Stevia

Stevia is a sub-tropical to tropical plant who's leaves are much sweeter than sugar. . Different plants have different levels of sweetness and there are even differences on the same plant from cutting to cutting so using home grown stevia can be a bit of a challenge, but the rewards are well worth it.  

Studies done on this plant suggest that the compounds in the whole leaf have anti-hyperglycemic, anti-hypertensive, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-diarrheal, diuretic, and immunomodulatory actions. Most stevia found in stores contains only the stevioside compound that gives the leaf it's sweet taste. The other compounds in the leaf are those that do these jobs. What's really interesting about this plant is that it only seems to affect blood sugar, blood pressure, etc. when levels are abnormal. Sweet! According to the info out there, there are no known harmful side-effects like artificial sugar substitutes, however, I do know a couple of people who say it gives them headaches.

You can grow stevia from seed, but only "black" seeds will germinate. I did have a plant that flowered and put out seeds a couple of years ago that produced babies, but from what I've read, plants from seed may or may not have the sweetness of the parent plant. Propagating from cuttings is the preferred method, but I haven't been successful at that :(

To use the stevia, I dry the plants and put them in the freezer. When I want to use some, I grind the leaves in a coffee grinder and sweeten with the powder to taste. Stevia doesn't ferment, so it's no good for things like wine or vinegar and when making jams or jellies you really need a no-sugar pectin because it doesn't contribute to the jelling process like sugar does.

The plants are sometimes hard to come by. Last year I didn't find any until August and they weren't as sweet as other plants I've had, but I dug them up and brought them inside because I didn't want to be without this year.

They look kinda scraggly by spring, but once I get them back outside in the sun they will perk up. I've done this before, but I lost them last winter because I had to be gone and they didn't get watered enough. I'll wait until the temps stay above 50 most of the time before I put them back in the garden. I've killed a few by putting them out to soon. They love a thick mulch on well drained loamy soil. Raised beds are perfect for them. Once established, they tolerate temps in the 33-50 degree range quite well. I've even covered them like tomatoes when there was a light frost and had them come through fine.

Unless I can get enough quality plants, I won't be bringing stevia to the markets. So far, I've only been able to produce enough for my breads and jams, but it's really nice to be able to brag that I grow my own!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Rasins

It's been a long hard winter folks! Our chickens are so happy today! They are finally able to get out of the building.

It's muddy and they aren't straying far from the coop, but they will. We've been bringing them goodies to eat in the building. The weather has been so crazy that we didn't think they should be outside. We hang suet for them to pick at and take them kitchen scraps, pumpkins we have stored, alfalfa and produce that the local grocery store gives us that is good, but can't be sold because it is past it's prime.

In the last haul from the grocery store, there were 3 boxes and one of them was almost all red grapes. They were good, just not the freshest. Since raisins are basically super past their prime grapes, I decided to make raisins out of them.

I soaked them in a sink full of vinegar water for about 15 minutes. Then I destemmed them and took out any that showed any signs of mold while loading them on to the dehydrator. I put them on a medium heat and waited. It took a couple of days before any of them were dry, but I tried a high heat the last time I did this and wound up with a whole lot of burnt grapes. Live and learn!

Even after 2 days many of them weren't dry, so I picked through them and put those that weren't ready on for another day. There were still a few that needed another half a day.

I got a little over a quart of raisins out of the deal :) It was a lot of work and the electricity alone probably cost me more than what I could buy the same amount of raisins at the store. That's the way it is with pretty much everything I process at home. But, the satisfaction of knowing that I can make my own raisins is well worth the cost!

Now if I could only grow my own grapes and have a solar food dryer ...


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Card Table Rehab

My parents bought two card tables when I was a little girl. They used them for their bridge club when it was their turn to host. We inherited them when they decided to move to California. They were in pretty good shape then, but when we got into doing farmer's markets they were trashed after the third season. The frames were still good so I've kept them around thinking I'd redo them. Well, today was the day!

They went from this ...

To this in a couple of hours thanks to furniture store cardboard and duct tape!

Yesterday, I stopped in a Kraus Furniture in Nauvoo and begged for some cardboard. Mark was happy to fix me up.

Today I cut out a piece big enough to fit the top and 2 other smaller pieces to fill in where the original cardboard was sagging. I used duct tape to put them in place.

 

Then I covered the tops with duct tape to give them more strength and to protect them from water.

I have some red and white checked kitchen wall paper I'm thinking about covering them with to even out the surface, but I've decided I need some red duct tape to finish it off with. Looks like a trip to the store for me tomorrow :)


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue 

Basil

The basil that I planted last week is coming up! I'm so excited! For some crazy reason, I didn't get any started to bring in last fall, so I have been without fresh basil all winter. I've waited to plant until now because my experience with planting indoors when the daylight hours are getting shorter and shorter is that it just produces spindly things that die. I've got these in a south window under a sun lamp so hopefully they will make it. Can't wait till I have a heated greenhouse!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue 

Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce

Been keeping my crock pot busy lately :)

During the summer, I wash my excess tomatoes in a vinegar bath. Then I cut the stems and bad spots out of and throw them in the freezer. I used to blanch and skin them before putting them in the freezer, but a few years ago I found out that if you put them in the freezer without skinning them, the skins come right off when they start to thaw. Why should you put all that heat in your house in the summer? 

