Q and A: Tomato soup, Elderberries, and Pickling peppers

Tomato soup

Do you happen to have a tomato soup recipe using dried powdered tomatoes? I have had a bumper crop of them this year and have canned a lot of whole, chopped, spaghetti sauce, and pizza sauce already. Now I am dehydrating a bunch of them. I have made the soup using chopped tomatoes but would like one using the powder.

Joni Warren
Canyon City, Oregon

You can try this one; it’s one we like.

OLD FASHIONED CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP

1 cup powdered tomato
4 cups water
1 pint chicken broth
1 Tbsp. butter or margarine
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. chopped onion (fine)
1 tsp. dried basil
pinch of baking soda
2 cups cream (or may use milk)

Mix tomato powder, water, chicken broth, butter, sugar, onions, basil, and soda. Simmer 1 hour, stirring to prevent scorching. Heat cream gently, the pour cream into hot tomato mixture. Serve immediately. Hope you like it. — Jackie

Elderberries

I found some wild elderberries. I dried about a pint of them on my porch. I placed the dried berries in a jar and covered them. It has been several weeks now and when I looked at them today, there was a flour miller inside. Not only that, but when I poured the jar contents out on a newspaper, there were small worms in the berries. Yuck. How can I keep this from happening next time?

Could those dried berries (ones that were not wormy) be planted in small containers next Spring to create elderberry plants? Could I set them outside after the last frost and harvest berries next August?

J from Missouri

Next year, freeze your berries before drying them for a few weeks. You can initially freeze them by laying them in a single layer on a cookie sheet and when they’re frozen, pour them into freezer containers. Then they won’t clump up in the freezer. Or if you’re like me and don’t have a freezer, dry your berries quickly, then put them in your oven on its lowest setting. This will kill any insect eggs present so you won’t be “surprised” again by critters in your berries.

You can try planting some of the dried seeds, but often tree and shrub seeds become too dehydrated to germinate after purposeful dehydrating or long storage in the house. What you might do is to plant several seeds now, in a spot in a raised bed or in your garden soil and see if you get sprouts in the spring. Elderberries, like many fruit seeds, must undergo a period of chilling called stratification, before they will germinate. If they don’t germinate in the spring, just remember to harvest some more seeds next summer and plant some right off the bat. They most likely won’t pop up before fall but if left undisturbed over winter, should sprout up nicely, come spring. — Jackie

Pickling peppers

I am looking for a way to pickle peppers without having to waterbath them if possible. They become so soft when doing that. Also I am wondering if I have to take the seeds out of the small peppers before pickling? We usually just eat them fresh but this year I have MORE than a bumper crop!

Darla
Deming, Washington

If you pack the raw peppers in hot jars and pour boiling pickling solution over them, then only water bath them for 10 minutes, they will remain quite firm. The longer you “cook” any vegetable, the softer it becomes. No, you don’t have to remove the seeds, but with sweet peppers, the flavor will be a little better by removing the seeds and ribs. With hot peppers, the seeds and ribs left in the peppers will result in hotter peppers after pickling. Do remember to cut several small slits in each pepper to allow the pickling solution to reach the interior of each pepper. — Jackie