Supplement to
Uses For Plants
by Corcceigh Green
If you have decided to begin your gardening experience by putting in a lazy man's garden, you are going to need to prepare the food you grow. Eventually, with a few years of moderate weekend work, you will be putting a fair amount of food in the freezer, or you might decide to can your produce should electricity not be available.
In keeping with this issue's Uses For Plants column, we are presenting this supplement to the reader. Basically, a collection of recipes, the following will present to you ideas on what to do with your produce.
Here's a recipe for hot climate gardeners that also shows the versitility of growing both fruits and nuts.
DATE-PECAN CANDY ROLL
2 cups sugar
½ cup light cream
½ cup dark corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
½ pound dates chopped
4 cups pecans, chopped
• Combine sugar, cream, syrup and butter in saucepan. Boil until reaches 234 degrees to 238 degrees measured with a candy thermometer, or a drop in cold water forms a soft ball.
• Remove from heat and add dates. Beat this mixture until it cools and thickens.
• Add pecans; turn the mixture out on a damp towel. Roll into log. Cool; cut into 6 pieces. Re-roll each piece into a log, about 1” in diameter. Chill. Cut logs into 1/4” slices.
Here's an old favorite for apple pie. For apple-rhubarb filling, use 5 tart cooking apples to one large rhubarb stem or two small stems.
QUICK APPLE PIE
5 to 6 tart cooking apples
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
2 to 3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
Pie crust dough
Sugar
• Pare and core apples; dice or slice (you will need about 5 cups).
• Mix sugar, cinnamon and salt; sprinkle over apples; toss lightly.
. Cover the bottom of 9" pie pan with pie dough.
• Put sugar-coated apples in 9” pie pan; add water; dot with butter.
• Place strips of pie dough over top of appies in checker board fashion. Sprinkle with sugar.
• Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) 45 minutes or until apples are tender. Serve plain, with whipped cream or ice cream. Makes 6 servings.
Apple Cider is not only a great thirst quencher, it is also an ingredient in some recipes and a terrific autumn treat. If you are going to grow even a small apple orchard, it is important to know how to make apple cider.
APPLE CIDER
1 Cider press and cheese cloth or 1 juicer.
Gallon jugs. Glass is best.
Apples
Wash apples and chop into pieces.
Place 2 layers of cheese cloth into your cider press.
Place chopped apples into your cider press and cover with the cheese cloth.
Screw the press down to the level of the apples until resistance is felt. Turn screw 2 or 3 more turns.
Collect the liquid that runs out into gallon jugs.
When liquid begins to slow, turn screw 2 or 3 more times. Repeat until liquid stops flowing from pressed apples.
If using a juicer. Juice your apples saving the solids. Pour the juice into the gallon jugs. Place small amounts of the solids into each jug, sparsely covering the bottom. Shake well.
Allow your cider to stand for a few days. When your cider begins turning "hard" refrigerate.
Cider can be made from a variety of fruits. Cherry, apple, pear, and peach being among the most common and delicious.
Hopefully, you've been storing food in case of bad harvests or bad times ahead. Wheat being an important storage food item, you will need to have some recipes involving this staff of life to keep your palat from turning bland. Here is a recipe utilizing your ciders to spice up your storage wheat. The cider can be made from any fruit. If you're not growing lemons, you may substitute the lemon juice with rhubarb juice in the same proportions.
OCTOBER CAKE
3 cups finely ground, sifted wheat flower
1 tablespoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
¾ teaspoon ground cloves
¾ cups shortening
1½ cups brown sugar, firmly packed
3 eggs,
beaten
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup cider
• Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and spices.
• Cream shortening and sugar; add eggs; beat until thoroughly blended.
• Add lemon juice to cider. Add alternately with dry ingredients to creamed mixture, beating after each addition.
• Pour batter into 3 greased round 8” pans. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) 25 to 30 minutes.
• Let stand 10 minutes; turn out to cool.
Spread Cider Filling between layers; frost with Creamy Cider icing.
CREAMY CIDER ICING
Melt ½ cup butter or margarine in saucepan; blend in 3½ tablespoon, flour and ¼ teaspoon salt. Add ½ cup cider; stir well. Bring to boil; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add 3 cups sifted confectioners sugar and beat well. Add ½ cup finely chopped nuts.
CIDER FILLING
Combine ½ cup sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt and 3 tablespoon cornstarch in saucepan. Add 1 cup cider; mix. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thick and clear. Remove from heat. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 2 tablespoons butter or margarine. Cool.
