A Mattingly - Gardens and Grace
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Egyptian Walking Onions

3/30/2020

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Coronavirus got you sheltering in place? Then there is all the rain on top of that which may have you trapped inside, preventing you from getting you garden planted. No worries because there are lots of wild edibles growing in the spring. Many of which are as nutritious, or even more so, than what's growing in your gardens.

We have a ditch full of one such wild edible. More on that in a second. For a few of reasons, our yard is WILD during the spring. First, we let it go wild intentionally as all the spring flowers and 'weeds' are a great nectar and pollen source for our honey bees. It also makes for great tasting honey according to our repeat customers. The second reason is something we don't have much control over. The rain. We couldn't mow if we wanted to for all the standing water. Specially the ditch! For an added bonus, many of the weeds growing in our country yard are edible for us as well.
Today I want to talk about the ditch, rather what's growing in the ditch. During my fresh air, daily exercise walks over the past few weeks, I've been watching the wild onions grow. We have a PLENTIFUL crop of Egyptian Walking onions growing there. To be honest with you, it wasn't until I attended a local garden club meeting a few months back that I actually knew what they were called. I had also been curious in past years if this onion smelling plant was edible. Turns out it is. If you would like more information on this plant, Dan has made a wonderful video on harvesting and cooking this beauty.
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This might be one of those 'weeds' you transfer to a safe growing area in your yard before mowing them all down. Who knows, there may be a run on onions in the grocery store some day. These days, you never know.
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Herbal Oil Feta Cheese Recipe

4/24/2017

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Ingredients
8 ozs of feta cheese cut into bite size cubes
2 to 3 1-inch sprigs of fresh rosemary or other herb(s) of your choice
2 to 3 slices of red pepper
Whole pepper seeds
Olive oil


Instructions
Place a sprig of your chosen herb on the bottom of a clean jar. Now fill the jar with cheese. Place 2 to 3 sprigs of your herb in the jar with the cheese.  Now add the sliced red pepper. Drop a small pinch of pepper seeds in the jar. Pour in the olive oil until the cheese is completely covered and attach the jar lid. Place the jar in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 8 hours so all the flavors will infuse. The feta will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator. Though it is recommended to keep this in the refrigerator, my preference is not to ever put my jars in the refrigerator.  However, I'm not really sure how long it will keep stored in the pantry as mine never lasts more than a few days.

This makes a great hostess gift!  Just remember to remove from the refrigerator in enough time for the oil to warm back to room temperature before presenting as a gift.


Any oil and byproducts left in the jar when the cheese is gone can be used to make a salad dressing or added to soups and vegetables.

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A Medley of Herbal Aromas

4/21/2017

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Just started the infusion process for three batches of herbal cooking oils. The aroma of fresh chopped rosemary, sage and lemon balm brought in from the garden fills the air!  Such an invigorating and woodsy smell! These oils will be bottled and ready for a farmer's market event I will be attending next weekend! More information on that event next week. This weekend I should make a few jars of herbal feta cheese.   Delicious!  That's a recipe I need to share with all of you guys in the future!

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Dandelion Jelly Recipe

2/23/2017

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Couldn't resist the urge to try and capture the sun in a jar last week!  While heading out to change the church billboard, it was necessary to walk through a beautiful patch of dandelions.   After just seeing a recipe for dandelion jelly... I knew what must be done.  So I found a shopping bag in my car and began picking!!  Hope you all have been eating plenty of dandelion greens and drinking dandelion tea since our May 25th post last year.  There are so many nutritional benefits!  (For details, check it out in the Food & Recipes blog category.)  I have now discovered a sweeter way to enjoy this herb.  A couple of jars from my first batch of dandelion jelly are pictured above.  This was a fun project for a sunny and warm Texas winter day!  I'm going to share the recipe, along with some pointers, so you too can enjoy a jar of sunshine!


The first step is to locate a dandelion patch, if you don't already have one growing in your yard.  If you don't, go ahead and collect some seeds to start your own patch.

The next step is to begin pinching off the beautiful blooms.  But watch out for the bees!  You will have a little competition during your harvest.  If you pinch them off at the top of the stem, you will save a little time later by not having to remove the stem during processing. 
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Take your little jewels home and let the fun begin as it is now time to remove the flower from the calyx.  This takes time and patients.  Not to mention A LOT of blooms in order to get a quart of flowers!!
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Now that the most time consuming part is done, it's time to begin the canning process.  The recipe below is pretty straight forward.  If you don't have enough flowers, just make some adjustments in the recipe.  As far as "well packed" flowers, I decided they laid dense enough in the quart measuring jar without being packed in.  You might want to prepare more jars than necessary for the  four half-pint yield noted in the recipe.  I was able to can a little over 5 half-pints.

Happy canning and God Bless!



Dandelion Jelly Recipe

1 quart dandelion flowers, well packed (remove stem and calyx)
1 quart water
1.75 ounce package pectin (MCP)
2 TBSP fresh squeezed lemon juice
4 1/2 cups sugar
3-4 drops yellow food coloring (optional)


Warm, sterile canning jars


1.  Boil flowers in water for 3 minutes
2.  Strain through muslin (or clean nylon knee highs) for 3 cups of juice
3.  Add pectin and lemon juice.  Stir until pectin is completely dissolved
4.  Bring to a rolling boil
5.  Add sugar and food coloring.  Bring back to a fast, furious, climb-up-the-side-of-the-pot boil and maintain for 2 minutes
6.  Remove from heat, quickly skim the foam off the top and pour into waiting jars.
7.  Seal according to standard canning procedures

Makes about 4 half-pint jars.
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    A Mattingly
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