Tag Archives: seasonal food

Seasonal Food: Apple Chutney

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Apple Chutney is very easy to make and uses seasonal (and wormy) apples. This chutney is great with curry.

This recipe is safe for someone on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet or GAPS.

This Apple Chutney has become a family favorite. The chutney is a nice addition to curry recipes. This recipe is a great use for frozen or wormy apples. This recipe is based on an Apple Chutney recipe from The Joy of Cooking. I’ve made some changes.

1 bag frozen Apple Pie Mix, green apples best
2 large organic onions, sliced
1 organic lemon peel, finely grated
1/2c organic ginger, finely grated
6 cloves organic garlic, finely grated
1c organic raisins
2c organic cider vinegar
2tsp sea salt

If you don’t have a bag of frozen Apple Pie Mix, use 8-10 green apples, cored and sliced. Place all the ingredient in a non-reactive Dutch oven and bring to a boil. Simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally to ensure the chutney does not scorch. Store the chutney in mason jars in the fridge. The chutney will last for months in the fridge.

Seasonal Food: Frozen Apple Pie Mix

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Frozen Apple Pie Mix makes winter pie making quick and easy.

This recipe is safe for someone on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet or GAPS.

This recipe is for bulk processing of large amounts of seasonal apples. We usually process over 200 pounds of apples from our garden. Some apples are dehydrated and some frozen. Adding pie spice before freezing can save time during the winter months.

6-8 organic cinnamon sticks
1-2 organic whole nutmeg
2T organic whole allspice
2T organic cane sugar (optional)

Spices are best freshly ground, if possible. Grind all the spice in a spice grinder. Grind in a number of loads, if necessary. You will need about two heaping tablespoons of Apple Pie Mix for each freezer bag of sliced apples. Double or triple this recipe depending on how many apples need processing.

Clean and slice the apples. In a large bowl, mix the Apple Pie Mix with the apples and pour the spiced apple mixture into a freezer bag. Fill the bag about 2/3 full. Alternatively, fill each bag with enough apples and spice for one pie. These frozen, spiced apples can be used for any recipe needing apples during the winter.

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If you have wormy apples, don’t worry. Just clean and cut out the bad parts. This recipe will ensure delicious winter apple pie!

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Put enough apples into each freezer bag for one pie.

Seasonal Foods: Roasted Beets and Walnut Salad

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Roasted, marinated beets are very nice with gouda and walnuts. Serve the marinated beets on a bed of microgreens. These greens are from our indoor growing unit.

This simple recipe is great at this time of year for using up root cellar beets. The salad is nice with either golden or red beets. If you use a mixture, the red beets will stain the golden beets pink. It’s best to make a large amount of this marinated salad and store in the fridge for easy meals throughout the week.

Roasted Beet Marinate

8c organic golden and/or red beets, peeled and cut into small pieces
1 small organic onion, rings
3 organic celery stalks, chopped
1c Orange Salad Dressing
2-3c organic microgreens
1/4c-1/3c organic gouda, quark or feta cheese
1/4-1/3c Crispy Salad Topping
Roast the beets at 300F for 60 minutes in a glass dish. The beets should be tender but not soft. While the beets are roasting, soak the onion rings in the Orange Salad Dressing. Add the warm beets and celery to marinate with the onions in the dressing. Cool the beet marinate in the fridge.

When ready to assemble the salad make a bed of greens for the marinated beets. Top the marinated beets with Crispy Salad Topping and gouda, quark or feta cheese. Grass Root Dairies is a local source for organic gouda or quark.

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The marinated beets keep well in the fridge. The salad can be assembled quickly for an easy meal. The marinated flavor continues to improve with time.

