Cherries

My girls and I went to an orchard and picked cherries this past week (Ben is at camp).  No photos of the pretty orchard in the sunlight because it was enough to keep the toddler and the tween happy and safe (and then Phoebe spiked a fever that afternoon - no other symptoms and that was it, but I still felt bad that she was out in the sun that morning).

Genevieve and I pitted sour cherries to freeze while we watched Midsummer Night's Dream.  I had taken Genevieve and Ben to a local production in the park a few weeks earlier, so it was good to let the intricate language and plot wash over her again.

I also procured some bourbon and made four little jars of sour cherries in bourbon, a recipe from Marisa's book Preserving by the Pint.  I'm hoping they will be a good stand in for maraschino cherries.

Behind the cherries are several half-pints of rosemary rhubarb jam, also a recipe from Marisa, and a fabulous hostess gift.

And we ate several breakfasts of chocolate chip scones, just plain in their butteriness, with sweet cherries on the side.

Phoebe looks so gruesome when she eats cherries!

Strawberry Jam Starts the Season

I took my children strawberry-picking for the first time ever.  We went to the farm where I went on a field trip as a first-grader, when I had a young, enthusiastic teacher with a strawberry farm.  The only activity I remember was using fresh strawberries as crayons to draw pictures.  My kids have begged for that "story" (memory fragment, really) over and over.  Do you embellish memory fragments like that into real stories for youngsters?

Anyway, we picked 15 pounds of strawberries ($1.75 a pound) while Phoebe sat in a wagon nearby with a bowl of strawberries.  I made strawberry freezer jam, for the first time ever using Pomona's Pectin which is a lower-sugar variety.  We'll see if we like it.

The process was easy and the jel was good before the jars went to the freezer.  I also froze some whole berries - an idea from a friend at the berry patch.  She said her kids like to eat them straight from the freezer as snacks.  Then I used two cups of strawberries to make strawberry rhubarb jam - the rhubarb provides the thickness, the jel, and I used vanilla sugar for a little something special.

The strawberry rhubarb jam required my canning gear, so the preserving season is officially begun!

A few weeks ago, I did an inventory of my freezer and canning shelves so I could make goals for this year's preserving.  Cherries will be up next, I think, followed closely by beets.  And blueberries!  Thank you, dear God, for all this wonderful food.

The Squeezo Makes It Fast

I got a bushel of drops and seconds apples for $10 to turn into applesauce and apple butter.  My friend Danene said let's help each other, but when she entered my kitchen and saw my Foley food mills sitting on the counter, she said, "you're old-school!"  And it turns out she has this big old Squeezo that clamps to the countertop and pushes out apple sauce in jig time.

So I got my 17 quarts of applesauce in a morning and then, after it cooked down, I had 3 pints of apple butter the next day.

And Phoebe wanted to be tucked up on the sofa with a blanket so she could read. It was an unseasonably hot October day, not good for blankets or boiling canners, but the applesauce says autumn and we all breathe in crisp cold air.

Late Night Limas

My dad invited me to pick limas with him at ye olde family farm a few weeks ago and since I could drop Phoebe off with my mom, I gladly went.

I was less glad that night at 10pm when I finally finished shelling the buggers and had to blanch and freeze them.  The big kids and my husband all sat around shelling with me after supper.  We took turns picking songs to play on Youtube - that was fun!

I picked a 5-gallon bucket (my uncle charged me only $10) and ended up with 13 pints in the freezer.  We'll enjoy succotash and lima bean chowder this winter, and maybe I'll look around for some new lima recipes, too.

Now, a word about freezing in glass jars from a reader request a few weeks ago: I use glass jars because I'm trying to use less plastic overall.  I prefer to use wide-mouth canning jars for freezing because they seem to break less frequently than regular-mouth jars, possibly because the shoulders of the regular-mouth jars are too constraining to the food expanding as it freezes.

I only put glass jars in the freezer if the contents are room temperature or chilled - putting a jar with hot food in it into the freeze stresses the glass and frequently leads to cracks. I always throw away the contents of jars with cracked glass - so frustrating to waste that food, but much less frustrating and scary than injuring my people with a shard of glass.

