Category: Around the Kisner Homestead

Rediscovering Popcorn as a Snack

I have many fond memories of my dad with popcorn as a snack. I watched many baseball games on TV with a big bowl of buttered popcorn between us as he explained the strategies of the players. Popcorn has always been my snack of choice, even over chips and pretzels.

When we were first married (way back in the late 60s and early 70s), Bert and I had a huge garden with a section set aside to grow popcorn. The process is much like sweet corn but we needed to keep the sweet corn at the other end of the garden…they will cross pollinate and ruin both. Popcorn is taller than sweet corn and often had pink silk. Really pretty!

I will tell you…growing our own popcorn, drying it and popping it as soon as it was dry enough was a lot of work but the taste was amazing! A whole different taste from popcorn that had been sitting in a jar on the shelf for over a year!

For several years we did the work of picking the ears, husking them, laying the ears out on an old sheet in front of the wood burning stove until they dried enough to shell. We learned the hard way to wear gloves because the corn kernels had a sharp point and after a few ears our hands were shredded (at least mine were!).

We often had 5-6 gallons of shelled corn by Halloween and made sure to gift my dad a gallon of corn for Christmas! Most people thought we were nuts!

If you are interested in growing popcorn, there are many articles online about it. Here is one I thought was interesting: https://gardenerspath.com/plants/vegetables/grow-popcorn/

For the last 30+ years we haven’t grown popcorn but I’ve tried to find the best popcorn, and the best popcorn popper rather than growing our own. I’ve tried specialty and multicolor popcorn. The two main kinds of popcorn…white and yellow…seem to be the main choice. The white kernels are smaller and don’t leave a sharp piece of the hull. The big yellow kernels pop up much bigger and have more flavor, but often I’m left needing a toothpick or dental floss to get those sharp hulls that get stuck between my teeth.

Finding popcorn that is fresh with the right moisture content to pop well is tough. You have no way to know how long ago the popcorn was harvested and how it was stored. Sometimes, popcorn does better if it is stored in the refrigerator or freezer. Here are two brands that work pretty well for me. I always assume some of it will not pop and be left in the bottom of the bowl. I do miss the flavor of the popcorn we grew…but these will do:

The next challenge was finding the right popcorn popper. My dad used a popper similar to the one below and loved it so much he took it with him as he moved into assisted living.

This had a Teflon heat surface with a rotating arm that stirred the popcorn. I had a popper like this too for a while, but it was just too big and bulky and hard to store.

I seem to have quite a collection of popcorn poppers (I sold the air popper at a yard sale a long time age). At the moment I have 4 choices of poppers:

Popper #1

For many years, we used this popper. The handle crank and gears let us stir it as it popped, and frankly made the best popcorn. We still use it if we have company and have to make a lot of popcorn. I’m pretty sure I got this at Lehman’s of Ohio (from the catalog online). It’s solid and works fast.

Popper #2

For a while I was determined to find a popper that worked well in the microwave. I picked up this clay pot, made in Chile but sold by a company in the Midwest that sold popcorn. It does well but it gets hot and is kind of slippery. I’m always worried I’ll drop and break it. I’ve had it sitting on a shelf since that first try.

Popper #3

This clear glass popper is turning out to be my favorite because it has a handle I can grab with a hot pad and I can see how full it is as it pops.

Popper #4

Recently, I was enticed to pick up a small popper at the health food store that would make just one small serving:

Two minutes in the microwave…

This made a single serving of popcorn. I wish I could have seen through the container to see how full the cup was as it was popping but it did leave some of the corn unpopped.

So, my quest to find the best popper continues. I have tried the air popper but it put out so much air it blew the unpopped kernels right out before they had time to pop. It seems I often choose the white corn without sharp hulls and a popper that gets hot like #1 above.

I suggested to Bert that we try popcorn next year in the garden…and all I got was smirk and a reminder of how much work it was to shell. Guess I’ll just buy popcorn by the jar! Enjoy!

Tomatoes-Too Many or Not Enough

One of the joys of gardening is to be able to eat fresh produce we grew ourselves. I also like to grow enough extra so I can preserve my favorite foods for the winter. The three foods I like to have on my shelf include pizza sauce in 1/2 pint jars, sweet pickle relish in pints and the pickled 4-bean salad in pints. (see https://marykisner.com/revised-four-bean-salad-recipe-for-canning/ )

Each of those foods are things we use and if we don’t grow it, the farmer’s market usually has an abundance of tomatoes, cucumbers and green and yellow beans at some point in the summer.

