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Lilac Jelly

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We have written about lilac jelly but never made a post about it. It is time to remedy that! The first time we made lilac jelly, we had beautiful medium and dark purple blossoms. The jelly turned out to be....surprise...a lovely lilac color! Well, at least it was purple until we canned it. Something about the canning process turned it from a lilac to a golden color. The taste was amazing, but I was a bit sad that the purple faded. We have a white lilac bush at our current house. The blossoms are beautiful, the scent is lovely, and they make a wonderful jelly with a pale golden color. To make our jelly, we first picked lilacs and pulled off just the blossoms. Once we had 4 cups of blossoms, we soaked them in water with a bit of baking soda to remove any bugs and dirt. After about 30 minutes of soaking, we put fresh water on to boil, then rinsed the blossoms well with cool water. We transferred the blossoms to a half gallon jar, poured 5 cups of hot water over the top, and stirred with a...
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Rose Petal Jelly

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Floral jellies and syrups are a lovely addition to your pantry. If you are unable to grow fruits and berries for jams, syrups, or jellies, floral options can make it easy to "harvest what you have" since many people can at least grow flowers.  Roses are a common and much-loved flower to grow. They are particularly good to have in your flower garden, since both the petals and hips have many uses. We have foraged rose petals for several years now, but this is the first year we have actually made jelly from the petals. I have been so excited to try this recipe! Making the Syrup We used a rose petal jelly recipe we found online.  We  checked the online directions and quantities against the insert for the pectin to be sure that they instructions aligned. They did - in short, both said to boil one minute on the stove, add sugar, boil one minute, then can. I was a bit leery, because we have tried the "updated" instructions with the lesser boil time after adding sugar (the ...
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Chive Salt

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The garlic scape salt was such a hit, that we decided to try another herbal salt. While the garlic scapes are not yet ready,  we currently have chives growing in our garden. After looking online for recipes, we found two - one for chive salt and one for chive blossom salt. We did not have enough blossoms for the chive blossom recipe, so we decided to make the chive salt and toss in some of the blossoms for an extra bit of color. First, we wilted the chives for about 2 hours to lessen the amount of moisture in them. Then, we blended approximately 3/8 cup of chopped chives with 1 1/4 cups of salt. This was more than the recipe called for, but we wanted a strong flavor. After blending, we spread the mixture out on parchment paper on a baking sheet. We pulled the petals from the blossoms and sprinkled them over the salt. We put the mixture in the oven at its lowest setting (170 degrees) for 1 3/4 - 2 hours. We opened the oven every 30 minutes and stirred the salt mixture to allow even ...
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What's Growing in the Garden - Spring 2026

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We have been enjoying a rather warm stretch these past two weeks. It is too early to safely plant most seeds and starts in our area, but we have several perennials that have come up and are thriving: Comfrey Tarragon Orange Mint Parsley Lemon Balm In addition to the items pictured above, we also have strawberries, sweet mint, oregano, walking onions, tulips, miniature irises, columbine, yarrow, lavender, rhubarb, and echinacea coming up or growing well! We also planted garlic last fall, and it has come up as well: Garlic What is growing in your garden? Are you in an area where you have been able to plant your garden already?
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Project Updates - Early Spring 2026

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We haven't posted an update on projects since last summer - 9 months! - so we thought it past time that we made a post. The list will not likely be complete since it has been so long, but here are a few highlights from the last nine months: Food Preservation Canning -  Condiments -  Mixed Berry Jam, BBQ Sauce, Hot Sauce, Cowboy Candy Fruits, etc. - Apple-Pear Juice, Apple Juice, Pears, Spiced Pear Sauce, Apple Sauce, Tomatoes, Cranberry Juice Meals - Turkey Pot Pie Filling, Kung Pao Chicken, Beef Bulgogi, Beef Cubes, Turkey, Meat Broth Freezing - Plums, Berries, Meat, Bone Broth, Onions, Hot Peppers, Green Peppers, Herbs, Celery Dehydrating  - Onions, Microgreens, Plums, Apples, Herbs for Tea, Culinary Herbs, Celery, Celery Leaves, Tomatoes Sewing/Knitting - Child's Cloak, Potholders, Baby Quilt, Knitted Stocking Cap, Modifying Clothing Extracts and Liqueurs  - Coffee Liqueur, Lemon Extract, Vanilla Extract (both vodka-based and bourbon-based), Maple Extract Fo...
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Making Flavored Extracts

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We love making vanilla extract and recently made two new extracts: lemon and maple. Why would we make our own extracts? First, it is much more affordable than purchasing them in the store. Second, we can be assured that the ingredients are clean with no fillers or unwanted chemicals. Vanilla - We use a lot of vanilla in nearly all of our baked goods and enjoy different flavor profiles. We keep two "flavors" on hand: a vanilla infused in vodka or Everclear and a vanilla infused in bourbon. You could also do it with rum, which sounds amazing! We keep two containers for each type of vanilla - one container for use and one container in which we  infuse the vanilla. For the first jar, we purchased a glass oil/vinegar set with the pour tops. We keep the vodka vanilla in one and the bourbon vanilla in the other. These containers make it easy to dispense and measure the vanilla without spilling. The second jar is what we use for the "mother" container (the jar in which we ...
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Homemade Coffee Liqueur

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A while ago, we reported on the blog that we made coffee liqueur with used coffee grounds. The result was a strong coffee liqueur. We used it in several mixed drinks, but the flavor was not quite like most coffee liqueurs. It may be due in part to the fact that I used vodka to make the liqueur rather than rum. A few weeks ago, we ran out of coffee liqueur and wanted to either get or make some more. We have a friend who makes a wonderful homemade coffee liqueur, so we asked him for the recipe and gave it a try. This was a more mild liqueur that makes a better mixer than the previous recipe we tried.  What are the benefits of making your own liqueur? First, you know what the ingredients are. Second, you control of the quality. Third, it is more economical than purchasing a brand name liqueur, especially if you use an economical brand of rum. Just remember, though, that the quality of your ingredients will affect the quality of the results! Here is the recipe we used: Coffee Liqueur I...
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