old brother could make a pecan pie from scratch for Thanksgiving with his family by himself? When he planted all the blueberry bushes, the apple trees, and the figs, did he picture his great granddaughter in her kitchen furiously canning, and freezing and dehydrating those very fruits he planted? He planted other fruit trees as well but some didn’t make it through various hurricanes etc.
My son with with homemade pecan pie and my daughter with her pumpkin pie from our pumpkins we grew.
This is the time of year, we go up and see how many pecans we can pick up. It normally takes several trips to gather them. My grandfathers “pecan picker upper” (that’s the technical name isn’t it?) was left in his garage and I just think using it is kind of special. His apple picker was in there too and I grabbed both so nothing would happen to them!
As a kid I remember the extra freezer in my great grandmothers house was full of blueberries and pecans. My grandfather would sit on the back porch and crack pecans all winter. He would sometimes do it in the kitchen when it was too cold and my grandmother would get frustrated by the mess he’d leave. I’m certain that he would be proud of us and our evolving little homestead. I’m sure that it would touch his heart to know that generations later, his hard work is appreciated.
The one thing I have really dropped the ball on at this property is planting fruit trees, nut trees, and bushes. I just haven’t committed to the spaces to put them. I need to just pull the trigger and do it. “They say” the best time to plant a fruit tree is 5 years ago. As we come up on 4 years here I think, “Man!! How big our trees would already be if I had just done it then!” And then I think about my kids growing up and picking fruit from our trees and bushes that I plant and possibly their children and so on and I know I need to just get them in the ground! You don’t always know who the gift is for down the line but go ahead and plant that tree. It will bring joy on another day.. to you, to your family, and to the unknown. It is said that a planting a garden is faith that tomorrow will come. Planting a tree is putting faith in the long term future.
So for now, this year, we will enjoy what we have and enjoy what was given to us. Appreciating what has been provided by the past. The gift to the future that my great grandfather gave us. These pecans are here because my great grandfather was providing food security to the future.
One of the shining stars of fall is the pepper. They love the heat and have a hard time in early spring getting going. They do start to shine in summer but there is something special that happens in the fall for peppers. They explode with fruit! Our jalapeño plants are DRIPPING with peppers! Actually to be more factual, my uncle’s pepper plants are, not mine haha. He plants several jalapeño plants along with some flowers in his one and only little edible garden. He grows them for my aunt who could NEVER eat as many as they produce. He doesn’t even LIKE spicy things. That’s love I tell ya.
I stick to growing other varieties of peppers and just walk next door to pick as many peppers as I can haul back home. That’s the wonderful thing about gardening friends. Someone is bound to have a better crop of something than you and sharing is the best! So what in the world do we do with all these peppers? Other than giving away many to friends and stuffing our selves with jalapeño poppers and salsa, we have discovered some delicious and creative ways to use up and preserve this abundance:
***Word of caution! When handling hot peppers, it’s not a bad idea to use gloves. The oils in peppers are difficult to completely wash away and you don’t want to make the mistake of rubbing your eyes after processing a bucket of hot peppers!
-“Cowboy Candy.” It’s candied. Sweet and Spicy! It’s so delicious on a sandwich, a salad, a baked potato, tacos, or just standing at the fridge scooping them out with a fork! Don’t toss out that extra brine! It can be used to make a glaze or a marinade for meat, add to a Bloody Mary, etc.
-Pickled Peppers Water bath canning them is the way to go and super easy to do
-Canned Salsa. Better make sure you get this done before all those tomatoes disappear for the year!
-Dehydrated Either in a dehydrator, oven dried, or air dried. Store in a mason jar with tight fitting lid. We use the dehydrator and set it on the back porch. Otherwise it runs the kids out of the house coughing haha!
-Powdered. Once you have your dehydrated peppers, you can pulverize them into powder to use as a seasoning.
-Freeze. Cut into slices and freeze. You can remove the seeds or leave them. Remember, if you’re freezing hot peppers, the seeds and the membranes will make it spicer. Add the frozen jalapeños to various dishes throughout the year. Freeze in small batches.
-Frozen for Jalapeno poppers. Pick the biggest of the peppers to cut in half length ways, scoop out seeds, and freeze to whip up some quick jalapeño poppers later.
-Hot Pepper Jelly. This is nice on a cracker with some cream cheese.
