Mother Earth's Garden

If you had a wonderful harvest this year you can give back by donating some of that late season harvest to those less fortunate than you. I’m always thankful for the food that I get from my garden. There’s almost always more than we can eat ourselves.

This time of year there’s not much left from my garden but I do still have some potatoes, winter squash, onions, watermelon, pumpkin, turnips, cabbage, and apples floating around.
If you have some late season bounty why not donate it to a local food kitchen, or make something to take to your food kitchen and …read more

No Comments

We had our first Fall frost last night, so I spent the evening grabbing the last of the tender vegetables out of the garden, and pulling in houseplants, and any other plants I want to keep through the winter.

I think we’re a little early for our first frost date here in Ohio this year, but not much. I know we don’t usually see frost until October, but it’s usually a little later than October 1st. But this morning Mother Nature gave us our first white coating of frost.

I picked a bagful of peppers, a couple dozen …read more

1 Comment

The garden’s cranking it up the last few days, here’s a photo of last nights haul. I’m starting to get tons of peppers, a few red tomatoes, cucumbers, and yellow squash daily.

I’ve been plucking onions almost daily for cooking, and my potatoes are ready to dig. I probably need to get them dug this week.
There’s also a couple eggplant almost ready (another day or two). They’re yummy on the grill.
The tomatoes that are getting ripe are the smaller ones, I have red, yellow, and a dark purple variety here. They’re smaller than the peppers, but they’ll be wonderful …read more

No Comments

It’s that time of the year again. When I’m scurrying around, trying to preserve all the fruits and vegetables in my garden for later. The time when I have squash, green beans and other produce overflowing on my counters and in my fridge.

Over the last couple years I’ve written several posts on how to preserve part of that harvest, with some yummy recipes thrown in there too. I thought I’d revisit some of those posts since we’ll all soon be in a canning and freezing frenzy.

Hot Pepper Jam
Freezing Peppers
My grandma’s recipe for canning red  beets
Freezer Pickles
Zucchini cobbler
Freezing Blueberries

I’ll …read more

1 Comment

Every year I can and freeze a ton of fruits and vegetables from my garden. There are some fruits, grains, and vegetables that can be kept for long periods of time without any extra preparation from you. Those are some of my favorites. You can extend your garden meals long into the winter if you include some of these long keepers in your garden plans.
Here are some of my favorite fruits and vegetables to grow for their long storage capacity:

Pumpkins and winter squash will keep for most of the winter if you keep them in a cool dry place, …read more

1 Comment

If you have a patch full of beautiful orange pumpkins , here are a few ways to keep them from going to waste.

Paint your pumpkins
Carve them with power tools
Pumpkin cookies With Cream Cheese Icing
Pumpkin pie
Pumpkin serving bowls
Pumpkin Crunch Cake
Fall Displays
Pumpkin cheesecake
Pumpkin Bread
Roast the Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

What else do you do with all those pumpkins in your pumpkin patch?
_______________________
This is a Blogtoberfest-sponsored post. If you would like to enter for a chance to win the surprise gift behind this blog post, please leave a comment. Prize and winner will be announced within a week.
Check back to see …read more

188 Comments

There’s not much left in my garden this time of year. I have a few grape tomatoes, and some peppers (both hot and mild). There are also a couple Roma tomatoes left.
I think I’ll use the peppers and tomatoes to make some salsa this weekend.
I have some  pumpkins we harvested before the bugs got to them, and some zucchini, onions, red beets, cucumbers, and cabbage in the house on the counter driving my husband crazy since they’re just sitting there and I haven’t done anything with them yet.
I have big pans for this weekend. I’d …read more

No Comments

One of my favorite fall snacks is hot pepper jam spread on crackers. It’s a true assault to your taste buds. You get sweet, hot, and salty all in one bite.
If you have a bunch of hot peppers, and you’ve already frozen your pepper limit, and you’ve had your fill of garden salsa, here’s a recipe to use up some of those extra hot peppers.
Hot Pepper Jam
1 cup hot banana peppers (you can use mild if you want to make a sweet jam without the heat)- remove the stems only
3/4 cup red or green bell pepper, remove …read more

11 Comments

Freezing peppers is super easy. I just cut the tops off the smaller hot peppers like habanero, and jalapenos. I lay them all out on a cookie sheet and pop them in the freezer. I let them freeze for a couple hours, then I put them in a freezer bag labeled with the type of pepper and date. They’re wonderful to pull out in January for salsa, chili, or other spicy dishes.
I usually cut the tops off of bell peppers, and banana peppers, then take the seeds out. I freeze some bell peppers whole so I can pull …read more

13 Comments

My sister gave me this delicious way to use up some of those extra zucchini laying around on your countertops. It tastes like an apple cobbler (you could easily substitute apples for the zucchini later in the fall). The crust is crumbly and crunchy.

Zucchini Cobbler Recipe:

Ingredients:
Filling

5-6 cups of chopped, peeled, seeded zucchini
1/3 cup lemon juice (the juice of about 2 lemons)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Crust

2 cups flour (I used a 50/50 blend of white and whole wheat)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon

To make it:

Preheat the oven to 375.` Cook the zucchini and lemon juice for …read more

7 Comments