Harvest Goodies

 We had our first frost a few weeks ago, and that meant it was time to do some gleaning. We've had a strange year, very hot and dry in early spring, then wet, then very hot again, then a biblical flood. Tomatoes have certain conditions they prefer, and night temperatures can really affect the ripening. I had a huge number of big green tomatoes that just would not turn!

 Fortunately, green tomatoes are not a waste. One can make fried green tomatoes, chow chow, chutneys, pickled tomatoes etc. I however, like to let them ripen so I can enjoy fresh tomatoes on my salad in January.

We've always kept tomatoes to ripen, wrapped individually in newspaper and placed in a box. The box should be in a cool still corner to let them slowly mature. Be very careful about not placing bruised, frozen or split tomatoes in the box. One rotten fruit will spread to a whole section of box!

We've also had a bumper crop of lovely juicy pears from our Fruit Share. We're getting two bags at a time, and they all seem to come ripe at the same time! I did a quick fix on the last dozen pears before leaving on this trip, Pear Sauce.

 These golden juicy beauties went right in the processor, peels still on. They were very very ripe, I could actually pull the seeds out from the stem!

 Pureed smooth, then I just brought them up to a boil. I added some nutmeg for a little Fall flavor, and a little lemon. I didn't want to cook them for a long time, it doesn't make the sauce any better and it breaks down nutrients. They get a fair bit of cooking in the canning process anyway!

They were jarred, and then boiled in my canning pot for 15 minutes. The darkening from oxidation seems to have disappeared after that cooking, leaving  a nice camel color flecked with flavor! These will be just the right size for lunch snacks, or for pouring over potato latkes.

I hope everyone else had a bumper crop too! Coming soon, news from New Zealand, where it is spring time and the lambs are super cute!

Dandy Jam!

 After my last jaunt in dandelion land I was inspired to try my hand at making dandelion jelly. The soft scent of the blooms, and that rich yellow color seemed to promise a delicate lovely spread.

I picked a huge basket of flowers, easily done since my yard was blanketed in them! I had to move carefully to avoid stepping on a bee, and I picked only the flowers that were fully opened. Don't worry, there were still plenty left for the bees.

 Then began the grueling process of trimming all the flowers. The stem and green bit on the bottom of the bud is rather bitter, so i carefully chopped off most of the green bits. This diminished the volume of flowers quite a bit, and as we worked (I drafted the boyfriend into flower dissection duty) the petals seemed to shrink more and more into the measure cup.

 Finally! Four cups petals, four cups water, two cups honey, and some lemon juice. I simmer that a while, then strained out most of the flowers.  I wanted to keep a few petals in the mix to give it some body and color. I added 1 1/2 packets of low-sugar pectin. One packet just wasn't doing it, even after cooking down a while it was thin. I ended up cooking it down quite a while to get it syrupy enough.

 I canned in the usual way, it made 9 wee little jars (Not many for all the hours of prep work!) The jelly set up fairly thick (much to me surprise and delight) and spreads nicely.

I'll be gifting many of these, you guys better understand what a precious thing this is!

My breakfast the next morning was light and flowery! It's a spectacular yellow color, and has a subtle honey taste. Just perfect for a spring morning.

Have you ever made Dandelion Jelly? How did it go?

Salsa!

It's harvest season here, my peppers are ripening, the green beans are everywhere, and the tomatoes never end! Twice a week I've been making chili, pasta sauce, tomato soup etc. and freezing several quarts of it; and every day more tomatoes come in off the plants. My mother has even been dumping more tomatoes on me, as her stomach can only handle so much acid foods...

A friend gave my a large bunch of fresh local cilantro from her farm share, so salsa is the tomato solution of the week. But frozen salsa is not so useful! Fortunately my canning gear is handy for such things! The salsa is chopped tomatoes, diced cilantro, onions and poblanos from the garden, with a touch of salt and pepper. I like to keep my flavors simple!

Even tho we tend to eat tomatoes with savory food, and thus consider them vegetables, they are in fact fruit. They also happen to be high acid fruits, and therefore I can use simple water bath canning methods instead of pressure cooking for precise amounts of time (made more complicated by the altitude here.) I wanted to make lots of little jars, just enough for one sitting of chips and salsa, but I ran out of the small ones. We can call the tall jars "party size" right?

Ready to be labeled and put away... I guess I need to run to the store for some chips right? Behind the salsa is my spicy bread and butter pickles (made with apple cider vinegar and honey). The plums will be ripening soon, and I expect to make plum jam again! What are you putting up for the cold winter months ahead?

The fruits of my labor

The piles of fruit and veggies keep coming out of the garden, yesterday I made a batch of tomatoes up to freeze for future sauces soups and chilis. Eggplants are being breaded and fried, peppers are being flash from for future pizzas... the delicious yummies of the yard are being carefully stored away!


Today's project was plums, which have been weighing down the tree outside. The squirrels have been munching them and throwing them against the windows for several weeks, yet there are still far too many on the tree for me to even begin to process. I filled two bowls up then ran inside before anymore fell on my head, and made up a batch of plum cardamom jam! Oh how we love this time of year...

101 Things to do with a Zucchini, a many part series - Pickled Zucchini (Baby)

That's right, the Zucchini baby met her doom. The sad thing is, this pickling project didn't use up the whole thing! There's still a good chunk in the fridge.
So first you need good fresh firm zucchini. I used a recipe from Pick-it-your-self, though the same recipe is all over the internet, tried and true!

First I chopped up the zucchini. You want to have fairly uniform pieces for ease of packing in jars and for proper infusion of the brew.
I cored part of my zucchini as it was getting fairly thick seeds, but that shouldn't be a problem if you caught your zukes in the smaller stages.

Soak the zukes and onions in salted water for two hours. About a half hour before they are ready to drain start cooking the brew.
It's actually a fairly standard bread-and-butter recipe, and one could change the spices if you wish. But don't alter the vinegar/sugar/vegetable ratios!
Drain the veggies and add to the brew, simmer for five minutes. NOTE - if you hold your head over the pot to inhale the steam your nose hairs will curl. It smells like vinegar, quell that curiosity!

While boiling the mix I heated the jars in the same pot I'm going to pasturize in. Remember to heat and cool glass slowly! The funny holed item in the bottom is a canning lift. It keeps the jars off the floor of the floor of the pot and keeps them away from too intense a heat.


Fill the jars with the hot mix. Use a tool to shift things around and get more zukes in the jar. Be sure you leave a 1/2 inch headspace - that is room above the liquid and food. This is to prevent overflow while you are boiling the food in the jars I had some extra to I put it in the fridge to get eaten first, though the best flavor won't develop until after two weeks.


Arrange the jars in the pot and do the final processing. I did the pasturezation method which is good if you have a thermometer. Thirty minutes later and we have lovely pickled zucchini, waiting for the cold winter months when the summers bounty is gone. (looking at our stash of zucchini and yellow squash, about april) Now write your self a sealed letter to be opened at planting time reminding us not to plant so much zucchini!