I work around the available volume of produce to decide when it’s time to can. Right now, we have way too many tomatoes to just eat them…they would spoil even if we both eat 1-2 tomatoes every day! However, the pile is not quite enough to make a batch of pizza sauce to can.

So, we eat what we can work into our meals, and before the tomatoes rot on the counter, I cook and freeze the rest. When I have enough frozen to make a batch of pizza sauce, I thaw out the cooked tomatoes and continue on with the recipe. I now have about 11 pints of cooked tomatoes frozen.

I will continue cooking tomatoes in smaller batches for another week or two. when I see tomatoes being sold at the farmer’s market by the box or bushel, I’ll decide if I want to save my frozen tomatoes for soup and other recipes, or clean out the freezer and use them to make the pizza sauce. I have choices! If you’d like to see how I make the pizza sauce I posted about it here in 2021: https://marykisner.com/time-to-make-pizza sauce/.

In case you don’t do projects like this, here are some pictures of how I cook the tomatoes to freeze.

First, the tomatoes are washed. Then I cut off the top of each tomato and score an X on the bottom.

I drop them gently into boiling water for about 1 minute to loosen the skin.

Then I move the tomatoes to a bowl of ice water. That stops the cooking action and really gets the skin to start peeling back.

Then I take each tomato, peel off the skin and chop the tomato into chunks. I place the chunks into a pot on the stove. Our tomatoes are pretty solid, so I add about 1 cup of water and let the tomatoes simmer and soften slowly. I the temperature is too hot at the beginning, the tomatoes will burn at first…ruins the whole batch! Ask me how I know!!

It takes about 2-3 hours on low to boil off some of the water and get the tomatoes cooked.

I scoop the cooked tomatoes into freezer boxes and put them in the freezer.

At least the tomatoes are safe in the freezer until I decide if I want to use them to make pizza sauce later. For now…it’s back to the garden to pick some more tomatoes! Enjoy!

Revised Four Bean Salad Recipe for Canning

Fresh green and yellow beans are abundant right now…at least at the Farmer’s Market! Since my poor bean plants were dried out and then drowned, if I wanted my four bean salad for the winter, I had to count on the Farmer’s Market to supply them. In one quick trip to the local market I was able to bring home 6 lbs. of green and yellow beans, onions and red peppers. I also had celery, kidney beans and chickpeas ready to go.

Here is the original recipe:

For this next batch of Four Bean Salad I doubled the recipe. I started with 6 lbs. of green and yellow beans, snapped and washed.

In this post, I’ll try to edit the recipe so you can see what I need to change the next time. I was hoping to make 19 pints, which would fill my canner. However, at 16 pints I ran out of the pickling solution. I decided to just put the extra blanched vegetables in jars and put them in the fridge. I’ll use the bean mixture in soup or over rice as is.

The original recipe called for chopped celery, red pepper and onion. I did not care for how the onions turned out last time (kind of stringy and slimy) so this time I chopped the onions like the peppers. (Picture below is from last year!)

I wanted more chickpeas in the mix, so I added three cans and 2 cans of kidney beans.

I did double the recipe for the pickling solution, but I was still short about 3 cups.

Bert got us into production mode with the propane tank and the canner!

Here are the finished 16 jars ready for the shelf. I’ll wait a month or so before I try this batch…give the pickling solution time to work!

The three extra jars are in the refrigerator ready to heat up and eat!

Here is the revised recipe:

Since I was short about 3 cups in the pickling solution, I added more vinegar, sugar and water to the recipe.

Next time should be better but I’ll sure enjoy these!

Garden Update July 31,2023

Every year the garden is different. This year we started season in a drought so watering every day was necessary. Now, in July, we’ve had over 8 inches of rain! Basically, the lettuce and radishes in the raised planters did well. They were easy to water when it was dry and drained well when it was very wet. The Romaine lettuce is starting to make heads.

The sweet potato in a pot has survived having most of the leaves chomped off several weeks ago by the deer. It has recovered well and is now sending out runners…not sure if the roaming bunnies will find it yummy.

In the next week or so, we’ll dig up the beets. The tops were a nice snack for the deer a few weeks ago that slowed down their growth.

Forgot to take a picture of the potatoes to the left of the beets…you can sort of see a little piece of that bed in the picture above. They are starting to die off but that’s normal. Bert said he could see a few potatoes above ground so he added some potting soil to cover them up. When the plants are dead we’ll dig up the potatoes.

The garden up on the hill mostly survived a wandering deer…the footprints in the wet soil gave them away. Bert has started spraying the plants with a nasty-smelling concoction that is meant to keep deer away. We’ll see!