-Hot Pepper/Fruit Jelly. There are also recipes out there that add fruit such as peaches or figs to the hot pepper jelly. I haven’t tried one yet but it sounds delicious and is on the list!
-Hot Sauce. There are tons of hot sauce recipes using so many kinds of peppers and some have various fruits added. I will recommend that the spicer the pepper, the more careful handling you should pay attention to. Trying to do preparations outside is also helpful to disperse some of the capsaicin molecules in the air.
-Fermented. Fermenting sounds scary at first but I promise you is just a few simple steps to preserving your harvest and providing amazing probiotics in this delicious LIVING FOOD!
Now if you would excuse me, I have about a 5 gal bucket full of jalapeños that need my attention! Preserving is hard work but I never said it wasn’t worth it! So get to preserving and …
In the fall, just before it starts getting really cold, those green beans tend to go nuts one last time. They had a great run in the heat of summer then they putter out for a while but they like to go out with a bang at the end. When I plan it right, I have tons of beans in the fall. And truth be told, this year isn’t actually that year. I do have them steadily rolling in but it’s definitely shy of being a bumper crop.
My family loves green beans and we grow a few different varieties. I ALWAYS grow Purple Podded Pole Beans (try saying that fast a few times) and this year we also grew Thai Soldier Beans. This year the Thai Soldier Beans was more of an after thought. I just squeezed a few into a spot I had available. They really ran with that spot and are producing more than I thought I’d get.
In addition to canning green beans and freezing green beans and fermenting green beans, I like to DEHYDRATE green beans! They take up less space that way and are lighter, easier to store and I don’t have to worry about losing them in the freezer if the power were to go out. I have a run-of-the-mill dehydrator that I use regularly in the summer to dehydrate all kinds of things. And yes, I do have a fancy 9 tray Excalibur dehydrator siting in my wish list… one day… But sometimes you gotta go back to the “good ole days.” Long before modern day canning was a “thing” (which really didn’t take off until the late 1800s early 1900s) people dehydrated and fermented a lot of their food. Dehydration doesn’t have to require fancy machines. In fact, they don’t need much at all!
Have you heard the term Leather Britches? It’s the Appalachian method of air drying your garden beans. You simply use a needle and thread to string them similar to stringing popcorn garland.
How to make Leather Britches
What you will need:
Sturdy string or unwaxed dentil floss pieces cut to 2 or 3 foot
Large sewing needle
And a whole pile of green beens
Steps:
-Wash up those beans and dry them on a towel. (Can I just take a moment to tell you guys how much I’m loving the Turkish towels?! Seriously they are amazing!)
-Pick out any with bug nibbles or bad spots.
-Snap the ends of the beans (specifically the blossom end but I always snap both ends).
-Remove any strings from the beans.
-Break the beans either in half or, if you have a long bean variety, break into pieces about 2-3 inches long. I often have help from little ones in my house and they don’t always end up in the uniform sizes I would do if I was doing it by myself but it’s important to let them help. So I will cherish the too big and too small pieces for now.
Now for the fun part! The stringin’
-Thread your needle and tie a knot at the end of the thread. (If you’re concerned that your thread might not be strong enough, double the thread over)
-String that first bean on and wrap it and tie it off well. You want to make sure that the whole string of beans stays on the thread and doesn’t slip off.
-Now you just get to stringing!
-Once you’ve gotten all the beans that you can fit on a thread, leave room to tie it off. I make a loop so that I can hang it.
The goal is to have one string contain about the amount you would want to use for one meal. If you have a large family, you’ll need multiple strings for sure. To hang these, you will want them in a dark dry place and don’t squeeze them together. You want air flow around the beans or they will mold. A closet or a pantry works fine. It takes a few weeks or so to dry out and can last a year or so dried.
Cook em up!
Now that you’ve got your leather britches strung and dried, how do you prepare them?
Pull them off the string and soak them overnight. The next day you will cook them for several hours low and slow, traditionally with pork (ham hock, fat back, whatever you want) You also can skip that and do in a veggie stock if you want a vegetarian option. The best part is, they don’t get mushy like green beans can get from over cooking. They maintain a nice chewy texture.
These beans go by the name Leather Britches but also have been called Shucky beans depending on where you come from. Either way, they are delicious and easy so we are going to continue to add them to our food storage.
Get out to that garden, grab those beens, and get to stringin!