Another reason I like to use wide-mouth jars is because they stack better and stay stacked; when a stack of jars topples in the freezer, they crash into each other and crack.  Sometimes, if a jar has been rapped too many times by a hard object (metal serving spoon, another jar, the granite counter top), the glass is weakened in spots and then it cracks from a change in temperature, whether in the canning pot or the freezer.

 I try to leave plenty of headspace - about 2" - although you wouldn't know it from the lima photo on this post, but let's blame that on a late night and an unwillingness to wash more jars.  The next time I went to the freezer, I nervously examined each jar of frozen limas to see if any had cracked.  Thanks to my canning fairy, they were all fine.

Purple Hands

I bought 18 lbs. of local Concord grapes for $15 - I was asking for a half-bushel and this is the amount the farmer prepared for me.  I need to record how I processed them.

I made filling for two grape pies, following the recipe in Mennonite Community Cookbook.  I cooked the filling until thick, and I will freeze it.  My friend Jonel tipped me off to cook the filling again when it thaws, and then to cool it before pouring it in the pie shell.  There are two grape pies in my winter, and I am so excited for them!

Then I put the rest of the grapes in the top of the nifty steamer that Rebecca loaned me.  Water goes in the bottom, grapes go in the top, and they steam into juice in the middle that I siphon into jars.  I add a little water and 1 Tbsp. sugar to each jar.  Boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Finally, I made spiced grape butter from the stuff left from the juice.  Three pints of that, canned in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

And stained purple hands to show from all this.

Did I Break My Stroller For This?

I had onions on my list when I went to market, and the farmer said laconically, "how manyja want?"  And he handed me a heavy grocery bag full of seconds.  For free.  I had just canned my way through over a bushel of tomatoes and was not looking to preserve something.  I had never dealt with that many onions, some of which were slightly rotting and most had that black stuff which looks like mildew to me.  But I rarely decline FREE.  "Do not resist chances: take them like vitamins" (an internet meme I have pinned to my canning board on Pinterest).

I had a stroller full of market purchases, so I hooked the heavy bag onto the clip on the handle and creaked home.  The stroller collapsed on the porch as I struggled it inside - Phoebe was fine.

In the chaos of getting the perishables into the fridge, Phoebe found the sack of onions on the floor and took several mouthfuls out of an onion before we noticed.  She eats the bits of onion out of her food and says "yum", so I should not have been surprised.  I set aside the nibbled onion with the worst-looking onions.

I googled around until I found an easy onion jam to can.  I used this one.  When I tasted the finished jam, I didn't care for the lemon peel in there.  We'll see - sometimes citrus needs some time in the canning jars to taste right to me (for example, marmalade).

The jam wasn't done cooking down until around 9pm.  All my equipment was on hand due to the bushel of tomatoes, so I turned on the outside light and canned that jam in my canner on the grill burner (I do really wonder what my neighbor the judge thinks of all my machinations as she sits on her side porch in the evenings).

And while I was waiting for the jam to process, I filled up the recently-emptied slow cooker with sliced onions and olive oil to caramelize overnight.  My husband came into the kitchen at 10pm and very nicely got out the other big knife and helped me.  We went to bed with stinging eyes from all those onions, I'm afraid.

The next morning I had to cook and stir the caramelized onions with the lid off a few more hours to get them browner and evaporate some liquid.

I packaged them up for the freezer.  The only ideas I have for them right now are  a caramelized onion pasta sauce from Moosewood, steak toppings, and French onion soup.

And then, my husband looked at the broken stroller and said, oh, that's easy.  He got out his drill and fixed it somehow (Phoebe helped).  I think his drill died a natural death in the process because he told me he found a replacement on ebay.

I still have a number of onions to use up - good thing I signed up for chopped onions for all our Labor Day festivities!

A Bushel and a Half of Tomatoes

I spread out the work over a week or so mid-August.  I almost didn't take any photos because tomato canning is basically routine in my kitchen in August.  But hello Margo! that is the point of your blog:  making sure you remember the work that is not news, but rather is familiar and rhythmic and therefore often discounted as interesting, real, or hard.

Well, I worked hard and competently to put up all these tomatoes.  My big kids did all the blanching and peeling all by themselves.

