Make and Grow
Can you just imagine how wonderful it
would be to give your family the best home made Gifts?
Summer’s bounty from the garden can include all kinds of fruits and vegetables that would make fantastic Home Made Gifts! Everyone in your family would enjoy and love the sauces, chutneys, or maybe your fragrances from your own lavender, sage, and other herb infusions made from the plants that you have tended so lovingly and carefully!
Without a doubt, these kinds of gifts are the ones that people really remember and remember well. I know I have received many gifts that were lovingly made for me and my family and we have enjoyed them immensely. There is no comparison between store bought versus home made.
Recipes for you to try!
Corn Relish
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
2 cups of chopped onions
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
4 cups corn kernels (cut from 4-6 ears depending on size)
2 plum or Roma Tomatoes , diced
1 red or green serano chile peppers, seeded and minced
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 TBSP Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1-1/2 cups apple cider vinegar (5% acidity)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Method
- Work in batches if necessary, pulse the cucumbers, onions and bell peppers in a food processor just lightly, 3 to 4 pulses (not pureed)
- Place mixture in a medium sized thick bottomed pot. Add corn, tomatoes, Serano chilies, sugar, salt, pepper, vinegar, turmeric, mustard seed and ground cumin. Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 25 minutes.
- Spoon the corn relish into clean jars and seal. Will keep in the refrigerator for 4-6 weeks.
If you want to store outside of the refrigerator, sterilize canning jars and follow instructions for canning.
This recipe works really well with hot dogs, tacos or with pork roasts.
Colorful and using up your extra vegetables from the garden. Hopefully, you didn’t add lots of pesticides while growing your crops. This is a truly wonderful relish that you can lay claim to right from the start. Growing the vegetables and canning them for friends and family.
How about trying to make an Apple Cranberry Chutney, the sweet and savory taste goes well with chicken, but also works with turkey and/or a pork roast. Easy to make, tasty and colorful, your family and friends will all want the recipe and enjoy your gifts.
Apple Cranberry Chutney
2 good cooking apples (2 cups, peeled and chopped)
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/3 to 1/2 cup of brown sugar (depending on your tastes)
1 TBSP orange zest
1 TBSP freshly grated ginger
1-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
small pinch of ground clove
METHOD
Put all ingredients into a saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a low simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Uncover and cook for another few minutes to reduce any remaining liquid. Will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Can also be canned following instructions for canning.
More recipes can be found at Simply Recipes.
Home Made Goodness
These are just two recipes for you to try, with Grow and Make crafting kits, you can make just about anything from candles, teas, preserves, essential oils and a whole range of other “Goodies” that your friends, family and others will just love receiving. Great for your “cottage industry” or to enhance your “bed and breakfast” or gift shop. Truly lovely and unique containers for all types of Do It Yourself hobbies. Some of these recipes can use the Bounty found in your Garden this summer.
More Recipes
Foolproof Preserving: A Guide to Small Batch Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Condiments, and More
If you have never made any preserves this book is a valuable addition to your cookbook collection. Highly rated, it will become your “go to” book for anything “canned, preserved, homemade and delicious!”
Use the Bounty from your Garden to make beautiful gifts and nutritious delights, that, presented properly will be a delight for you to give and your friends to receive. You can do it!
I agree that the best gifts are ones that have been handmade with love. I always enjoy getting a gift that has been grown, baked, preserved, or stitched by a loved one. It has so much more meaning than a store bought product.
Hand made gifts are the way to show not only your talents, but the time spent making the gifts are a gift in themselves too. They mean the world to me too!
Gosh, I have the canning bug and this article adds to it! Both recipes look good but the Apple and Cranberry Chutney, Yum!
This would certainly help you at the homestead. Canning will keep you in food through those months when nothing is growing…..
In my youth, preserving vegetables and making homemade jelly was just a way of life. I have often thought I would like to retire back in farm country. The work was hard, but there were many hands to share the labor. In my mind it still seems like such a simpler time and way of life.
Totally agree with you Cynthia, while I don’t do too much anymore, when I receive home canning from friends I am delighted.
Corn relish sound delicious. We harvested pears last year and did a pear cranberry chutney…Thanks for the recipes.
That sounds wonderful too Susan, I love the taste of pears….
My brother has made homemade wine and homemade beer in the past and currently is learning to make his own cheese. I’ll have to tell him about the Grow and Make craft kits site you mentioned above for his ‘next’ venture into DIY. 🙂
Thank you, I was looking at all the kits they have and I was impressed with so many of the different things you could make and easy too.