Canning - How To Can Homemade Fig Preserves With Recipe and Tips

During the summertime, I look forward to purchasing a lot of great tasting figs from our local fruit orchard and one of the recipes I enjoy making with them is Fig Preserves.

If you are not familiar with how to purchase and store figs, let me give you a few tips. Figs are a very fragile fruit so they need to be handled carefully. You never want to toss them around in your shopping bag or basket. When selecting the perfect fruit, you always want to check for blemishes and only purchase ripe ones that are defect free. Figs do not have a long shelf life so they need to be eaten up within 2 days of purchasing them. When storing them, store at room temperature and allow the air to circulate around them. You do not want to store your figs near a heat source or window.

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Serving Ideas: Fig Preserves are great served on fresh bread, on bagels, as a pancake topping, on muffins and rolls, with crackers or as a marinade for poultry.

Canning - Homemade Fig Preserves Recipe
4 lbs. fresh ripe figs
4 1/2 lbs. granulated sugar
1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 lemon, thinly sliced and seeds removed
tap water
You will want to start out by washing and drying your figs. Cut them down and mash them with a potato masher. In a large stock pot, combine the mashed figs, granulated sugar, lemon juice and the lemon slices. Pour in just enough tap water to help dissolve the granulated sugar. Turn the heat up on your burner to medium-high and bring the mixture to a rapid boil and boil for 12-15 minutes. You will need to stir the mixture pretty often to keep it from scorching. (tip: I like using a silicone spatula for stirring so that the mixture doesn't stick to my spoon).

Once it is done cooking, ladle the preserves into hot, clean, pint sized glass canning jars. You will want to process them in your water bath canner for about 10 minutes or follow the directions that came with your canner for processing preserves.

Once they are done processing, remove them from the water bath canner (allow the water to drain off the jar and back into the canner) and place them onto a wire rack to cool. Once cool, label your jars. Your new fig preserves will keep for up to 1 year if they have been canned properly.

Canning - How To Can Homemade Fig Preserves With Recipe and Tips

Shelly Hill is a mother and grandmother living in Pennsylvania who enjoys cooking, baking and canning. You can visit Shelly's online foodie blog called Shakin 'N Bakin in the Kitchen at http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com for free canning tips and recipes.

Canning - How to Make Homemade Apple Chutney Plus a Recipe

During the fall season, we love to visit our local fruit orchard and pick our own apples so that we can make some homemade apple chutney.

We enjoy using this chutney as a sandwich spread or as an addition to our homemade chicken, turkey and tuna salads. If you are using it as a salad spread, cut your mayonnaise or salad dressing in half and replace the other half with the chutney.

Orchard

This recipe requires the basic home canning equipment: half-pint or pint-sized mason jars, water bath canner, jar lifter, seals and rings, ladle and a funnel.

Apple Chutney Recipe

2 quarts apples

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 lbs. seedless raisins

4 cups brown sugar, firmly packed

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 cup sweet red peppers, finely chopped

2 red peppers, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, crushed

2 1/2 tablespoons mustard seed

2 tablespoons ginger

2 teaspoons ground allspice

1 teaspoon curry powder

2 teaspoons table salt

4 cups white vinegar

Apple Preparation: Wash, peel, core and chop your apples, sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice to prevent darkening; set aside.

In a large stock pot, combine all of the above ingredients, one at a time and stirring in between each addition. Over medium heat, simmer the mixture for 60 to 85 minutes or until the mixture has thickened. Use a nonstick silicone spatula to stir the mixture every 10 minutes.

Once mixture is done cooking, ladle it into hot and clean mason jars, leaving a 1/2" head space. Use a soft cotton towel and wipe the rims clean before placing the seal and ring onto your jar.

Process jars in your water bath canner for 10 to 15 minutes or according to manufacturers instructions. Once they are done, carefully remove them from the water and let them cool in a non-drafty area of your kitchen. After 2 hours have passed, recheck your jars to make sure they have all sealed properly.

