The Harvest Fruits

Okay, so not my own harvest - the tomatoes and peppers are gone now. Still, the grapes and apples I bought from Bulk Natural Foods were someone's harvest, so it counts. I hadn't planned to purchase grapes and apples in the same order. In fact, I specifically chose NOT to purchase the apples. However, when someone else backed out of buying them, I wound up doing so.

First, let me talk about Concord grapes. Oh, my gosh! I never knew what a difference it makes what kind of grapes you use for jelly. I've done all kinds in the past, and even made it with my first graders from frozen grape juice. It all tasted fine to me! But let me tell you, there is a huge difference and now I know it. The Concord grapes I bought were not that great for eating. They were okay, tasty enough, but just not what I would consider normal eating grapes. The skins have an interesting flavor. That flavor is what makes them so perfect for jelly, or jam, I suppose.

The skins on the grapes split easily, and, faced with an entire box of them, I decided to simply pick out the dessicated ones (very few) and the one dead bee, rinse them and get rid of any tiny spider webs, and call it good. I filled the pot with about half the grapes, stems and all, squished them by pressing down on them with a pint jar, and let those boil down. I added about a cup of water to keep them from burning before enough juice could come out. Then I poured the juice that came off easily into a gallon glass jar, put the rest of the pot of now-smashed and drained grapes into the collander over a bowl, and waited for that to drain out. Then I did it all over again.

In the end, I had about 6.5-7 quarts of beautiful dark purple grape juice. I froze one of the gallon containers, shared some of the second one with my good friend, drank a couple of glasses (and was it ever good!) and now it's jelly making tomorrow.

Today, I went through the whole process with the apples. That corer/peeler/slicer I bought was used on these apples. It's magic! Sort of. I intended to simply toss out the peelings and the cores, but after doing that about 4-5 times, I could hear my grandmother's voice screaming in my head that it was a terrible waste, so after that, I tossed them in a couple of huge bowls instead.

When I'd made two batches of applesauce and a batch of apple slices, I took the skins and cores, and random odd pieces that had broken or had seed bits, and put them in the big pot to boil, just like I had done the grapes. The apples didn't yield as much juice - about half a gallon, but considering it came from throw-away food scraps (no, no, I don't mean I dug the ones out of the trash!), that's not so bad, is it?

So, tomorrow is jelly day. I'll get pictures and post them.

It's Fall!

Okay, not exactly officially yet, but that means harvest time! Though the berries are gone, the tomato plants dried up, the peaches finished, still there are things coming my way that will provide canning opportunities.

I will soon be ordering grapes and apples from Bulk Foods. I had a "warning" of what's coming yesterday, so now I'm waiting on pins and needles to see exactly what will be offered. LOL

I see grape jelly, applesauce, apple butter, apple cobbler, dehydrated apple rings, and many other good things in my future in October! Maybe pumpkin pie later in the month!

My apple corer is all set to go.

I've ordered one that is more massive-amounts friendly, and peels and slices the apple, too. This cast iron one which clamps onto the counter:

I think I can clamp it on the counter at the edge of the sink and drop all the sliced apples into a bowl in the sink. I'll keep you posted!

What Good Luck, What Bad Luck!

This week, I was at Girls Camp with 125 girls, 12-18, from my stake. As a friend put it, they were "between the ages of 'pain in the neck' and 'trouble'." The week was great, of course! There were many spiritual moments, there is nothing like hearing this song sung by 125 young women's sweet voices.

It was a wrench to come home from those special moments to real life again! At home, I found my good friend had brought my box of peaches and left them on the kitchen counter. What Good Luck!




However, before I found the peaches, they were discovered by Sugar Ants. What Bad Luck!

An ant massacre ensued, in which every ant warrior was killed. What Good Luck! For me, anyway. Not so much, for them.

Half the box was already bruised and getting soft. What Bad Luck!

I was able to save enough from that half to make 3 batches of peach jam. What Good Luck!

Sadly, I had only enough of the pectin I like that uses only small amounts of sugar for two batches. What Bad Luck!

I made a double batch, and froze the rest of the peach smash. I can get more pectin at the berry farm. What Good Luck!

Today, I canned the other half of the peaches, and there were about half a dozen left (after the one I cut up on my cereal for breakfast - yum!) so I froze those for another batch of jam, too. What Good Luck!

I didn't want to smash them too much, so they are floating in the syrup.

You might wonder why I can in pints instead of quarts. I'm only canning for one - me. Each jar holds about 2 very large peaches. If I had cut the pieces smaller or smashed them, I could have gotten more in, but I wanted them bigger.