So far for 2016, I have:
12 pints salsa
24 quarts whole tomatoes
9 quarts tomato soup
9 half-pints ketchup
8 pints pizza sauce

Some clarifications:
1. The half-bushels of seconds tomatoes cost $6 apiece this year.
2. The salsa came from a bunch of really ripe tomatoes and peppers that my friend Naomi gave me one Sunday, not from the bushel-and-a-half.
3. I would still like to can at least 4 more pints of pizza sauce.  A little more ketchup, too, if the opportunity arises.
4. I set goals for canning after taking an inventory of my basement canning shelves this spring.  So these jars are being added to some food left from last year.  The only canned food I try to use up every year is pickles because they seem to get mushy with time.

5.  And a dirty little canning secret:  I have been re-using my canning flats.  All the authorities tell you not to do this, but everybody in my mother's generation re-used their flats with no ill effects.  I did it this winter with a few small batches to see how they would hold up because I was awash in used flats.  No poor sealing that I can see or taste.  But of course, you must decide who to listen to and how to keep your family safe: I just wanted you to know what's going on over here.

Pickled Peppers

I guess I never thought beyond the tongue-twister ("Peter Piper picked a peck. . . ") to consider pickled peppers a real food.  My friend Naomi not only gave me a bag of banana peppers from her garden, she also gave me a little jar of pickled peppers and advised me to eat them on sandwiches.  So good!  And so easy.  

These are fridge pickles, meant to be kept in the fridge only and not canned.  As long as you use a clean utensil to dip into them, they should keep well for weeks.

Pickled Peppers

2 cups white vinegar

6 Tbsp. salt

1/4 cup olive oil

 6 Tbsp. water

1-2 garlic cloves, chopped fine

sliced, seeded peppers

Use time/mixing or some heat to dissolve the salt in the vinegar.  If you use heat, allow mixture to cool before adding the rest of the ingredients.  Use a mixture of hot or sweet peppers as you prefer and make sure the brine covers them; Naomi and I used banana peppers which are mostly mild, a little spicy here and there.  Store in the fridge in a covered container.

What else would you do with pickled peppers besides sandwiches?  I'm all ears.

The Unbelievable Sandwich

It's hard to believe that dill pickles and peanut butter taste so good together.  Yes, I am not kidding.  My friend Naomi came over to grind some peanut butter on our machine and exclaimed that it would make a delicious peanut butter and pickle sandwich.  What? What?  She patiently explained to me that it's delicious and the best pickles to use are dill.  I knew I had to try it once - it's weird and I am always intrigued by unusual food.

I couldn't believe how delicious the combination is!  I'm not sure I can explain it either - it's almost meaty, but rich, too, and then the zip of vinegar.  Have you eaten this sandwich before?

My family's reactions were mixed:

Husband: I can improve this.  I think it needs more of an Indian pickle, to take it in a groundnut stew direction.  Yes, I think those are the flavors that it should be going for.
Genevieve:  No thanks, I won't taste that weird combination.
Ben:  Yum!  I want more!
Phoebe:  FOOD.  More FOOD.

I know there are other weird sandwich fillings out there - I seem to recall mention of banana and mayonnaise. . . ?  Maybe?  Or peanut butter and bologna . . . ?  What are they?  All these years I have dismissed strange fillings as not worth remembering, only to find out that peanut butter and dill pickles are delicious together.  What other odd couples am I missing?

Peeling Tomatoes and Steeping Tea

I typically look forward to the new season, but this solstice caught me still loving my summer and eating summer food.  So, yes, I was peeling tomatoes this week in my kitchen.

Someone's gotta fill Ben's shoes in the kitchen when he's away at school.

Actually, what happened was that the farmer offered me a bushel of tomatoes instead of the half-bushel I had ordered.  When I waffled, he laconically mentioned that he'd just throw them away otherwise because they were truly seconds tomatoes and wouldn't last much longer.  That, my friends, is my favorite reason for preserving food:  so it is not wasted in the horribly common way that we Westerners take our food for granted.  So yes, I took the entire bushel.  I had to buy more jars, push other things off my to-do list, and stick some tomatoes in the freezer.

There's the tip:  freeze whole tomatoes and then when you defrost them, you can pull the peels off with your fingers in the same manner as if you had blanched them. I set aside 5 pounds to make smoked tomato chutney once I had dealt with the really-almost-rotten tomatoes. 

And then I looked over at the stove and realized I had another tip to share.  I occasionally buy bunches of mint at market to make iced mint tea.  I keep the mint tied in a bunch, upside down in the hot water.  When it's done steeping, I pull out the bunch, squeezing the liquid out.  