Canning - How to Make Homemade Apple Chutney Plus a Recipe

Shelly Hill has been working from home since 1989 and is a Manager with Tupperware. Shelly enjoys cooking and baking for her family and friends and trying out new recipes. You can visit Shelly online at http://www.workathomebusinessoptions.com or at http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com for additional free recipes and cooking tips.

Make Your Own Homemade Hydroponics Nutrients

Hydroponic gardening is becoming increasingly popular these days. By growing plants in water and nutrient solution, you can save time, money and space while enjoying year round plants. Although there are many commercially produced nutrient solutions available to ensure the growth of your plants, it's possible to create your own homemade hydroponics nutrients, even if you have no previous experience.

Making your own nutrient mixtures can be nearly as enjoyable as growing the plants themselves. You can produce various kinds of solutions, so do your homework to determine which nutrients you need and in what concentrations, to best suit your plants' needs.

Gardening

Homemade hydroponics nutrients have considerable advantages. The first is that you are able to create a solution that is completely organic. This will ensure that your plants contain zero inorganic material. There's no way to know exactly what you're feeding your plants when you give them store-purchased nutrient mixtures. Manufacturers must list all ingredients in their mixtures, but they may be impure or of unknown origin. You may be totally assured that you know about all of the ingredients that go into your plants by creating your own nutrient mixes.

The second major advantage of homemade hydroponics nutrients is that they allow you to match your plants' exact needs so that they grow just as you desire. To encourage your plants' enhanced growth, you can adjust the nutrients to match the requirements of your geographical region. Because of the many uncertainties in the growth of various plants, it's impossible to say just how helpful this step can be, though. Still, having complete control over what goes into the nutrients you feed your plants allows you to continuously attempt to find the best combination.

There are usually guarantees provided for solutions that you can buy in stores, but they may have shortcomings. There is nothing better than intervention by a human in the process of growing, and by controlling the nutrients your plants will become more your own.

You can place a personal touch on your plants in many ways, but the way that will have the greatest effect is by using homemade hydroponics nutrients. You may be new at growing plants hydroponically or you may have years of experience, but almost anyone can produce the ingredients required. Make up a base formula, do your homework, and do some cautious and careful experimentation. Most of all, have fun with this important aspect of hydroponic gardening.

Make Your Own Homemade Hydroponics Nutrients

The right hydroponic nutrients can take your indoor gardening to a whole different level. If you're interested in learning how to cultivate a hydroponic garden, you need to know what you're doing before you get started. Discover the essentials at Hydroponic Gardening.

Homemade Water Garden Fountains

Making a homemade garden fountain can be quite a simple task. You can also build quite elaborate fountains although it may not be quite as easy. You first have to decide just what it is you are contemplating. Are you looking to make a simple garden fountain that will sit on your patio table as a focal point? Or are considering an in ground pond with a relatively large fountain? Either way there is going to be some planning required.

The table top homemade garden fountains: This is a great way that you can really use your creativity here. Chances are you probably have many items around your home that you can use to make up your fountain. There will be some items that you will need to purchase such as a small pump and tubing to make your fountain flow. You can start by using several different sizes of clay flower pots. For the base of your fountain try and find a ceramic flowerpot or even large bowl. Then you can use your clay pots to create different levels in your fountain allowing the water to flow through them. You can vary the positioning of them, by allowing some of them to fill with water, and then spill down onto the next pot which would be placed upside down.

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To position your pots at different levels, use a variety of different size stones and build them up. If you can find some small pieces of shale they work well as ledges. Then once you have the various pots strategically laid out the way you want them then you can start adding some accessories. You can add either some real plants or some artificial ones. Purchase some artificial moss and position this around your pots and on the ledges. It's from this point where you can be creative. You may have thought that you didn't have the talent to do this but once you start you will see how easy it really is.