Orange Ginger Dressing

1 organic orange, freshly squeezed
1/2 organic lemon, freshly squeezed
1 clove organic garlic, finely freshly grated
2T organic ginger, finely freshly grated
2T raw cider vinegar
1tsp local raw honey (optional)
1T homemade whole seed mustard
1/2c organic extra virgin olive oil or organic toasted sesame oil
Freshly squeeze the orange and lemon. Finely grate the peeled garlic clove and ginger. I usually keep organic ginger in the freezer and grate the ginger without peeling. Add the raw cider vinegar, whole seed mustard, and oil. Shake vigorously.

Crispy Salad Topping

2c organic walnuts or organic sunflower seeds, chopped or whole
2T organic coconut oil
1tsp sea salt
In a case iron fry pan melt the coconut oil. Add the sea salt and walnuts or sunflower seeds and stir for a few minutes until the nuts are slightly browned. Cool completely before using. Store in the fridge until needed.

Seasonal Foods: Beet Pickled Eggs

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Julienne the sliced beets for a garnish with the pickled eggs. Reusing pickle juice is a great way to save money and reduce waste.

To make this recipe you can use organic cider vinegar or reuse some sour pickle juice. This is a great way to reuse sour pickle juice that would normally get discarded in most households. Here’s my recipe for Crock Pickles.

To ensure that the boiled eggs are easy to peel, use eggs that are at least a week old. Two week old eggs are even better. If the eggs are too fresh, it will be difficult to peel the eggs without damaging the surface. If the eggs do not peel easily, just make egg salad instead.

2 medium organic beets, peeled, cooked and sliced
24 pastured eggs, boiled and peeled
1tsp organic dill weed (optional)
3-4c organic cider vinegar or sour pickle juice
Peel the beets and slice in half. In a sauce pan, simmer the beets for 10 minute or until just tender. Drain and let cool. When the beets are cool, thinly slice the beets. Add the beets to the bottom of a 2L mason jar.

In a large sauce pan bring 24 eggs to boil in filtered water. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and pour off the boiling water. Set the sauce pan into the sink and cover the eggs with cold water. Let the eggs cool before peeling. After peeling the eggs, rinse with clean water.

Top the beets with the peeled eggs. Add as much cider vinegar or sour pickle juice as needed to completely cover all the eggs. Refrigerate the eggs for at least one week before consuming. The pickled eggs will keep in the fridge for months.

Seasonal Foods: Zucchini Chips

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Zucchini chips are a great way to salvage the summer bounty from our gardens.

Everyone that has grown a garden has had to deal with lurking zucchinis. Lurking zucchinis are those massive gourds that somehow manage to hid in the foliage until they grow into green monsters. No one seems to like these monstrosities and they become unwanted gifts to family or friends. There’s a regional joke on Lasqueti Island that the fall is the only time of year you lock you vehicle, because if you don’t you’ll find your vehicle full of monster zucchinis!

This recipe came from WAPF leader Rhonda Dieni and will help deal with these monstrosities. Zucchini Chips have a great chewiness with a sweet, spicy and salty taste. This recipe will make you love your lurking zucchinis.

1 monster garden zucchini, cut into slices
1T extra virgin olive oil (optional)
1T sea salt
1 bird’s eye pepper or other hot pepper
Crane the lurking zucchini onto your kitchen counter for slaughter. I find it easier to cut the zucchini in half and then quarter the two halves. Scoop out the seeds and pulp and give it to the chickens or compost. Cut the zucchini into 1/4 inch slices. Don’t worry it the slices get thicker because they will dry down to about 10% of the original size. In a very large bowl, toss the zucchini slices with olive oil and the spicy sea salt. Mix extremely well. Place the zucchini slices in the dehydrator for 12-18 hours until the slices are completely dried. Store in a plastic bag for a taste of summer during the winter months.

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Cut the zucchini in two and then quarter each piece.

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Scoop out the pulp and give it to the chicken or compost.

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Slice the zucchini into 1/4 inch slices. Don’t worry if the slices get larger. The chips will dry down to about 10% of the original size.

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Mix the olive oil and spicy sea salt with the zucchini slices extremely well. You don’t want some chips to be salty or oily.