What I Preserved This Summer

I decided that any preserving I did this summer when Phoebe was a newborn was a bonus.  I am quite surprised and pleased at how much I accomplished, with the help of the big kids and some strategic planning. The big kids could care for Phoebe if I needed to pull jars out of the canner or some other time-sensitive thing.  Thanks to the methods in Bringing Up Bébé, Phoebe can be patient with some delays if I had miscalculated my time or her needs.  She is also a pretty predictable napper by now, so I coordinated my projects with those naptimes.

Some of the totals below actually represent several days of split-up work, especially the corn, which I froze by just processing a few extra ears every time we had corn for a meal.   I didn't manage to take photos or blog it along the way, but here's the roundup.

June:
16 pints strawberry freezer jam
3 pints strawberry rhubarb jam
8 pints sour cherries, frozen
7 half-pints maraschino cherries

July:
7 pints dilly beans
7 quarts kosher dills
8 pints pizza sauce
10 pints blueberries, frozen
4 quarts green beans, frozen
17 pints pickled red beets
6 quarts red beet brine

August:
10 quarts canned peaches
6 pints sweet pickle relish
6 pints peaches, frozen
5 pints peach salsa
7 half-pints salted brown butter peach jam (from Preserving by the Pint)
4 quarts pears
21 pints corn, frozen

September:
20 quarts whole tomatoes
9 pints salsa
6 half-pints tomato jam (from Food in Jars)
8 quarts pizza sauce
2 half-pints chocolate pear jam (from Preserving by the Pint)

I ordered some more seconds tomatoes for tomorrow to make tomato soup.  I also will watch for cheap red bell peppers for pimentos, and also seconds apples for sauce.  And then I'll be done!

When I look at this list, I realize how experienced I've become as a canner.  Sometimes I wonder why I do this to myself (I mean, yes, there are all the right reasons - local food, thrift, straight-up skills, etc.) but it's just so much work.

I know some of my mom friends have time for other things because they are not canning.  I'm not locking myself into canning (see the first sentence of this post), but right now in my life, my satisfaction with the results is worth the time and work.

Are you a happy canner, a wishful canner, a former canner, a what? I'd love to hear about it.

Extra Green Beans

Some friends asked us to tend their garden, and we got more green beans than we could eat.  I blanched them and the children put them through the bean frencher (with complaining, until they figured out their rhythm).

Still had more beans, because now our little backyard patch began producing.  I wanted to make some dill pickles, but after buying a few cukes, I thought I should just use what I already have and make dilly beans.  I had never pickled green beans before and I found it pretty annoying to try to stuff jars with wavy beans.  Photos of dilly beans always show slender, straight beans.

I had planted just a few herbs this year, and was pleased to match up my heads of dill with some cukes to make dill pickles.  They make such an attractive jar, I think!

I also made some batches of pizza sauce to use up the overflow of tomatoes from their garden, plus a few seconds that I picked up at market. I use this pizza sauce wherever spaghetti sauce is called for.  It has wonderful flavor and is quite easy.

The side of our house functions like a messy garage sometimes.  It's more cleaned up (temporarily, until the next project).  We were finishing some things in the third-floor apartment before new tenants moved in.  I seized the camera and we took a quick family photo, probably the first with Phoebe.

Phoebe at the Reunion

First, she met Aunt Maggie.

Later, she took her nap in a Moses basket on top of a vintage baby quilt from Rebecca.  The big kids got entirely soaked with water balloons and when they ran out of those, they used cups of water straight from the fountain.  I wish I had a picture of them.  They dried smelly and tired, but very happy and enthusiastic about distant cousins.

She's in the 99th percentile for height - can you tell? 

We had a little family auction to keep money in the bank for caterers and pavilion rentals.  I made a set of potholders, which turned out Amish-y with the solid colors and the black. I was flattered when my mother's cousin from Holland bid them up high and bought them.

photo by Ben, who held the camera still and made a nice composition

I met a cousin's wife who sews bags and was pleased to find out that they live blocks away from us and our daughters get along great.

I took some jars of pickled beets for the auction and also the potluck, having canned a "gallon" from a generous farmer.  The "gallon" was probably more like 2 gallons, so I am over-supplied.