Apricots!

We were gifted with apricots this week!  I didn't realize apricots could grow so abundantly here in our region.  They are tiny, but abundant and so flavourful!  We also had purchased gorgeous larger organic apricots from the Palatine Farm in Niagara-on-the-lake area, through the local food buying group The Good Peach.  These were great for drying and freezing, but the tiny local ones were just right for jam!  They almost made themselves into jam, and didn't need much of either sweetener or pectin to turn out a perfect jam.  We like to use Pumona's low sugar pectin.  Our 7 year old helped me make jam, with lots of fresh apricot tasting along the way, and then wanted her "own" jar of jam so she could decide when and how to eat it (by the spoonful it seems is best!).

Berrying

What a busy time the end of June is!  Lots of garden projects, endless weeding, first herb harvests, and the start of berry season.  June is strawberry season around here; then come currants, mulberries, cherries, raspberries, blueberries all through the later summer months!  We had the first ripe strawberries from our own garden and then knew it was time for the annual early morning berry picking trip to one of our favourite local organic farms where you can pick your own: Organic Oasis.

Then on Saturday we held a sugar-free jam making (no refined sugar) workshop here at Little City Farm and made up a batch of delicious strawberry-honey jam (made with honey and apple cider as sweetener) that looks and tastes as close to fresh berries as you can get with a jam.  Regular sugar jams contain a ratio of 7 cups sugar to 5 cups fruit, and in the end all you taste is the sugar that has overpowered the true fruit and berry flavours.  You really can make perfect jams without refined sugar, using honey, agave, maple syrup, pure fruit juices, stevia or even xylitol.  The texture and colour is slightly different, but using a low sugar pectin like Pumona's the consistency and flavour is just right.  What a treat for winter that will be.  Now it's time for fresh eating, strawberry smoothies, making berry fruit leather, a strawberry pie or two, and of course putting them up in the freezer for the cold months.

Berrying

Wild berries are ripening and abundant everywhere here in the city!  We've been feasting on black raspberries, currants, service berries, and mulberries, and try to keep a few harvest containers in our bike trailer at all times just in case we come across a patch of edible berries along our travels.  It feels so rewarding to wild harvest the berries that are often overlooked and forgotten.  The wild grapes are coming in volume too...and early  tomorrow morning we are going for the annual blueberry picking at a favourite nearby organic blueberry farm.  We love berry season in this house - our hands, faces, knees and shirts become stained with the delicious dark sweet juice, smells of rich jam-making fill the house, many berries go into the freezer for enjoyment over the cold months, and of course handfuls upon handfuls go straight into our mouths still warm from the sun! 

Here's a simple recipe that we created for using both blueberry (or any berries) and rhubarb.  We use the Pumona's pectin (a low sugar pectin) so you can reduce the amount of sweetener and still get a perfect result.   The jam tastes like pure blueberries even though it requires minimal amounts - the rhubarb blends well with the berries and helps to stretch the volume of jam you get.  You can use fresh or frozen berries and rhubarb.


Wild Berry-Rhubarb Jam

4 cups chopped rhubarb (make sure you have some pink stalks so you get a richer colour of jam)
1/2 cup water
2-3 cups blueberries or other berries (mulberries, blackberries, service berries)
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
4 cups sugar
2 tsp calcium water (this comes in powder form with the Pumona's pectin)
4 1/2 tsp Pumona's pectin

1. Bring rhubarb and water to a boil, and simmer 5 minutes or until thickened. 
2. Add berries and sugar, and heat to dissolve sugar. 
3. Blend with a submersible blender until jam has desired consistency.
4. Add calcium water and pectin as directed on Pumona's instructions.
5. Bring jam to a hard boil for at least 1 minute.
6. Ladle hot jam into hot, clean and sterilized mason jars. 
7. Follow regular jam processing instructions (add hot lids and rings, process 5 minutes once canner returns to a rolling boil).

Makes 7 1/2-8 cups jam.

Preserving Sweet Summer - jam making workshop

Today's workshop was on making sweet summer jams and jellies.  We talked about general preserving tips and techniques, low acid vs. high acid foods (low acid foods need a pressure canner to be preserved safely), and making jams using no or low sugar methods (like fruit juice or honey).  Then we made two batches of jam, one using regular pectin and sugar, and one using low-sugar pectin (plus calcium water) and honey.  Using the low-sugar pectin (e.g. Pumona's) substantially reduces the amount of sweetener needed, almost 3/4 less!  Here are our recipes - both delicious!

Summer Peach-Berry Jam (with regular pectin)
4 cups peaches, sliced finely
1 cup strawberries, diced
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 package regular fruit pectin
7 cups sugar

1. Process peaches and strawberries to consistency you like.
2. Bring peaches, strawberries and lemon juice to a boil. Boil hard for one minute.
3. Add sugar and pectin, and boil again for 3 minutes.
4. Ladle into hot clean sterilized jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
5. Top with hot clean lids and rings (lids had been heated in very hot water for 5 minutes).
6. Process in hot water canner for 10 minutes (start timing after water returns to a boil).
Yields: aprox. 9 cups jam


Strawberry Honey Jam (with low-sugar pectin)
4 cups mashed strawberries
1 cup pure raw honey at room temperature
3 tsp low-sugar pectin powder (e.g. Pumonas)
2 tsp calcium water (also made from Pumonas)