The lavender is filling out and the bees love it. I’ll wait a little while before I cut too much.

We have lots of green tomatoes, but they are ripening fast. I expect in the next week I’ll have trays on the kitchen table with almost ripe tomatoes.

The carrots are finally looking good. We’ll leave them in the ground until November or December and dig up just what we need.

This empty section had green and yellow beans. After the last picking, I pulled the plants and replanted green beans. The dry/wet contrast was pretty hard on the plants.

The Delicata squash seemed to spread out all over…but it looks like we might get a few squash.

Even a “double” squash!

And of course, my favorite…Echinacea flowers!!

Enjoy!

Milestone of 56 Years!

We had a family reunion two weeks ago so I thought I didn’t need to focus on the fact that today, Bert and I have been married for 56 years…longer than either of our parents and probably our grandparents. Over a nice dinner out, we talked about how unusual that was in our families. Individuals had longevity, but often one member of the couple passed away early. We’ve had quite an unusual gift of longevity and thanks to modern medicine and the technology of hip and knee replacements have managed to stay upright!

So, to review our story…we eloped in the summer of 1967 (a crazy tale in itself) and didn’t tell anyone until the following summer.

We planned to “get married” in the family living room and not mention anything at all…except the minister we asked to do the service would not do it unless everyone attending (immediate family) knew it was just a renewal. So, that blew our secret! We had to fess up. In August, 1968 we had an official “renewing of vows” and then had a reception at the Nittany Lion Inn for all of our extended family and friends.

Bert, Grandpa John Bixby, Mary

We recently remembered that the first Arts Festival in downtown State College was in 1967. We spent some time strolling College Avenue checking out the art displays. Such was our honeymoon!

So now, when I look at our grandchildren (ages 17, 16, 14 and 11) I’m not sure I want to share my saga with them yet…how crazy were we at age 21 and 20! Yikes! Who knew it would last 56 years!

Garden Update July 11, 2023

Time to share the mid-July adventures in the garden! Last week, the view of the patio planters looked like this:

Radishes, lettuce and my sweet potato plant were doing well. I was pretty sure they were safe from roving bunnies and deer because they were so close to the house. Unfortunately, the deer saw the sweet potato plant as part of their salad bar! Sunday morning, the sweet potato plant looked like this:

Two days later, the plant is trying to recover:

Oh well, I tried!

Then we noticed the beet tops. They looked like this last week:

Sunday morning they looked chomped all along one side!

Very frustrating. Several beets had been yanked out of the ground so I cooked them. Yum…really sweet!

The potatoes and Delicata squash were not touched.

Up in the garden on the hill, amazingly, nothing was touched. When you look at the short but sturdy garden fence, we were surprised the deer didn’t just hop the fence for a snack! So far, that hasn’t happened. Maybe the hoses look like snakes.

The lavender continues to fill out:

The tomatoes are doing well:

The carrots have finally started to grow:

The beans are blossoming and making tiny beans!

The Delicata squash is getting huge, with little squashes starting:

And of course, my favorite…Echinacea!!

Bert has now sprayed the sweet potato plant and the beet tops with some deer repellent. We’ll hope it’s enough to deter the deer so the plants can continue to grow!

Family Reunion Photos

Generally, I try not to post a lot of personal photos on my blog. Just seems prudent. However, I will concede that my ability to take selfies is not a very satisfying way to document important events. Sometimes it’s the only way to get pictures of my family…one selfie at a time. I can’t seem to get everyone to sit or stand together at the same time, in the same space!

It appears I have the most luck documenting my grandpuppy, Daisy!

This past weekend, Kathy hosted a “family reunion” for the Kisner tribe. Ted and family was visiting from California. Friday night, Kathy arranged to have a photographer friend capture all our lovely smiles in an outdoor setting.

The next day, Bert’s brother and sister joined us for a lovely picnic. We were able to snag a few photos of the siblings.

And of course, this week is our 56th wedding anniversary so it was nice to have a current picture of us! Geez…time flies!

What To Do With 30 Pounds of Blueberries

You might never need to deal with 30 pounds of blueberries all at one time…unless you can get them like I did, through the local Kiwanas. Every year they have a fund-raising sale and bring in 10-pound boxes of blueberries, fresh-picked from New Jersey. the berries are beautiful! After washing all 30 pounds, I think I had to discard less than a cup because of blemishes. This year’s crop was delicious!

