*chuckling* Well, not a head chef by any means, just a Southern cook with a large family! Black eyed peas I will cook fresh, frozen or dried. They cook the same way with a couple small differences. After rinsing fresh shelled peas, I'll add water and simmer them for an hour or so until they are tender. Seasonings to taste, a little sauteed onion, maybe a little bell pepper, perhaps a little bacon or ham for flavoring. I also will just drop a ham bone into the pot. Frozen, the same, though the temp starts out lower and they simmer a little longer to give them time to thaw completely. Dried, depends on when I'm starting them. If the night before in my crockpot, I will just add the water and everything else, put them on low and let them cook all night and the next day. Check the water and how done they are first thing in the morning to decide if they need more water and how much longer they need to cook. We like ours just tender, but not mushy. I have a crockpot that I can set the cooking time on, after that, they just stay warm until we get home and are ready to eat. If I'm cooking dried for that evening, I'll get my tap water as hot as possible, drop the beans in and let them soak, keeping the water at a simmer to gently rehydrate them. Then I'll bring the heat up and cook them. While I was between crockpots, I use to get the tap water as hot as possible, drop the peas in and cover them overnight to let them soak, rinse them, then start cooking them the following morning. Notice that the only real differences in the way I cook them is whether the amount of time and whether or not they'll need soaked. Serving them, there are a lot of different ways- peas and corn bread, pea salad, a spoon of peas on a green salad, etc. Most dried beans can be treated the same way, though different beans and peas need different cooking times, may not need to be soaked, etc. Kidney beans, for example, I add beef or mixed beef/pork sausage to and let it simmer with garlic, onion, bell peppers and cayenne pepper, a few other seasonings and dried herbs and serve with rice- I grew up in SW Louisiana :)These I let cook a little longer because I want it to form thicker 'gravy' that coats and clings to the rice. You can combine several different types of beans/peas to make bean soup. English split peas make a lovely creamy soup and there are several recipes for them. Swiss Chard and collards I like to do the greens like I do any other greens. I'll either Southern pan fry them (which is more wilting with a very little oil) or use them in scrambled eggs or omelets or in salads as fresh greens, or on sandwiches to replace lettuce or stir fried with other veggies and perhaps a little chicken . All of these retain the nutritional value (yes, even the wilting, especially if you sop up or drink the pot liquor. Keep in mind that all leafy greens will shrink as they cook and wilt, so you will need what seems like an enormous amount is you're cooking them. Cow peas I'm not as familiar with since we don't care for them much, aside from the purple hulls- these I do like black eyes. Hot peppers can be used a number of ways. If they are big enough, they can be stuffed and oven baked or deep fried. My family likes cream cheese and cheddar to stuff them with, perhaps a little diced mushroom. Stuff them, then sew or tie them shut with a little turkey twine (you can find this where ever your store sells cooking gadgets)We also use them in salsa and in just cooking a variety of things. We also pickle them with vinegar and use the juice after it's set for a couple months in beans on the plate to taste. You can also grind them, add some vinegar and make home made hot sauces. You can also make pepper jelly or pepper chow chow with them. Sweet peppers- banana, etc, I will often use as I would any bell pepper. A different flavor, but I often use them the same. I'll stuff and bake them with ground meat and rise or the cheese mixtures, I'll even stuff and serve them fresh - stuffing often depends on the size and how much time I have. They're also great cut fresh for salads, in Mexican dishes, with sandwiches, etc. Another way is to take your hot peppers and add banana peppers for pickling. This will give you the banana pepper flavor, with a little heat and kick! I've also pickled them by themselves to preserve them for the winter. I've dehydrated them in my oven like I do tomatoes (my alternative to sun dried tomatoes)After dehydrating, I'll make a dried salsa of tomatoes, a variety of peppers, garlic, onions and toss it all together in a freezer baggie. In the dead of winter I'll have homemade salsa with the addition of some lime juice, a little warm water and fresh cilantro from my window. I've used both sweet and hot peppers cut into strips and grilled (or pan grilled) to use for fajitas. Larger peppers can be oven or grill roasted, similar to garlic, and added to a variety of dishes. I don't do a lot of winter squashes, we prefer summer squash, which I freeze in abundance and use a variety of ways. DH's Aunt pickles the winter ones, but I'm not as familiar with them except for perhaps Hubbard, which I've had baked. Hopefully someone else will chime in with ideas for many of the things your asking about and will have more info on the winter squashes. Pumpkin is one that I am familiar with. We bake the pie sized ones into pies after preparing the puree. We've also stuffed and baked the smaller ones with a variety of things- ground beef and rice.. apples pears and brown sugar with a bit of nutmeg. They are rather versatile. And of course, there is roasted pumpkin seed! These are a favorite for my kids and they will eat them by the handful! We'll do them several different ways- tossing with a little olive oil and sprinkling with cinnamon, salt, a dash of red pepper, tossing with a bit of honey, ranch dressing mix, or Italian seasonings- these are fun to experiment with! The larger pumpkins, especially if they're thicker and tougher, chickens and livestock enjoy a lot! Horses adore melon rinds, but be careful to make sure they're ripe and to give them as a treat. Sometimes the rind can cause colic in horses. I'd check with my vet first about the type of melon. Whew! That got long and I was tying to just give some ideas and not get into *all* the different ways I prepare these things! We eat a lot of veggies, fresh and preserved in one way or another. The kids really enjoy taking a handful of over dried cherry tomatoes and snacking on them like most kids do potato chips! I'm hoping some of the others will chime in too! I'm always interested in learning new ways, or ones that I know about but am not as familiar with, to preserve or prepare the veggies I grow. Ask away, Nichol! And everyone else, please jump in! I want to learn how others preserve and prepare! LOL, a lot of the things I do are things my grandparents and Daddy taught me and are wonderful, but I'm always looking for new or different ways! Kathy

As a certified home canning instructor, I will only suggest using tested recipes that follow USDA standards. These are recipes that have been developed and tested for pH levels, heat penetration of the food, as well as tested after it has been shelved for bacteria. The only commercial book that uses USDA standards is the Ball Blue Book, and we can always check at the National Center for Home Food Preservation for up-to-date canning information and recipes, or check with your local County Extension Office. I don't see why anyone would want to use untested recipes, or make something up based on another food entirely? There are more bacteria, and more deadly bacteria than existed 20-25-years ago, therefore it's more important than ever to follow safe recipes, use safe canning practices, and never make up your own recipes. If you do make up your own recipes, please avoid giving the food to anyone who has a compromised immune system, is on medication for any disease/condition, children and the elderly. While a healthy person may be able to survive botulism, others may not. I'll relate this story from the National Center for Home Food Preservation as written in "Food Preservation: Follow Recipe to Ensure Safety, Success": A 62-year old woman dipped a finger into the juice in home canned carrots. She was hospitalized two days later after feeling dizzy and having difficulty walking. She was still hospitalized six months later, but lucky to be alive after ingesting Clostridium botulinum. -Grainlady

I agree that red beets aren't as messy as pomegranates, but they're still pretty messy. The stains don't seem as permanent. Yellow beets stain my hands as much as red beets do. I get two kinds of gloves at the catering supply store (I'm sure Amazon and many others have them too). They're inexpensive and great for the purpose. One is like a glove shaped Alligator Baggie (if anyone remembers those...I think they still make them but they're rare where I shop). The other is more like a rubber glove, though probably vinyl. The baggie style ones are great for things like beets. They're thin, cheap, recyclable if your area does "films", and you can slip them on and off easily and leave them in the sink, to do other chores, answer the phone, or whatever. The others are tight, and good for fiddly jobs where you want a good fit, or physical ones, like cleaning poultry. Neither beets nor pomegranates have to stain your kitchen, if you're careful. It helps to work in a large bowl or even a roasting pan. I love pickled beets! I should make some. They used to just appear in my life, but haven't recently. I love them when they're julienned--the squared sides are fun to eat. Another thing you can do with small or baby beets, or cut up ones, is glaze them. Nobody seems to do glazes anymore--the kind where it's the outer layer of the veg that does it, not syrup, honey or sugar. You only add a little sugar or leave it out entirely and worry the veg over an ultra low heat for a very long time to use only the sugars naturally in it. Glazing doesn't have to take a lot of effort, though. I usually do it for a mixed dish for Passover, and in such quantity that I'm over it for half a year, but for a normal dinner with only one vegetable, it's not a big deal. I also use dried fruit instead of any refined sugar, so it takes longer. On a quick search, I found a kind of smarmy but very detailed article on the classic way to glaze with just a spot of sugar, that explains it better than I could. Follow the links and you'll find a beet recipe.

What lovely pictures! Your garden yield is impressive. Roasted celeriac is absolutely delicious! I love to spiral slice a watermelon radish and twist it into a ribbon. So pretty! And people like to eat it raw like that. I'm not fond of black radishes either. Funny about the cows! They can have mine. :) I bet you could make an interesting sauce with them, though, maybe with some port to reinforce the earthiness, and some orange for brightness? One of my favorite things is turnip chips -- do you have turnips? -- easiest with one that's kind of flat, disc shaped, rather than full on pointy turnip, but can be done with any. The shape preference makes them easier to arrange on the baking sheet, and easy to put through my paddle mandoline. I do it on the 0.5 setting. Transparently thin. Then a good sharp white cheddar through a ribbon Microplane loosely over the top and roasted until brown spots form. It's really not much cheese, but very flavorful. Problem is that by the time they're all out of the oven, they're gone! Maybe you could do something like that with black radishes and smoked gouda? Someone was talking about flash fried radishes -- cut like flowers, but those were the little ones, so I'd think slices for bigger ones -- but I've never tasted them and I don't know if they're really all that good. I mistrust a lot of people's palates. :) Did you make the slaw? How was it?