Anita Martin

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:
I bought Grolsh bottles that work the same way and they are a delight to work with for apple & other juices, so we have the technology. But Kerr and Ball have a death grip on this type of product and they won't allow another company.
https://www.midwestsupplies.com/collections/grolsch-bottles
During COVID, a couple of other companies emerged[and may be here to stay] and produced good jars that I could buy at Fleet Farm ... but still with the same flawed technology of thin seals and metal lids. They just aren't as good.

I had never heard of Grolsch bottles before. Actually Grolsch is a Dutch beer company that is not common in Bavaria (but in other parts of Germany).
But it seems to be a generic term for flip top bottles.
I can get them easily here, either online (under one Euro for simple ones, over 6 for fancy blue ones) - or I just buy a beer that still comes with the flip top cap. There are also some high-end organic juices with these refundable bottles that hold 0.7 or even 1 litre.
I use them for the second fermentation of kombucha. I have not tried to use them for canning juice. I had quite a lot of grape juice this year and ran out of bottles. I am not sure if the beer bottles are good for heating that high. The other glass bottles might work.
flip top bottles

I don't really like adding acids to preserved veggies or herbs, but to avoid botulism you really should do so.

Therefore I avoid adding vinegar or similar by making a "confit" which I then sterilise in the oven. Similar to Pearl's recipe but with an additional heating cycle.
I use Roma style tomatoes, cut them in half and add herbs, garlic, salt, pepper, a bit of honey and generous amounts of olive oil in a sheet pan. When they look nicely roasted, I transfer them to Weck jars with oil and all and sterilize like half an hour in the jars.
Delicious for quick tomato tarts or to accompany cheeses.

Hey new team members,
welcome and thanks for your dedication!

Judith, this looks yummy!
I wonder how Moringa leaves taste? Do they have a very distinct flavour?

Update:
The crushing of the coarse bulgur with my Kenwood mill worked fine.
I then followed the recipe with soaking the bulgur in lemon juice. Although I diluted it a bit we all thought it was a bit too acidic so next time I will play around with the lemon juice a bit. Apart from that it was a success - especially for my parents and brothers who are not accustomed to our high level of cooking ;-)

Blake, my advice as a hobby genealogist is to search by region of origin.
Nobody in Europe would lump together Poland, Serbia and Greece as "Eastern European". No offence meant, but instead of trying to tackle the complete range of backgrounds, I would focus on one country/region and go from there.
Which interests you most, which members of your community can give you the most support?
Then reach out in social media, work with google translate or DeepL if necessary and research traditional crops. The research might be slow and tedious but I don't know of a better way.
A good starting point might be immigrants from later immigration waves that are still closer to their home countries and tradional foods.

Blake Lenoir wrote:Hey Anita. You seen some huge elephant ear shaped red peppers from Serbia before? And the huge elephant beans from Serbia and Greece you had those before? My community has a rich East European immigrant history from the industrial period in the 1900s and wanna find out if there are some heirloom varieties from that timeframe. What does the Serbian corn look like and what conditions it need in order to be successful in the western hemisphere?

Have you contacted the people of that community to see if some still garden? I know from Germany that you find all kinds of specialty crops in the allotments with migrant populations. Most are willing to exchange seeds and crops with you, in any case it is very easy for them to get the seeds if they visit their home countries during the summer vacation (which is very common here).
I know from my chinese sister in law that there are Facebook (or equivalent) groups for Chinese expats where they exchange tips about growing their special crops here in the harsh German climate. She even earns some extra cash by growing bitter gourds and similar and sending them on demand to other Chinese craving those foods.

You are talking about quite different cultures and growing climates.
Poland's cuisine is very similar to German one: Apart from pork and meat, there are potatoes, grains, cabbage, sauerkraut, onions, leek, cucumber and beets (also pickled), different kinds of mushrooms and herbs and spices like dill and poppy seeds.

Serbia has a warmer climate which allows for tomatos, peppers (also hot peppers), beans, grapes, melons, corn, filled grapeleaves.

Greece is definitely mediterranean and the most southern of these countries (a bit more south than NYC) with a much longer growing season, lots of eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, figs, pulses, of course olives...

Here in Germany we have restaurants from all three regions because many migrant workers came from there to work in Germany, starting in the 1960s. In many cities there are shops that cater to them, but also many supermarkets have a little section dedicated to ethnic specialties (even my tiny supermarket, they have birch juice for example from Poland).

As to gourds: Kikinda is just the name of a town. If you google you find a gardener who grew a huge pumpkin but it is not a local variety (gourds are not native to Europe). You could google Beogradska Tikvica if that is what you were looking for?

So I can report that I tried out the recipe - or a variation. I used this as inspiration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb9eU7303Rs&list=PLGUHIz35nQul5YzfXAwBo5_WwXKjI0ZLV&index=109

I used half a zucchini which by coincidence looks a lot like the calabacita of the video, one small hot chile pepper ad two shishito peppers and the first three tomatillos from my plants. I didn't have white onions so I used perennial onion leaves (and three cloves of garlic), plus a good amount of cilantro. I added a splash of lime juice although the recipe does not mention it.
I also added half a teaspoon of miso and one tablespoon of butter.

It came out very tasty and my family first thought it was regular guacamole. The consisctence was a giveaway as it hadn't cooled down completely and was a bit runny.

Judith Browning wrote:

 Once dried you grind them / break them up?

Yes...I use a corona hand crank mill.  Done this way I just soak to use.

Ha, this just gave me the idea that I could run the coarse supermarket bulgur through my Kenwood grain mill in a wide setting to crush it up a bit further - which would allow the soak method!