Anyway, during the winter I pull them out and make all sorts of goodies. This winter, I found a crock pot tomato sauce recipe, but since I rarely start with just a plain tomato sauce, I decided I might as well go ahead and add the ingredients to make spaghetti sauce. I've also been making ketchup ... but that's another post.

To begin with, I fill the crock pot with tomatoes and let it cook overnight so the volume is about half what I started with.

The next day I add:

one chopped onion

two handfuls of dried sweet peppers

2 tsp salt

2 cap fulls of lemon juice

a tablespoon of minced garlic

2 tbs of dried basil

one tbs dried oregano

and enough tomatoes to fill the crock pot again.

I let this cook overnight again and then puree it with my stick wand.

I hot pack the sauce in pint jars and give them a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. 

This makes about 4 pints of sauce I think, but we always have to have spaghetti or pizza or something the day it is finished, so I'm not quite sure :)

Yum, yum!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Country Snow Challenges

It is going to be a challenge getting to those chickens today! Back in November, we moved them all to the smaller white building in the center so they are all together today to keep each other warm. Grampa Tom made sure they had plenty of food and water yesterday, but we still have to get out to get the eggs. It looks like there's a big drift along the garage and through the gate into the lot. UGH!

And yes, the electric pole is leaning ... against the garage actually ... that happened last summer ... maybe the summer before? Grampa Tom says it's not going anywhere. He's got other priorities ...

Other than getting to the chicken shed, we don't have anywhere we have to be the next few days. Good thing! If this wind doesn't lie down, we could be snowed in for a few days. Our road commissioner does a great job and we have 4-wheel drive on the truck, so it's not like the old days.

Grampa Tom and I kinda like being snowed in   The first time I came here was in the winter of '78- '79. We had just started dating. There was a huge snow storm that left us both stranded in Keokuk at a friends house. After 3 days, the roads in town and the highways were finally cleared enough for us to get out, but not home. (We both lived in the country.) We went for a drive and Grampa showed me where he lived. 

He said, "See that white house over there? That's my house. There are 11 kids there right now. My folks are in Huston. They had some friends over the night it stormed so bad and their parents weren't able to come get them."

I was horrified and asked how far it was to the house. He said about a half mile so I suggested we walk over there and check on them. We got over the fence and found ourselves in waist-deep snow, but we figured it wouldn't be so deep once we got out in the field. We were wrong. It was waist-deep all the way across. Took us 2 hours and the temperature dove 20 degrees as we waded across. It was another 3 days before we were able to leave. The kids were alright. I shouldn't have been so concerned. They were all teen and pre-teen country kids who knew how to take care of themselves, We were all of 20 years old and not any more capable, but I'm glad we did it. Made for some wonderful memories!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Apple Peel Jelly

Woohoo! I seem to be among the living today :) Woke up at 10:30 this morning. Can't remember the last time I slept that late. Really needed it! Did a sleeping around job last weekend. I'm not used to it anymore and it has taken all week to recover from the jet lag.

(For those who may be new to this blog, I spend nights with elderly people who need help from time to time and I like to mess with people's minds.)

Was planning to post on apple peel jelly last weekend, but I've been in a bad brain fog. Better late than never huh? It's only been 3 weeks since I started drying apples and told you all I was planning to make apple peel jelly so here goes:

To start with I saved the peels and cores from my dried apple project.

I boiled them for about an hour and then strained them through a tea towel.

The red from the apple peels made the towel look yucky, but it made the prettiest juice!

Then I measured out 4 cups of juice and 2 cups of honey. The recipe I found called for equal parts of juice and sugar, but honey is about twice as sweet as sugar so I reduced the 1:1 ratio to 2:1. 

 

I cooked the juice/honey mixture down for about an hour because honey doesn't set up as easily as sugar. Then I brought the mixture up to 220 degrees by bringing it to a rolling boil for several minutes while stirring constantly.

 Then I poured it in jars.

And put hot lids and rims on. Yes! Those are Tattler lids there :) I finally took the plunge. This was my first time trying them out. They didn't seal with the first batch. I think I may have tipped them bringing them out of the canner so some of the jelly got under the lid, but the second batch did fine. I'm so excited to have reusable lids for my personal stash! They cost too much to use if I may not get them back, so for gifts and markets, I'll continue to use the metal one-time lids.

After a 5 minute boiling water bath, I started hearing pop, pop, pop! What a beautiful sound! 

 

Guess what people are getting for Christmas this year?

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue