A rainy day in Autumn

Here area few pictures from a rainy Autumn day on the farm. Fall is a beautiful time of the year!

Making Chow Chow

The origins of chow chow is somewhat debated but basically it was a way to preserve the vegetables at end of the growing season. It's a pickled relish made from a combination of many vegetables. It can include a variety of vegetables such as cucumber, peppers, celery, corn, lima beans, carrots, peppers, onions...etc.  Chow chow can be eaten by itself or as a condiment on hot dogs and hamburgers, with mashed potatoes or pinto beans. This recipe is an old Pennsylvanian Dutch chow chow. It's mustard based and contains a variety of summer vegetables. Southern style chow chows are similar but usually contain spicy peppers, green tomatoes, and cabbage or cauliflower. You could really add almost any vegetable to the mix.

Chow Chow

Ingredients:
1 quart cucumber, diced
1 quart Lima beans
1 quart green beans, cut into pieces
1 quart sweet corn
1 pint green pepper, diced
1 pint red pepper, diced
1 pint celery, diced
1 cup onion, diced
1 Tablespoon dry mustard
2 cups sugar
4 cups vinegar

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook all the vegetables separately, about 3 minutes each, until tender but not soft. Drain cooked vegetables and mix together. In a large pot, combine the, sugar, vinegar, and mustard. Bring to a boil. Add all the vegetables and bring to a boil. Put immediately  into hot mason jars and seal.

Put the hot chow chow into hot quart or pint jars. It's best to wash them in the dishwasher and dry on high heat. Leave them in the dishwasher until ready to use. Make sure your jars have no nicks on the rims and the jars are not cracked. They cannot seal if the rim is nicked. Cracked jars should be discarded. In a small pot or skillet, add about an inch of water. Place the lids for the jars in the water and bring to a boil. Leave them in the hot water until ready to use.

After the jar is filled to about a 1/2 an inch from the top, using a clean damp cloth, wipe the top rim of the jar. If there is anything on the rim of the jar it will not make a tight seal.

Take a lid from the hot water and place it on the top of your filled jar.

Add the ring to the top of the jars and tighten as tight as you can get them. Be careful as you tighten the jars. You may have to wear an oven mitt or use a dish towel when you do this as the jars will be very hot.

Your jars should begin sealing within 30 minutes or so as they cool down. You should hear a popping sound to indicate that they are sealing. The jars are sealed when the "button" on the tops of the lids are flat. If they do not flatten, your jar is not sealed and you must either process the unsealed jar in a hot water bath or keep the jar in the refrigerator. 

Crisp Claussen-style Dill Pickles

We've got lots of cucumbers at the farm right now. That means it's time to make pickles! This is a recipe for Claussen-like pickles. It's a simple, very quick pickling method. These pickles are a refrigerator pickle. They are not canned. This gives the pickles the crisp snap of a Claussen pickle. They are ready to eat about a week after you jar them and will last, refrigerated, for 6 months to a year.

1 gallon pickling cucumbers, do not use waxed grocery store cucumbers

6 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tablespoon mustard seeds
6 heads fresh dill, or 6 sprigs fresh dill weed and 1/2 tablespoon dill seeds

pinch of red pepper flakes
1 1/2 quarts water
2 cups cider vinegar
1/2 cup canning salt

Boil liquids and seasonings to dissolve the salt then cool to room temperature. Slice the ends off of the cucumbers. The blossom end of the cucumber will make the pickles soft if left on the cucumber. Then slice the cucumbers lengthwise into quarters add to jars along with the dill.

 Pour over pickles and refrigerate. Shake the jars of pickles at least once a day to redistribute the spices. The pickles will be ready to eat in about a week. They will be good for about 6 months kept in the refrigerator.

If you live near the Slocomb area, we've a lots of pickling cucumbers, right now! As with all of our produce, no herbicides or pesticides are used in the production of our cucumbers. Give us a call if you'd like to stop by and purchase some of our cukes and make your own pickles. Ask about what else is growing on the farm right now.

Waterberry hits the road...

Well not Waterberry, it's still right there in Slocomb, but the farm has been shut down for the summer. After all these years of farming we decided it was time for a break from working. So we've closed up the greenhouses, packed up the camper, and hit the road! We're on our way to Alaska for the summer. Yup, we're driving all the way to Alaska. Once there will be spending the summer volunteering at Camp Victory in Sutton.

Don't worry we'll be back sometime in September and be ready to start growing again, but for now this is our home!!

.For updates on our trip and highlights from our summer, check out our other blog at www.lifeintheotherla.blogspot.com

How to freeze strawberries

 Our strawberry season at Waterberry, will soon be just a memory. It's sad to see the berry season wind down and the last of the berries picked. Luckily, we know we've got berries put away that we'll enjoy through out the rest of the year. Strawberries can be made into jams or preserves, but the easiest way to preserve strawberries is freezing. There are a couple of different methods that can be used for freezing your fresh strawberries.
The first, and by far the most simple way to freeze your strawberries is, freezing the whole berries. This is the best method for very ripe, red berries. Wash and sort the berries, discarding any bad berries. Hull the berries (remove the green tops and stem) and place the whole hulled berries into plastic freezer bags. Lay the bag flat and try to have the berries in a single layer. Gently push as much air out of the bag as you can, taking care not to crush the berries. I stack mine on a cookie sheets and put them in the freezer. This way they stay nice and flat and be much easier to stack in the freezer, once frozen.

Another way we like to freeze our strawberries is, sliced with a little sugar. This method is great for slightly under ripe or not very sweet berries. It's also great for berries that you plan on using in smoothies. Clean the strawberries the same as for the whole berries, removing the stem and tops. Then slice or quarter the berries into a large bowl. Add about 1/2 cup of sugar for each quart of strawberries you have in the bowl. If your berries are already very sweet you may want to use only about 1/3 cup sugar per quart of berries. Gently stir the sugar into the sliced strawberries. Bag the sugared berries in plastic freezer bags immediately, laying the bags flat on a cookie tray. Gently press out any excess air  form the bags. Place in the freezer. The sugar will begin to draw the juice out of the strawberries, so you want to get them in the freezer fairly quickly.

There are a couple of other freezing methods for strawberries, but these are the two that we use and have found to be the most successful for our needs.
Freezing strawberries is so easy, you have no excuse not to have your own stash of frozen berries!

Snow Day!

It only happens once every ten to twenty years but it snowed here at Waterberry farm this week! It only lasted about a day, but it turned our farm into a winter wonderland. Here a a few pictures from our snow day.

Summer's over

Well its been a great summer here at Waterberry Farm. We stayed busy with the Farmers Market until August and then took a short break from growing in order to get the greenhouses and systems clean and ready for the Fall season.

Last week we hosted a potluck supper on the porch, as a thank you for all those that volunteered and participated in the Poplar Head Farmers Market this summer. Thanks to everyone's hard work the Market was a huge success.  A big thank-you to the First Baptist Church volunteers. They were an amazing group of people. They arrived bright and early every Saturday with smiles on their faces and worked in 100 plus degree heat without a complaint. We couldn't have done it with out the help and support of the volunteers and of course we wouldn't have a market without our farmers.Thanks to all that participated and I can't wait till next year!

It had rained most of the day but the sun came out just before everyone arrived and it was a perfect evening!