We plant Siberian fingerling potatoes in January for June harvest, and again in September for February harvest. Our gourmet go to side dish when we serve hearty meats like pulled roasted lamb. Let your air fryer do its magic: fingerling or miniature potatoes, Elephant Garlic cloves, shallots, brussels sprouts, fresh mushrooms, all vegetables coated with sesame oil and balsamic vinegar, thyme, salt and pepper, roasted in the air fryer, done in 30 minutes. Pan drippings make a great quick gravy.

Our harvest of hardneck garlic in July provides great dried bulbs, but only for half a year, then the garlic bulbs start to wither. We make granulated garlic from unblemished, dried whole garlic bulbs in winter to use the rest of the year with this recipe. Perfect till next harvest if kept in airtight containers. Best for use in baking and in soups and sauces. Granulated garlic freezes and thaws well.

To boil or fry with lemon grass, only a small quantity is needed most of the time. I keep two small jars of lemon grass paste handy, one is a jelly for boiling, the other one is a chutney for frying. Stays fragrant all year in fridge.

Following the University of California Food Preservation Guidelines, and the University of Georgia website soeasytopreserve.com, Garlic botulism is not killed at boiling temperatures, it needs 250 F degrees and 15 minutes.But, According to European Guidelines, weckenonline.eu, garlic botulism is killed at waterbath temperatures, 100 C degrees, 212 F, and 15 minutes. Only pressure cooking with steam gets hot enough to preserve garlic at 250F degrees.Compared to the european water bath method, our american pressurized steamed garlic tastes like mush.This pressure steamed recipe cooks garlic cloves for 15 minutes and they are then immersed in sterilized oil. We will taste them regularly during the year to see how they maintain their quality.October 2024 update: planting time for new garlic. We are planting Susanville garlic, the most expensive large garlic bulb we know of, $30 per bulb. However, it retains its freshness and flavor for ten months, instead of our current 5 month garlic. We shall taste it fresh in a year, and taste it dried in two years.

This recipe is from cookpad member Mahsa Aras. Thank you. I am always very careful when fermenting garlic because of botulism. She keeps her garlic refrigerated after pickling. I also sterilized the garlic in a water bath just to be sure. Hope that did not spoil the flavor.Her garlic tastes really really good after two days, spicy and intense, you wont need much!

February-March is when we pick and enjoy our fresh giant meyer Improved Lemons and pickle them for the rest of the year.

This one is fun. A pound of Lemon grass stalks and leaves contain two teaspoons of strong, pungent, pure lemon grass oil, one teaspoon is released in oil which flavors a full cup of mild grapeseed oil, turning it into fragrant lemon grass oil for cooking, stir frying, massage, and aromatherapy. The stalks retain the other teaspoon of oil and flavors for cooking. Stays fresh for two years without turning rancid, gets stronger every month from stalks left in bottle and jar. Use the stalks left in the jar also for stir frying. This method is technically called hot oil infusion, or making lemon grass confit.

Handmade fresh fettucini noodles are quick, 15 minutes, and easy to make. To cook the noodles al dente, i use a cast iron skillet with boiling water, instead of a huge pot with lots of water. This recipe uses heaps of garlic cloves fried in ghee butter in a second skillet, with bean sauce and oyster sauce. You can easily make these sauces and ghee at home from scratch, I posted recipes in cookpad. A tablespoon of Icelandic black caviar added to this dish makes it even more special.

Time to pickle! We use pint jars. Other than the spices for each vegetable, the method for preserving our farm veggies is identical for all of them. They stay sweet and sour, fresh, crispy, and are tasty for nine months. Once opened, they stay fresh in the fridge for 6 more weeks. All I do is write the year on the cap and put them in the pantry. There are two methods, Dutch and American.

Making black garlic turns pungent white garlic bulbs into a mild black specialty, and preserves the bulbs for a year. To make black garlic, I only needed to put the bulbs in a turkey roasting bag in an old crockpot for two weeks. The “keep warm” function on my lil old crockpot is like a rice cooker, keeps warm at 150 F degrees. I included a black garlic ripeness test in here.The garlic becomes mild with a sticky sweet flavor, like dates or molasses. A delicacy, great flavor enhancer, soup, salad dressing, sauce maker.I included a money saving tip in this recipe on how to make a simple solar powered crock pot dehydrator. Free electricity.

We grow our own Siberian hard neck garlic, one crop per year, harvest in July. Dried garlic stays only fresh for 5-6 months, to use them year-round, we fry garlic in oil and keep them in jars, called garlic confit. Some people pressure can them. The heating affects the taste and texture.When you have only one or more bulbs getting soft, here is how to rescue.Cookpad member Ricardo suggested peeling, blanching and then freezing garlic cloves individually on parchment paper and storing them frozen. I did, they taste good after freezing. I will use and taste them every month to see how they make it to next harvest in July. Thank you, Ricardo. We use these frozen garlic cloves like we would fresh ones.We also planted a new variety, Susanville garlic, which lasts ten months when dried. Results in two years.

Secret ingredient to lots of soups and stews. Make these year round, use dried or fresh. Dried in cheesecloth bags, or tied with a string, or knotted with a strip of fresh leek.