Fruits of the Earth!
Okay, so my subject is a bit cliché. Sorry, it was all clichés in my mind this morning, LOL!
A couple of weeks ago we bought a small bag of apricots from a local vendor at the farmer’s market. They weren’t quite ready yet and as fruit is oft to do the entire bag was ready at once with little time to spare. Instead of eating the few that we’d get through before they spoiled I decided to whip together some jam. The week before I had made some strawberry rhubarb jam that I froze and I used the universal pectin that allows you to use as little sugar as you want (or honey or sugar substitute etc.) so I had some of the calcium water that you add to help the pectic set still in the fridge and it is only lasts for a month or so.
I was lucky and mango was also very affordable in the store so I cut 8-10 apricots into eighths and roughly chopped two mangoes and two jalapeno peppers and put them into the food processor to puree slightly. I then brought the mixture plus the requisite amount of calcium water to a boil for 3 minutes and added the sugar and pectin mixture and brought it back up to a boil for 1 minute. I then hot water canned for the first time by myself and canned up 4 half pint jars. We had one jar that didn’t can so that is the one we have in the fridge right now.
Both jams I’ve made with this universal pectin are setting much harder than I prefer. Next time I will use a little less of the calcium water and see if that helps. This apricot mango pepper is not nearly as spicy as I had hoped. Next time for a batch this size I could easily do 3 or 4 jalapeno peppers or use just 2 but use a spicier pepper like serrano or even perhaps a habanero. But it is good and makes for a great grown up sort of PB&J!
We’ve been enjoying alot of fruits so far this summer. I have about 4 cups of pitted pie cherries in the freezer. I was toying with making sour cherry jam, but decided it would be nicer to be able to have a couple cherry cobblers when it isn’t “cobbler season.”
Our raspberries are doing quite well considering the neglect of water they’ve had the previous two years. We won’t produce enough to make jam or really freeze any but it is nice to stumble out back in the morning and pick a small handful to have on my cereal. Anne’s mom has a huge patch and doesn’t pick her fruit and it is more than Anne’s household can go through as well so we have picked raspberries over there once already and came home with several cups worth. We made a raspberry peach cobbler with half and then some homemade raspberry ice cream with the other half. It was scrumptious!
It isn’t just fruit we’re enjoying either. We had a couple friends over to help us eat a lasagna that I made last week. One friend brought the garlic bread and Anne brought the salad and she totally outdid herself! She brought a bowl as big as the lettuce bowl filled with yummy edibles from her yard - violas, mustard, thyme, hyssop and all kinds of other great edible flowers and greens. They all had such distinct and strong flavors, but it was great to take a bite of something and then quiz poor Anne on what it was. She also brought with her some sprigs of the creeping lemon thyme so we can start our own patch of that. It grows like a weed and is great ground cover that doesn’t require a lot of water so we’re excited, though we haven’t decided on the right location just yet…
