Making Jalapeño Green Hot Sauce. 10.22.2021

There were still green Jalapeño peppers in the garden, and some Serranos and a couple of green Thai peppers. I started a fermentation to make some green hot sauce. Other than the pepper ripeness, it's the same recipe as the sriracha. About one pound of peppers, 2 1 2 cups water, 1 1/2 tbsp sea salt, a small onion, chopped, 4 cloves of farlic, chopped, a couple spoons of noncooked sauerkraut juice, a teaspoon sugar. Heat the water to a boil, add the salt and sugar, let it cool to room temp. Pour into jar. Add the garlic and onion. Cut the peppers into chunks, add to jar until up to level of rine but ot able it. Add plastic bag and fill that with water to seal.

This will sit in the dark for about ten days, Then pour out and reserve brine, process the peppers, garlic, onion with 1/3 cup of the brine plus 1 tsp additional sugar. Transfer to a jar and store in fridge. I don't know how long it will keep, I' e kept it for a year in the fridge.

Tabletop Quilt. 10.22.2021

This was a quick project. I spent all day for two days working on it, and it's done. It'sfairly small, table top size. It turnd out pretty good. If I would have taken longer, it might have been more even but that's OK. This one will serve a purpose.

Nerine Flowers. 10.21.21

 These Nerine were in a container for years, then two years ago I planted them in my garden in an out of the way location.  Beyond weeding and a mulch, I don't do anything for them.  My great aunt Emma used to grow Lycoris, which is very similar.  She called them "Magic Lilies"  because the leaves would die down, then weeks later a flower stalk would emerge. I've never been able to grow Lycoris here, but this Nerine seems quite happy.

Carnivorous Sarracenia Plants. 10.20.21

 Some of the pitcher plants have a lot of nice color now.  All I did with them this year was repot in larger containers and keep the rain water in their basins fresh to avoid mosquitoes / not dry out.  During the winter they can just sit outside.  It's a lot of color to be so easy.

Cooking a Jumbo Size "Illinois" Squash. 10.20.2021

This week I butchered an Illinois squash and made several things from it. There wasn't much wasted. The back story of this open-pollinated variety is that Abraham Lincoln's family bought the seeds when they lived in Kentucky. When they moved to Illinois, they took seeds along for the move. They grew these in New Salem. Seeds were given or sold to neighbor families, some of whom grew them for generations, passing the seeds down to their descendants. Finally, some seeds wound up with seed merchants, and I bought these from rareseeds.com. This is a moschata species squash, and all of my other squashes were ither species, so they should grow true from saved seeds. This squash was 18 pounds. It was way to big to roast without making some slices.

I set aside one one-pound section to be included as 1-inch cubes in the next 8-day supply of dog food, and a 2-cup portion of cubes for the day's squash soup. The rest were roasted at 375 F for 90 minutes until tender. Then I scooped out or sliced off the toased flesh and pureed for future soups or pies.

This squash came out lemon yellow. I froze 6 2-cup freezer bags of puree for future use. I also rinsed off the seeds and let them dry to save for next year. I did make a pie with one bag of puree. Despite being lemon yellow, the pie came out a rich chestnut brown. The recipe is the same as pumpkin pie, except I substitute coconut milk for evaporated milk. Very tasty pie for sure.