If you check back on my blog to one year ago exactly, I processed 20 pounds of blueberries. I don’t need to repeat the description but you can read about it here: https://marykisner.com/blueberries-galore/

So, the first 20 pounds of berries I washed and packed into zip bags, 2 cups in a bag:

So, what do I do with all these frozen blueberries?

First, they are great on cereal or oatmeal. the frozen berries roll out of the bag like marbles and within a minute or two they are thawed enough to eat!

Second, I can toss about 1/2 cup of berries into my breakfast smoothie along with frozen banana slices and two scoops of my vegan protein powder. The frozen berries act like little bits of ice and thicken up the smoothie.

I wrote about freezing bananas here: https://marykisner.com/freezing-bananas/

This is the protein powder that I like, but there are many to choose from.

The third thing I do with these frozen blueberries is make blueberry muffins. You can read about my favorite muffin recipe here: https://marykisner.com/the-best-vegan-muffin/

I make these especially for me because they are vegan and they have bananas and walnuts in them.

I’m now working on another muffin recipe that has only blueberries…no bananas or walnuts. After I give the recipe a try, I’ll post it for you.

The last 10-pound box of blueberries will be kept fresh just to eat. Ted’s family will be visiting next week and the berries will be good to munch on! Enjoy!

Garden Update June 18, 2023

After struggling over a month with no rain, finally we are seeing abundant rainfall! The grass is slowly greening up and the garden doesn’t seem so parched. More cloudy days and rain really help. Time to show you some pictures!

In the patio planters, I’ve harvested radishes three times so far. The newest crop is pretty tiny but I have several bags in the refrigerator.

Another section has radishes a little smaller, but the lettuce in front has been donated to some bunny friends (or should I say…a friend with bunnies)!

The lettuce we have the most success with is Black Seeded Simpson, so I’ll fill in empty spaces with more of that.

Remember that single sweet potato that was growing on my kitchen counter? It is going to make a great plant. Not sure if we’ll actually get any sweet potatoes out of it!

The small potatoes that were sprouting in the kitchen are also doing well in the ground!

The beets are lush enough so the weeds don’t have a chance. I’ll thin them when they get bigger.

The last section of the raised beds was going to be several herbs…however, the seeds must have been too old…nothing came up! So, we put in the last few Delicata squash plants we had. A good choice since it’s quite handy to the bird feeder and the visiting deer won’t eat them. We’ll see!

Up in the garden on the hill, the lavender is doing well. I’ve cut the first flowers to encourage the plant to send up more.

The tomato plants have lots of blossoms so I’m encouraged that we’ll have lots of tomatoes this year!

Boo hoo! The poor carrots are having a hard time. I think the very dry hot weather was tough on them. You can hardly see them!

You can see how dry and cracked the ground is even though Bert watered every day!

The beans seemed to respond to watering over the last month so they look pretty healthy.

The Delicata squash plants finally look good. Bert had to replant them several times. Not sure why they didn’t sprout. They are a vining plant, so we’re not sure if we’ll have to add a climbing trellis.

And finally…the Echinacea!! I’m anticipating some beautiful flowers pretty soon!

This is about the time I’m glad that lots of people around here have gardens and sell produce at the Farmer’s Markets. We certainly couldn’t grow everything we need in our small garden, but it sure is rewarding when we eat our first home-grown tomato!

Making Sweet Potato Yeast Bread

Just one more recipe using the mashed sweet potatoes I made the other day…see https://marykisner.com/prepping-sweet-potatoes-for-other-recipes/ I froze the mashed sweet potatoes in 1 cup containers so I can easily make this recipe and the previous one that made buns. The sweet potato buns recipe can be found here: https://marykisner.com/making-vegan-sweet-potato-buns/

Making Sweet Potato Yeast Bread

The recipe I made yesterday made two large loaves of bread that were light and delicious. The recipe did call for butter and one egg, so if you are vegan, use plant-based butter and eliminate the egg. Here is the recipe:

I was very interested that this recipe uses half whole wheat flour. It was still very light and held together after baking. It was also an easy recipe that could be made in just one bowl (I used my stand mixer bowl).

The recipe called for whole wheat flour. I usually grind my own whole wheat flour, using white whole wheat berries, so I was glad to find King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour at the grocery store. That saved me a step.

Mixing everything in one bowl reduced the clean up time!

This did make a very nice soft dough.

I did not do a very accurate job of dividing the dough into two loaves. I had to cut the biggest one in half to fit in the bag for the freezer. Next time I might make three loaves instead!

Look how beautiful the bread is! Delicious too.

Keep this recipe in mind when you cook sweet potatoes…cook an extra, mash it and freeze it. Makes a special loaf of bread! Enjoy!