GREENS GATHERING

Every year a few "outdoorsy" types gather in Reni Henderson Preserve for "tipping." As has been for the last few years, snow has covered the trails, however, this year the weather was beautiful!
Marcia M and her husband Tom built a fire in the clearing and had hot cider for all who had ventured into the woods to collect the greens. Along with the hot cider, there were abundant amounts cookies.

Centerpiece Making

Christmas centerpiece making has been a long-held tradition for the Castine Garden Club members to organize for the Adams School 7th and 8th graders. Jane W brings the items needed to put together the centerpieces and the CGC members gather the greens needed, bake cookies and assist in the centerpiece-making process.
With some instruction, the students get right to work and create some amazing results!

Canning Presentation--Garden Club Meeting--November 10, 2009

Today's meeting of the Castine Garden Club featured a canning presentation by Sandra Oliver. She presented a practical way of canning and food storage of produce from one's garden or one's neighbor's garden! She offered up some great tips, a couple of recipes and a lot of good humor!

Today, she showed the process of canning beets in a vinegar, sugar and clove "brine" using a boiling bath. Another method for canning is using a pressure cooker for the bath.

Recipe: depending upon the quantity of cooked beets, bring to boil equal parts of sugar and cider vinegar (5% acid) with cloves (2 or 3 for 4 cups sugar and 4 cups vinegar). Sterilize the jars and fill the hot jars with beets, pressing them down into the jars, filling to the jar collar. Pour the brine into the jars covering the beets. Wipe tops and seal at once with sterilized lids.**see note about lids below. Process in a water bath for 15 to 20 minutes.

Also presented was non-bath canning using vegetables like cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, small white onions, (could include other veggies like cauliflower, green tomatoes, etc) and garlic cloves. Vinegar and water heated to boiling. The addition of a green grape leaf will keep the vegetables crisp. The brine was poured over the well packed vegetables with sugar and salt. No further boiling necessary. The hot brine will create the seal.
**Lids that are packaged on the ball jars should be discarded. The packaging process (shrink wrap of plastic) will create a groove in the lid, which may keep the lids from sealing properly.

Recipes were submitted by our members:

Green Tomato Pepper Relish
submitted by Diana B
1 gallon green tomatoes
2 medium onions, peeled
4 large green peppers (discard seeds)
2 large red peppers (discard seeds )
1 teaspoon mixed pickling spices
1/2 cup salt
3 cups vinegar
1 cup water
2 cups sugar

Wash, chop & mix vegetables; add salt and let stand for several hours or overnight. Drain, liquid and discard. Tie spices in cheesecloth and combine all ingredients and simmer 30 minutes. Ladle boiling hot mixture in hot sterilized jars. Seal at once. Precess in boiling water bath 5 minutes. makes 12 pints
From: Farm Journal "Freezing and Canning" cookbook; copyright 1963

Crisp Mustard Pickles
submitted by

6 (5") pickling cucumbers (1-1/4 lbs)
2 cups chopped onion
3 sweet red peppers, chopped
1 medium head cauliflower, cut into small pieces
2 cups small pickling onions (pearl onions)
1 cup canning/pickling salt
4 cups sugar
4 cups 5% acid strength cider vinegar
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup dry mustard
1-1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric
1 tablespoon celery salt

Wash cucumbers; cut 1/16" off blossom ends; chop. Layer cucumbers, onion, peppers, cauliflower, onions and salt in 1 gal. crock; cover with cold water. Let stand 12 - 18 hours in cool place. Drain; rinse.

Combine sugar, vinegar, flour and spices in 4-qt kettle blend well with wire whisk; gradually bring to boil, stirring constantly. Add vegetables; bring to boil; simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes.

Ladle into 6 hot pint jars, filling to within 1/4 of jar top. Wipe the jar rim; fit lids.

Process in boiling water bath 15 minutes. Start to count processing time when water in canner returns to boiling. Remove jars and complete seals unless closures are self-sealing type. makes 6 pints.
Secret of these pickles is the sauce.

Peach & Rum Preserves
submitted by Sue M

4 cups chopped peaches
1 3/4 package fruit pectin
5 cups sugar
1/4 cup light rum

Combine peaches and fruit pectin in a very large sauce pan. Place over high heat and bring to a full boil, stirring constantly. Immediately add all sugar and stir. Again bring to full rolling boil and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in rum. Skim off foam. Stir and skim for 5 minutes. Ladle into hot scalded jars, seal. Yield: 6 1/2 pint jars.

Asiatic Bittersweet, a menace!

Do you remember gathering this vine for decorative use? It has not been too many years ago that a lot of us looked forward to gathering this vine in the fall and adding it to our arrangements and fall wreaths. Beautiful, we thought!

Well, let me tell you about this “beautiful” berry-filled vine! It’s a nightmare and we have it in many areas in Castine. It is invasive and has done much damage. Because it is a serious threat to other species and to whole habitats, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and other organizations have published information about the Asiatic Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculata). For information from the UMaine Extension Service, go to their website (http://www.umext.maine.edu) and search for “invasive plants.” From there you can order a bulletin on invasive plants, download a “PDF” file or view a web page (html).

Probably brought in from East Asia around the mid 1800’s, its use was for ornamental purposes. Before being discovered as a menace, oriental bittersweet was planted as highway decoration in many states. As with a lot of non-native plants, ornamental bittersweet goes rampant with nothing to keep it in check. Birds disperse the seeds plus the plant itself has a high reproductive rate, long range dispersal mechanisms and the ability to root sucker.

Asiatic bittersweet is similar in appearance to the native species American bittersweet. However, Asiatic bittersweet is distinguished from American bittersweet by the fact that its fruit and flowers are located in clusters of three to seven between the leaf and the stem. American bittersweet's fruit and flowers are located at the branch tips only.

Okay, you find it on your property, what do you do to rid it from your property? It takes tenacity! The UMaine Extension recommends the following for control: “Small patches can be hand-pulled. Take care to remove the entire root to prevent resprouting. Low patches have been successively removed by cutting the vine and treating the regrowth with a triclopyr herbicide. Control is more successful in taller patches when cut stems are immediately painted with triclopyr or glyphosate (Roundup, for one). This plant has a substantial seed bank, and complete eradication may depend on repeating control methods for several years.”

The vine is at its most easily identified during the fall season. If you cut the vines, remember: do not put them in your compost or brush piles. The prolific seed pods ensure its return—hundred fold!

Submitted by: Nancy Watson, Communications, Castine Garden Club

Castine Garden Club Blog

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