We all have recipes for the standard rhubarb pie; however; if you are growing rhubarb, you may wish to try some variation on the standard.
HONEY-LEMON RHUBARB PIE
4 cups rhubarb, finely chopped
1 1/4 cups sugar
6 tablespoons finely ground, sifted wheat flour
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/3 cup honey
Pie dough for 2-crusts on 1, 9” pie
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
• Combine rhubarb, sugar, flour, salt and rind; mix well. Blend in honey. Let stand while making pie dough.
• Line 9” pie pan with pie dough. Fill with rhubarb mixture; dot with butter. Adjust top crust and seal edge. (For sparkling top, brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar.)
• Bake in very hot oven (450 degrees) 10 minutes; reduce heat to moderate (350 degrees) and bake 35 to 45 minutes more.
To help that home-baked wheat bread or pancakes go down, it never hurts to have jams to spread on them. Here's a couple of recipes for the rhubarb and berry grower.
BLUEBERRY-RHUBARB JAM
3 cups finely chopped rhubarb
3 cups crushed blueberries
7 cups sugar
1 (6 oz.) bottle liquid fruit pectin or 1 crushed quince fruit
• Simmer rhubarb gently until tender. Combine with blueberries in large saucepan, add sugar; mix.
• Place over high heat; bring to full, rolling boil and boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, add pectin, or, if using quince, add crushed quince fruit to blueberries and rhubarb before boiling. Stir and skim for 5 minutes. Ladle into hot sterilized glasses. Cover at once with thin layer paraffin. Makes about 9 half-pints.
HASTY RED RASPBERRY JAM
7 cups of red raspberries
6½ cups sugar
1 (2½ oz.) package powdered pectin or 1 crushed quince fruit
1 cup cold water
• Puree 7 cups berries in food processor. Add sugar and mix well.
• Put pectin or crushed quince fruit and water in saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring.
• Remove from heat; immediately add berry mixture. Stir about 5 minutes. or until sugar crystals are thoroughly dissolved and mixture begins to thicken.
• Pour immediately into freezer containers. Cover; let stand 24 hours in cool place, until completely jelled. Seal airtight and freeze. Makes about 3½ pints.
For Blackberry Jam, use 8 cups blackberries and decrease sugar to 5½ cups.
Here's some good ones for the extra quince that you don't use as a substitute for pectin in canning.
GINGER QUINCE
6 pounds ripe quince
4 pounds sugar
2 cups water
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
4 lemons, sliced thin
• Pare and core quince; cut into small pieces.
• Combine sugar and water; stir to dissolve. Boil 5 minutes. Add chopped quince, ginger root and lemon slices.
• Simmer 2 hours, until fruit is transparent and deep red in color. Pour into hot, sterilized glasses; seal at once. Makes
5 pints.
If fresh ginger root is unavailable, use a small piece of the dried root, but discard before sealing glasses.
QUINCE CUSTARD PIE
2 large ripe quinces
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoon melted butter or margarine
3 eggs, separated
1 cup mllk
Pie dough in 9" pie pan
½ cup sugar
• Peel and quarter quinces. Cook until tender. Puree, (should yield 1 cup). Add ½ cup sugar, lemon juice, nutmeg, cinnamon and butter.
• Beat egg yolks until thick; add milk. Add to quince mixture. Pour into pie pan with pie dough.
• Bake In hot oven (425 degrees) 10 minutes; reduce heat to moderate (350 degrees) and bake 30 minutes or until custard sets.
Make meringue from egg whites and 1/3 cups sugar. Beat together until thick. Spread over pie. Brown in hot oven (400 degrees) 5 minutes.
Currants are such a great treat. You don't want to be without at least one currant recipe.
CURRANT PIE
3 cups red currants
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pie dough for 2-crusts on 1, 9” pie
• Wash and stem currants. Crush slightly in bowl. Mix sugar, tapioca and salt; add to currants and stir until berries are coated with mixture.
• Pour into pie dough-lined pan; top with latticed pie dough. Bake in hot oven (425 degrees) 10 minutes, reduce heat to moderate (350 degrees) and bake 30 minutes longer, or until center is set. Top with sweetened whipped cream.
With the above recipes, you are certain to enjoy your lazy gardening habbits. Get out there for a couple of hours every other weekend and work moderately at raising some produce. You will enjoy the results and quickly get back to your easy chair. Have fun.