Pear Butter

Our pear tree was extremely productive this year. After giving away bags of pears to everyone who would take them, we were still buried in pears.

I've heard a lot about apple butter and was always wanted to try it. With pears and apples being so similar (in my mind at least), I figured I could make some pear butter instead! It turned out really nicely.

I used it instead of mayo on a ham sandwich and it was a nice salty/sweet combo. It was also a nice change of pace from boring old ham sandwiches. Do you have any other suggestions on how to use it?

This is my submission to the Grow Your Own blogging event which shows off things people grow and the things they make with it. Check out Mowgli Chic's blog on Sept 30th to see what everyone else made!









Ingredients:
-Pears
-Sugar
-Cinnamon
-Nutmeg
-Water

Directions:
- Wash, cut and core the pears.
- In a pot or pressure cooker with just a tiny bit of water (the pears will release a lot of their own liquid, so you don't need much), cook the pears until they are soft.
- Use a stick blender or an actual blender and blend until smooth. It'll probably have a consistency similar to watery applesauce.
- Put the mixture in a heavy pot or slow cooker and reduce it until it reaches the desired consistency (similar to peanut butter). This will take a looooong time, so be patient. I reduced mine by more than 2/3 before I was happy with the consistency.
- Stir it every once in a while to keep it from burning, turning the heat way down when the mixture becomes thick. I propped the lid using two chopsticks so that it wouldn't splatter all over the place but would still allow steam to escape.
- Add sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg (and any other spices you like) to taste. Add this at the end just because if you add it in the beginning, then cook it down, you'll probably end up with something way too sweet.
- If you want to can your pear butter, fill up sanitized, heated jars with the pear butter. Cover and process in a boiling water bath for at least 10 minutes. Let them sit overnight and then check them to make sure that the seal is tight. If not, you can reprocess it or put it in the fridge and eat it right away.

Fresh salsa

I love fresh salsa, it's so much better than jarred, and summertime is the best time to make it because all the ingredients are fresh and readily available. In fact, most of these ingredients came from our own backyard!

Here's our first tomato of the season! He's a small little bugger. In fact, all the romas seem to be small little buggers, but the beefsteak and heirlooms seem to be growing quite nicely. Oh, and I'm happy to announce that I have not lost a single plant to gophers this year, hooray! The hubz helped me line the bottom of our raised bed with the chicken wire and that seems to have done the trick. I've also been setting out gopher traps and have had quite a few successes. Those efforts, combined with the fact that I have 10 thriving tomato plants means that we'll be eating lots of fresh tomatoes this year!

I know that homegrown tomatoes are sweeter than store bought, but ours were so sweet that they didn't make a good salsa at all. I had to put a TON of lime juice in before it tasted "normal". Luckily I just planted a lime tree in our last year and it's producing fruit too.


Letting them sit in the fridge overnight also helped tone down the sweetness, so we ended up with something pretty tasty.

Ingredients:
- Tomaotes
- Red onion
- Jalapeno
- Cilantro
- Lime juice
- Salt
- Pepper

Directions:
- Dice the tomaotes into small cubes.
- Finely dice the onions (I skipped these this time because I didn't have any and didn't feel like going to the store)
- Finely mince the jalapeno
- Mince the cilantro (also skipped because I was too lazy to go to the store and let the ones in my garden die on me)
- Mix the tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, cilantro, lime juice and salt & pepper to taste.
- Put everything in the fridge for a few hours to let the flavors mellow together.
- Serve with tortilla chips or on a taco or other your favorite Mexican dish.

Waaaah!!!!

I'm gonna cry ='(

I'm having a very bad gardening day. First, I go out to my yard this morning to water my tomatoes, and guess what I see...


Stupid gophers! It's bad enough that they're making holes in our lawn, they're eating my tomatoes too! I suppose I should've known it was coming, tomatoes being one of their favorites and all. But it doesn't make me any less upset. I have 3 more tomato plants that I'm sure won't last long. We're going to go buy some traps today because nothing else we've tried have worked and our yard is starting to look like the face of a teenage boy with all those gopher holes. Grrrr.

After mourning my tomato and tending to my surviving garden, I go inside to water my orchids. I'm quite proud. We got 2 orchids as housewarming gifts and I've managed to keep both alive and one of them WAS re-flowering, which from what I hear, is very difficult to do for beginner orchiders. BUT, stupid me. I accidentally knock off the entire branch of flowers! Who knew it was so delicate? Seriously, I barely tapped it.


So, like I said. WAH!!!! What a horrible gardening day. I'm plant-sitting for my mother in law while she's on vacation and should probably stay away her orchids until my luck turns around.

Well, I guess I'm off to the hardware store. I'll teach those gophers to mess with me!

Garden Update

The first strawberry of the season! Nice, bright, red, and hopefully delicious. Our strawberries were very sweet last year, so I expect the same this year.

Look how many are on their way!!!

The previous owners really had a green thumb and left us with lots of goodies (like these strawberries).

My thumb however, is not quite as green. Here's an update to my previous post. My tomato and basil "sprouts" were actually weeds =( Our gardener accidentally kicked over my planter with the mint and I think I overwatered (and killed) the garlic chive. *sigh* But I have one redeeming plant - my cilantro! Yay!


I'm going to attempt the basil again by starting them indoors this time around and bought some already started seedlings for the tomatoes.

Now, if I could just get rid of those darn gophers... any ideas?

It's alive!!!

They've sprouted! They've sprouted!!!

All of my herbs have at least one successful sprout - basil, mint, garlic chives, cilantro and even tomatoes. I'm so excited! But we're not in the clear yet. I've had sprouts before and they died on me, but last time it was indoors with poor (aka no) drainage and little sun. Hopefully this time the conditions are better and they'll live to be full blown yummy herbs in no time!

Unfortunately, I did a bit more reading after I put the seeds in the ground and realized that I probably should've started them indoors and then hardened them before transferring them outside. Oh well. The seeds were inexpensive and my backup plan is to buy the already started plants from the nursery. The hubz asked me why I didn't start with those to begin with, but it's much more satisfying to say you grew it from a seed. He has no confidence in my herb growing abilities, but I don't blame him given my track record, I don't have much confidence either...

Keep those fingers crossed!

In the Garden

I planted tomatoes, basil, mint, cilantro and garlic chives this past weekend. I've never done it before so keep your fingers crossed for me!