Jam info: The only thing I did differently from the directions in the Pomona Pectin was that instead of 1/2 c. of lime juice, I added 1/2 c. of Real Lime juice. That's the concentrate. I could have watered it down to lime juice, but it adds just a little tang of lime to the peach jam that is yummy.

Syrup for peaches: I made ultra light syrup. I used about 2.5 cups I had left from the raspberries, and added another 3 cups of water and 1/3 c. of sugar plus 5 teaspoons of preservative to keep the color from going dark. I boiled that while I heated jars and sliced the peaches. Then it was stuff the jar full, pour in syrup, get bubbles out and cap with a hot lid and ring before plunking into the water bath. Can 25 minutes at boiling for pints and 30 minutes for quarts.

By Noon on Thursday

It wasn't a deadline. It was a surprise. By noon, I had these two projects complete!

Jam:

Cobbler berries:

I wanted to get a view of the beautiful jewel color of the jam, so I took it outside and set it on the deck railing. I don't think it really comes through, even with the sun shining, but my eyes can see it when I look through the jar. However, this is a great example of good bokeh, without even trying! Bokeh has been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light". In other words, it's the blur behind the focus. This is a good one. Sometimes that kind of thing is awful, but not this time. Still, I wish you could see the sparkly, clear color the camera couldn't catch, at least not with me behind the lens!

The berries were picked in the first cool of the morning on Tuesday, after rain the night before. It was the first cool morning around here in a while. I wish I could say I went to the forest and the berries were free, but I have no clue where such things might exist around here. The best berry picking I ever did was with Paul, my husband of many years, in Jenny Jump forest in New Jersey. We picked black raspberries glutinously! It was my first time picking. That bounty was turned into so many jars of jam, mostly over a wood fire, adding a smokey flavor. My first jam making experience, too, and it was so much I didn't mind giving some away. We had so much fun in our week's vacation!

Over the years, Paul and I made many, many batches of strawberry jam, working as a team to get it in the jars, wiped down, lids on and into the water bath. It's a little trickier for me to do it alone, but it worked and now I have jam and the makings of small cobblers for one.

Take advantage of the summer's bounty, whether by picking your own (that was about $8 cost for berries, and I only used a scant 1-1/4 cup of sugar in it) or buying at great prices at the grocery store.

The pectin I used came from the farm. It's called Pomona's Universal Pectin and you can find it at their website or farm stands and co-ops. I love it! It worked like a charm, and allows you to use as little or as much sugar, honey or artificial sweetner as you like.

One box is $6, but it is for 2-4 batches, depending on whether you make single or double or even triple batches. The recipe I used (included in the box, and others on the site) used 2 teaspoons, and there shoul be enough for 3 more batches in the box. Economical. The pectin is not activated by sugar, as with Sure-Jell and Certo. Instead, it's activated with calcium (included in the packet with directions for use) from orange peelings. It was so super easy, and I know it jelled nicely - I scraped the pot after it cooled! Those scrapings were yummy, and I could have used less sugar still, even though my berries were definitely on the tart side! Next time, I'll know.

The recipe for raw packing the rest of the blackberries came from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, and I used the ultra light syrup listed.

Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies

Because I'm a "what if" kind of person, I wondered what would happen if I combined my sourdough cookie recipe with my oatmeal cookie recipe. This is a quick recipe, if your starter is multiplying too fast in the fridge. Plenty to eat and give away.

Here are the ingredients I used:

1/2 pound of butter (2 sticks), softened (or butter powder, reconstituted)
3 large eggs (or 6 T. egg powder and 6 T. water)
1-1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
2 t. vanilla
2 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt.
2 c. flour
1-1/2 c. sourdough starter
3 c. rolled oats
3/4 c. light raisins
3/4 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. chopped dates
1 c. chocolate chips, favorite variety

This makes a sticky dough.

1. Cream the sugar, butter, eggs, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and vanilla.

2. Add the sourdough starter. Blend well.

3. Add the flour and blend well.

4. Add the chocolate chips and dried fruits and blend well.

5. Add the oats, one cup at a time, mixing as you go.

6. Drop by rounded spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet.

7. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Cookie spreads a little, so I put 5 rows of 3 on my big Oneida cookie sheet, and only 3 rows of 3 on the smaller flat one with no sides and one end bends up a little. In case you have that kind.

They are still baking, so I'm not sure, but guessing 6 dozen cookies about 2.5-3". My cookies are generally oval because I don't round them nicely when I drop them. =) My first sample was delicious! I might cut the sugar down next time to 1 cup, because there is sugar in the sourdough starter, and they are sweeter than I usually make my cookies.

Sourdough Cookies

I better post this recipe so I can sort of replicate it again! =) These cookies are so delicious, I have almost made myself sick with eating them warm from the oven. I don't even want to think about how many calories that is, but the good part is there isn't as much sugar as many cookies have. I used the Herman sourdough starter that lives in my fridge all the time. I'm going to put that recipe on the recipe page, because there are SO many things you can bake with this sourdough starter!

