Sliced fresh jalapenos, lightly blanched, then stacked in a quart jar with sliced garlic and brined in an apple cider vinegar and sugar brine.

Cowboy Candy - Candied Pickled Jalapenos

I used to grow lots of vegetables, including sweet and hot peppers, but haven't grown any in quite a bit. Haven't really grown much of anything other than tomatoes, and maybe a few herbs here the past few years. Just can't take the heat enough to keep the garden in good shape. But, peppers are in abundance and pretty cheap during the summer months, so you don't have to be a gardener to grab a bunch!

This is a variation of a Bell's Best cookbook recipe from the 70s that uses both sweet and hot peppers, but primarily sweet peppers. I decided to make it using only jalapenos. It's often referred to as Cowboy Candy across the net, but it's simply a pickled jalapeno that's a little bit heavier on the sugar, and somewhere along the line of those candied Fire 'n Ice pickles, we all love so much.

 

Whole figs, preserved in a thick sugar syrup.

Preserved Figs

I've talked about it here before, but I grew up in a home where the back property line butted up against a heavily wooded field. We had a short, wood framed fence along the back, easy to climb, and we had such fun playing in those woods, building caves and forts out of twigs and branches and using our imagination to entertain ourselves.

Times sure were much more innocent then.

 

Preserves, made from fresh, ripe blackberries, sugar and lemon.

Blackberry Preserves

Pick your own blackberries have pretty much played out down here in South Mississippi, though you may have a little more luck if you live in the northern part of our state. Of course, you'll still find California berries in the markets everywhere on through early fall, and probably even some from Central or South America too. Local, or as local as you can get, are always going to be the best.

How to preserve those fresh tomatoes in your freezer - no canning necessary!

How to Preserve Tomatoes in the Freezer

In the South, our growing season starts early and lasts a good while, so even for those who don't typically garden, it is practically an obligation to at least grow some tomatoes, even if it's a simple as a few 5 gallon buckets placed strategically around the yard.

“I am an old Southern woman. It is my obligation to wear funny hats and grow tomatoes”. ~Weezy

I have sure been enjoying fresh tomatoes out of the garden the past few weeks, juicy and sliced nice and thick onto sandwiches, or as big, meaty chunks in a simple cucumber and onion salad, and while I do have a few green ones still out there and a few more blossoms popping up, I think it's time to put a few away, don't you?

By the way, that is an untouched photograph y'all ... aren't they just gorgeous? Every one of those came out of my garden. I might not have gotten any peppers or beans to produce this year, but I sure had some purrtaay 'maters!!

Anyhoo... I haven't gotten into the whole canning thing with home vegetable gardening. For one, I just don't have that nice pantry storage space like many of you do. For another, I only do a small kitchen garden due to limited sunny areas in my yard, so I've never had a huge garden that really produced enough to "put away." What I do have, however, is a stand-alone freezer, so I like the freezer method of putting away tomatoes because 12 bags stacked up in the freezer sure take up a lot less space than jars in the pantry.

Now, do understand, just like store-bought canned tomatoes, you can't use these freezer tomatoes as a substitute for fresh either - you'll have to go pluck one fresh out of your garden for those kinds of recipes, but these tomatoes are perfect for use in spaghetti and pan sauces, soups and stews, skillet dinners and casseroles - things like that, which is really mostly what I used canned tomatoes for anyway. Now if you prefer canning, well, I am only beginning to can minor things like jams and jelly, but there are tons of tutorials out there to show you how to put up tomatoes properly. The freezer method is just one good way to preserve tomatoes, but it's a great way to put up tomatoes if you don't want to fool with canning or lack the space for those jars.