The outdoor pond fountains: You have lots of choices here for your fountain as there are many on the market that you can purchase. If you really want to customize your pond consider making your own fountain head. A great medium to make a fountain head out of is ceramic. This doesn't mean that you have to settle for one of the store bought ones either.

If there is a ceramic hobby shop near you then you could go and purchase a piece of unfinished ceramic and do it yourself. There are actually ceramic pieces that are designed for fountains or you can modify it with your own creativity. The ceramic shop will give you instructions on how to prepare your piece so that it can be used in your fountain setting. The two important aspects will be inserting an opening for the water to flow through, and to make sure the piece is glazed. This is one sure way of having a unique fountain head for your garden fountain.

Homemade Water Garden Fountains

Jason Boonstra is the author of "The Ultimate Water Garden Manual" - compulsory reading for anyone considering water garden fountains. This website contains valuable information on how to easily create & maintain your own stunningly beautiful Water Garden with lively & healthy fish.

For a FREE 20 part mini-course on "The Secrets To Creating & Maintaining a Stunning Water Garden!" go to http://www.watergardentips.com

How to Make a Simple Homemade Aeroponics System

The main problem I have always had with building a homemade aeroponics system is the clogging spray nozzles. I was in a hydroponics supply store the other day when it occurred to me the aeroponics system I was looking at did not use any spray heads. As I looked over the new hydroponic gardening system, I marveled at how simple the design really was. With the right pump and correct assembly, the following homemade aeroponics system is relatively problem free.

There are four main parts to this simple system. There is a 20 gallon (75 liter) reservoir. There are several channels 4 or 6 inches in diameter and several feet long. Every 6 or 8 inches there is a hole drilled into the channel to accomodate a plant. The channels are pitched to allow drainage back to the reservoir. Next is a 1/2 inch line, run down the center of each channel and capped at the end. All the lines are connected at the other end by a manifold. Finally, the manifold attaches to a pump. At any point along the 1/2 line where spray is desired a 1/16 inch drill bit is used to cleanly make a small hole (usually one between each plant site).

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First, 1/2 inch PVC is cut to length and capped at one end. Spray locations are marked and drilled into the 1/2 inch PVC. A 1/2 inch line is run through the length of each channel, which is made from 4 or 6 inch PVC. The line is held in place by drilling two small holes and fastening a zip tie every few feet.

One end of each channel will have to be sealed with an end cap. The other end may be sealed or left open, depending on how drainage back to the reservoir is to be accomplished. 2 1/2 or 3 inch holes are cut every 6 to 8 inches in the channel to accomodate netted pots (or other planting containers).

At one end of the homemade aeroponics system, the 1/2 inch lines elbow out of their channels and are joined together by a series of "T" fittings. This is known as the manifold. One end of the manifold is left open to connect to the pump. Your pump may be an external pump or you may use a submersible pump. Either way, the pump needs to be able to deliver a water pressure of 45 to 60 psi to each of the 1/2 inch lines coming from the manifold.

Finally, any large, cheap, plastic storage tote may be used for the nutrient reservoir. A homemade aeroponics system with 24 to 36 plant sites would require a 20 gallon (75 liter) reservoir. It is always best to choose a dark tote, to keep as much light from the nutrient reservoir as possible. This will prevent algae growth and therefore help prevent fungus gnats. Whenever constructing a homemade hydroponics system you should always use PVC, and not CPVC. CPVC is known to slowly leach harmful chemicals. To prevent leaks, be sure to use PVC cleaner on all parts BEFORE you apply PVC glue and join the parts.

With systems becoming this simple, it is no surprise many people are interested in the faster growth rates aeroponics has to offer.

How to Make a Simple Homemade Aeroponics System

Bonus- learn how to make an aeroponics cloner http://www.jasons-indoor-guide-to-organic-and-hydroponics-gardening.com/homemade-aeroponics.html