Ingredients:

1 c. starter
3 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 c. butter (1 stick, 1/4 lb.)
1-1/3 c. sugar
4 T. egg powder
1/2 c. water
3/4 c. dried cranberries
3/4 c. chopped dates

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mix everything together, except flour. When it's well blended, add the flour. It will be a sticky dough, sort of halfway between bread and cookie dough.

3. Drop by rounded teaspoons on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 11-12 minutes.

Yield: 4 dozen cookies about 2.5" across.

Experimenting

Do you ever just experiment with recipes? With canning, I have to be exact on the canning directions, and if I want jelly or jam, I pretty much have to follow the recipe. You can't imagine how hard this is for me! Even my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe from Quaker gets messed with. I simply can't help the what if scenarios!

So it's no surprise that I messed with several recipes to come up with one for the peach-pineapple salsa. I didn't have fresh pineapple or peaches. I didn't have freeze-dried ones, either. So I went to the food storage to see if I had canned ones, and I did! Here's the recipe I came up with, and the salsa is fabulously good!

It is a sweet salsa, and not at all hot, because you can see there are no peppers in the recipe. If you want hot. Add one or two jalapeno peppers, or if you are crazy, try habanero peppers. If I'd had any orange or yellow bell peppers left after the sweet pepper salsa, I'd have added those, but I didn't so this is what I did.

Ingredients:

1 large can crushed pineapple, well drained
1 large can peach slices, well drained
30-35 medium tomatoes, skinned (a few were on the small side)
2 medium sweet onions (I used Vidalia, but Texas Sweets or whatever is available)
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
1/2 c. honey (I used Tennessee honey)
1 T. salt
1 t. favorite pepper (mine is a red/white/green/black combo)
garlic and cilantro to taste

1. Prepare your canner, jars and lids. Jars should be pre-heated in warm water in canner, lids should kept in simmering (not boiling) hot water, and screw bands should be room temp so you can handle them.

2. In large stainless steel or enamel soup pot (at least 6 quarts) combine peaches, pineapple and diced or chopped tomatoes. Small is not necessary, but slices are too big. Bring to a boil and back off heat a little so it simmers.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients and spices. Cook, stirring frequently, until it thickens. Do NOT put a lid on it! It will never boil down if the steam can't escape, so put the hood fan on and let it simmer. If it sticks to the bottom, do NOT scrape. You'll wind up with small burned bits. That's not a disaster, since you can pick them out later, but it's easier not to.

4. Depending on how well drained and how juicy the tomatoes, it will take 5 to 30 minutes, possibly longer, to get to salsa consistency. When it does, leave it simmering on the stove, and ladle salsa into jars, one at a time. It's very helpful to have the wide-mouth jar funnel that comes with most water bath canners, or can be bought in a set of utensils for canning. It keeps the mouth of the jar cleaner and keeps the salsa from spilling over the outside of the jar.

5. As you ladle into each jar, fill to within 1/2 inch of the top of the jar, then remove ladle and use a paper towel or old, soft towel to wipe the lid are which will come in contact with the sealing lid.

6. Get the sealing lid on quickly, and screw a ring on. Do NOT tighten too much. Just hand tighten the ring. It isn't there for eternity, just while canning and cooling. Then it can be removed, though it doesn't have to be.

7. Place jars in canner, either in a basket or on a rack that keeps them off the bottom of the pot. Something comes with a canner for this purpose. Make sure the jars are covered by at least an inch of water. Put the lid on and bring the pot to a boil. After it starts to boil, start timing. I did mine at 20 minutes, though 15 is often recommended for salsa recipes. However, some of the recipes had 20 minutes, and since I was winging it, I decided to be safe and make it 20.

8. Turn off heat, remove lid and let sit at least 5 minutes. I usually go for a little longer. If you have a basket that will sit on the side of the canner and not fall back in, then pull up the basket and let it sit to cool another 5 minutes.

9. Lay a towel out on your counter top. You do NOT want the hot jars to come in contact with the cooler counter top. Lift jars with a jar lifter to avoid burns. Try not to tilt the jars. Don't worry about water on top of the jar. It will evaporate, and if it doesn't, you can dry it later. Line jars up on toweling, with space around every jar.

10. Almost immediately, you should hear the lovely ping of sealing jars, one after another. Some people call it a pop, but it's a ping to me. =)

Leave the jars alone for 24 hours. Don't touch them, no matter how tempting. It may feel cool on the outside, and the inside is still warm.

Yield: about 12 half-pints or 6 pints.