1. Heat strawberries with calcium water and bring to a boil.  Boil hard for 1 minute.
2. Add pectin powder to the honey.  Stir well and add to the hot strawberry mixture.
3. Bring to a boil again, stirring constantly and boil for 3 minutes.
4. Ladle into hot clean sterilized jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
5. Top with hot clean lids and rings (lids had been heated in very hot water for 5 minutes).
6. Process in hot water canner for 10 minutes (start timing after water returns to a boil).
Yields: aprox. 5 cups jam

Strawberries, rhubarb and homeschooling

Today was a home day - we spent a busy day volunteering at Fertile Ground CSA yesterday so we needed some quiet downtime. We made a simple strawberry rhubarb crisp (recipe below) with berries freshly picked from our little strawberry patch, and ate it while reading books in the backyard tent.  We also turned some excess rhubarb into a small batch (7 jars) of ginger-rhubarb jam from Small Batch Preserving - mmm!  The jam making turned into an impromptu lesson in basic mathematics as Maya started counting jam jars and moving them around to add them up in different combinations.  Yup, they still added up to 7 jars no matter which way you arrange them!  Life learning at it's finest!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
1 cup strawberries, sliced
2 cups rhubarb, sliced
1 Tbsp flour or cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar or honey, optional

Topping:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups whole oats
5 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp oil
1 tsp cinnamon and/or nutmeg
nuts, optional

1) Mix first four ingredients in bottom of unoiled 9 x 13 glass baking dish.
2) Mix topping ingredients in large bowl to form crumb mixture, then layer on top of fruit in dish.
3) Bake at 375F for 30 minutes, until top is golden brown and filling is bubbling.
4) Serve warm or cold, with yogurt, icecream or just on it's own.

Spring wild edibles - violet jelly

A simple kitchen project yesterday was to make violet jelly.  My little one and I spent about half an hour picking the freshest wild violets to get the 2 cups worth for this recipe.  They are blooming everywhere right now.  First a tea is steeped, then lemon juice is added (creating the most gorgeous vibrant purple colour), and finally jelly is made following regular jelly instructions (adding sweetener and pectin) resulting in a bright pink jelly - a lovely unique jelly we'll give away as gifts or enjoy in the winter months.  As this was a small recipe (only about 6 cups of jelly), we followed the ideas in Small Batch Preserving, and canned the jelly using a regular large stock pot rather than canning pot, and the whole procedure took less than one hour.

Ingredients
2 cups violet petals freshly picked
3 1/2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 cups sugar (or follow low-sugar recipes using Pumona's pectin)
1 pkg (57 g) pectin

1) Steep violets covered with boiling water for upto 24 hours. 
2) Strain and add lemon juice. 
3) Prepare canner, jars and lids as required by regular canning procedure.
4) In large saucepan (stainless steel) heat violet infusion, add pectin stirring until dissolved.
5) Over high heat bring to a rolling boil. Add sugar, stir constantly and boil for 1 minute at rolling boil.
6) Skim off any foam, pour into sterilized hot jars, and process in canner for 10 minutes.
Makes 6 cups (6 x 250 ml).

End of winter freezer clean-up

Although we preserve much of our food each year through canning, pickling, fermenting, cold storage/root cellar, and dehydrating/drying, we also still use a freezer for a few fruit and vegetable items.  This time of year we are trying to use up the pesto, beans, and berries that are still taking up space, to make way for newer produce only a few months away.  Today we received our bulk order of fresh maple syrup from a local farm (10 litres) which we decided to store in the freezer rather than canning, so in preparation for freezer space I pulled out the last elderberries, and red/black currants picked from our yard last year and made jelly!  It only made a small recipe, about 6 x 125 ml, but since I am a fan of the "small batch preserving" method this jam making session worked out perfectly in between making dinner and cleaning up the dishes.  I even used a regular soup pot for the canning process, with only a vegetable steamer basket to hold the jars in place - used less water and took much less time to heat up than a huge canning pot.  I used Pumona's low-sugar pectin for the first time, and LOVE it. Using this pectin reduces the amount of sugar by about half to that of a regular recipe (or they also give recipes if you want to use honey instead of sugar), and the jam/jelly gels beautifully.  I am going to stock up on Pumona's, as usually by canning season in August the shops here that carry it are all sold out. 

Fall jams & jellies - apricot, wild apple, spiced pear butter, mulberry, grape

I think I've finally figured out how to make canning and preserving manageable - today's accomplishments, seeing the colourful jars lined up neatly on the cooling racks with each and every lid sealed, felt like a relaxing day in the kitchen.  The secret is doing this all in stages - one day harvesting the fruit, washing and prepping it; second day cooking up the salsa, jam or sauce; third day heating up the canner, getting all the jars ready, and finishing the preserving process.  It feels like a huge weight off me to see the basil, tomatillos, beets, plums, apples, pears that I feared were going to waste before I could get to them, now preserved for the winter.  What a bounty!  It's nearly the fall equinox, harvest moon time, and I am thankful.

Peach jam...

We had a guest staying in our B&B who was interested in participating in all aspects of our homestead while she was here. She mentioned being interested in making jam, as she had done this only once, years ago, and had forgotten how to do it. She was interested in "job shadowing" me while I worked in the kitchen. We had a half bushel of peaches that were in prime condition for jam making, so we made two batches of jam today. One was a peach-pear jam, the other a peach-lavender jam (made by adding a half cup of lavender infused tea into the jam while it was boiling). Mmm, the kitchen smelled amazing, especially with the lavender tea steeping. The lavender seemed like an unusal addition at first, but imparted such a subtle flavour, it was really quite unique and added to the delicious "summer" taste. Making jam was a relaxing way to spend time with our guest as we had lots of time to chat while working!