It’s very hot here in Kansas this week. That hot weather means it is the best time for harvesting mustard seed. This year we plan to can the harvest after it’s made into the condiment mustard. Mustard seed is great as a pickling spice as well. I throw a sheet on the ground and then break off the plant and stack them on the sheet. I jump on the plants which cause the seeds to come out. This is what the process looks like and one of our pickling cucumbers so you can see what we make pickles from
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In case anyone wonders how to remove the last bit of husks from the mustard seed you either use a fan and pour it from bowl to bowl or wait for a windy day.
Super cool. Never heard of anyone growing mustard seed.
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Speedster,
We make our own apple cider vinegar from our own apples the pickles are canned in. We try to be as self sufficient as possible. The mustard greens we canned in the spring so it’s a plant we actually harvest two crops from.
That’s super cool clark and great photos!
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This is the recipe I’m going to use this time. I’ve not tried this recipe but it looks like a good one. Mustard from scratch can be made with yellow or brown mustard seed. I’m using brown mustard seed because that’s what I have grown. The tumeric in normal mustard is what makes it yellow.
1 cup apple cider vinegar
12 tablespoons mustard seed
Any herbs such as tumeic, jalapeños, garlic etc.
3 tablespoons hard cider
Mix ingredients in a bowl and cover it
let the ingredients sit 3 days
Add half a cup honey after mixture has sat for three days.
Add 2 tsp salt
Blend it in the blender
Fresh mustard does not taste good for awhile but it starts to taste like mustard after it sits awhile.
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I really like lots of mustard seed in my homemade vennison summer sausage , I never thought about growing it myself. Is That just regular old mustard greens?
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Derby I got this old heirloom mustard about 20 years ago from a guy. I assume it’s the same stuff because it does look the same. I’ve grown this from seed all these years.
Very nice, as I noticed in another thread, you have been very diligent in preserving plants that to so many are lost. My hats off to you, I usually look back and wish I had saved seeds.
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Yellow mustard seed is mild and brown mustard seed is pungent. You may want to add lemon or lime juice and maybe not the alcohol in some cases. Some people say wait 2-3 months to ferment your mustard with the vinegar because it tastes better. I use live apple cider vinegar we just made. If you don’t like pungent mustard cook it to make it milder before you but it in a jar.
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Do you preserve your mustard seed in vinegar or is it dry?
The seed that I grow I just dry on paper plates or paper. I then put those seeds in pint or quart jars dry. The mustard I make into pickles or mustard sauce needs vinegar and other acidic products such as lime juice to seal the jars to preserve the food.
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Please tell us more about canning the greens. Any pictures?
Thanks Clark, for the recipe and pics. Had a few questions for you on growing the mustard.
We too grow some leaf mustard for greens every year, but I had not considered saving seed from them because of all the wild mustard plants which grow around here. How do you keep your mustard seed true? Have you noticed any variation in the mustard you grow over time?
Also I was curious if you’d be willing to sell a small quantity of your mustard seed?
Murky,
Greens require pressure cooking since they have no acid of there own. Things like meats, potatoes, pumpkin etc are non acid foods. I use a pressure cooker with a metal seal so it has no parts such as a rubber seal to wear out. They make several of these canners that are priced according to how many quarts you can at once. I will get pictures next time I’m in our food stash. Many acid foods such as peaches, salsa etc are high acid and seal well without pressure cooking. Some people combine methods to preserve things that are non acid. Black beans and corn are non acid but combine them with lime and tomato and make them into salsa and your ready to can. Here is the canner I use https://www.lehmans.com/p-5475-21-12-qt-high-quality-pressure-canner.aspx
Steve,
If you want to grow mustard in the traditional since of mustard
I would get the white aka yellow seed and add some of the brown like I grow. You can get that seed here https://www.horizonherbs.com/product.asp?specific=1889. The seed I grow is genetically isolated because there are no wild plants here or in within miles of here. I don’t sell mustard seed . Check out this article http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/3477/how-to-grow-mustard/page/all
Thank you clarkinks.
I have a very similar pressure cooker of the same make I believe: http://www.henryfields.com/product/Pressure_CookerCanner/growing_supplies_and_aids I got it for $80 brand new when Henry Fields had that crazy 80% off everything sale, a few years ago, that I learned about on Gardenweb. I’ve yet to use it.
I’m interested in how you prepare the greens. I don’t think I’ve seen canned greens before.
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Murky,
As most of you are already aware canning can be dangerous so consult the following guides first
http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/uga/using_press_canners.html
http://www.freshpreserving.com/getting-started
http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes
http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html
http://www.cdc.gov/features/homecanning/
http://www.foodsafety.gov/blog/home_canning.html
The recipe I used was from this website https://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/food_health/food/preservation/ and this was the guide from that website https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CDIQFjADahUKEwil7qbDrvbGAhXWGpIKHRSQAWQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lsuagcenter.com%2FNR%2Frdonlyres%2FCEA155AF-3DEF-4B23-9EA4-5BC4F6AD951A%2F11808%2Fpub1946greens.pdf&ei=1IuzVaW0ONa1yASUoIagBg&usg=AFQjCNFp7VkofwuY0SyZzcyb3tVJJ6GxSw&sig2=pyvNrmFr06UldVIoqtpqwQ
for some reason I could not locate the guide on the website anymore so I used google to find it.
I also looked a this http://www.simplycanning.com/canning-greens.html and this Canning Granny: Canning Kale and Other Greens
The pressure canner you purchased should have came with a guide to can greens as well.
On canning mustard you can also view this thread http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1978904/mustard-recipes-for-canning
On making apple cider vinegar at home you can view this website ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/pdf/5346.pdf they do not recommend using homemade vinega r for canning because it can vary in strength.
Thank you, for sharing the collection of useful links. When canning is involved, I very much appreciate recipes that have vetted for safety.
One of my frustrations though, is that the official guidelines seem to require reconstituted lemon juice. I think it doesn’t taste good (although maybe after canning I wouldn’t know the difference).
I’ve wondered if some pickle or jam recipes, slightly altered, would still come out palatable if pressure canned. I’d expect concerns to be perhaps pectin breaking down at high temperature or food getting too soft.
The attraction is I could then not worry about whether my lemons or other fruit are acidic enough to make the recipe work for hot water bath processing.
I see that is quite some processing time on the greens. How do you use the canned greens? I’d think I’d want to can them ready-to-eat.
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