Preserving With Instant Gratification

As we're moving into the summer season, the fruit is ripening and our preserving marathon begins. However this year, I recognize we don't really have whole days to commit to canning so I am starting out with small batches here and there.  It feels more sustainable this way and also more enjoyable.  Last weekend we stripped our apricot tree and canned the delicious sun ripened fruit (leaving the firmer fruit to ripen indoors saving it from the deer!). My favorite method of canning is the raw pack method; so simple and fast.  My neighbor brought over a beautiful bag of pluots from her tree last night. Here's how I canned them using the raw pack method.  

Set a large canning pot 3/4 full of water on the stove to boil. Wash and sterilize jars, I use quart jars and sterilize them in the oven at 250 degrees for 10 minutes.  Wash fruit and cut the flesh off the pit.  Pack jars tightly with fruit. You can add 1/2 tsp. of vitamin C powder or add a squeeze of lemon to prevent fruit from browning.  

Pour boiling water over fruit leaving 1/2 inch head space.  Some people like to use a sugar or honey syrup but I prefer plain fruit. Screw on canning lids and place into hot water bath making sure water level is an inch above jars. There are different canning times depending on the type of fruit. I can pluots for 20 minutes and in general I like to refer to the fruit canning chart in The Encyclopedia of Country Living.  

I love using this method because we are able to preserve alot of fruit in a short time.  There is no added sweetener yet the fruit becomes almost caramelized during the canning process leaving it sweeter than in it's raw state.  It's wonderfully convenient to pull out a quart of home grown plums. apricots, apples or peaches and whip up a  pie, crisp, or galette by simply spooning out the fruit into a pie shell or making a quick crumb topping. This is also amazing over waffles and pancakes, yogurt, or vanilla ice cream- Haagan Daz of course! 
Have fun preserving and happy summer!

Top picture from tinysorganic.com

A Fruitful Week

Giving thanks for abundance is sweeter than the abundance itself...

-Rumi

In general it has felt like a late, lean year in our garden.  With the lack of rain and our attention focused mostly on the animals, the garden has kept us fed, but felt less abundant than previous years.  And just as I was thinking about how there seems like not as much growing around here (besides the ever prolific squash!), I take a spontaneous walk through the orchard and discover an abundance of fruit in need of harvesting.  In turn, this prompts several days of gathering and preserving.  There are so many plums and apples.  If we wait until the fruit ripens on the trees the turkeys and deer will eat it all.  So in an effort to keep some of these sweets for ourselves I harvested buckets full.  They can all take their time ripening in the sun in our driveway. Some of the trees produced less this year-like the prune plums and the gravensteins- but the grapes are off the hook!  I kept making trip after trip with my basket loaded, all in amazement that the laden vines were hidden under the leafy cover just waiting to be discovered.  Like a kid in a candy store, I can't imagine a better way to spend my day. And into the kitchen I go to make grape jelly, fruit leathers, apples sauce, and dried plums.  (My goal this year is to can enough jam that we will not buy even one jar from Trader Joe's!)  The oysters and shitakes from our mushroom bed are going into the dehydrator too for soups later in the season.  We're still crankin' out the sweet and spicy zucchini pickles, our preferred method to use up overgrown summer squash.  The Oregon Sweet Meat squash are piling up on the cob bench as they make their way in from the garden. These have become my favorite winter squash for their rich delicate flavor and their ability to keep for almost a year without refrigeration.  They have a striking grey blue skin with a generous bright orange inner flesh. In these days that our hearts are filled with gratitude and reflection, the harvest has begun, and we preserve the bounty one small batch at a time.  

Preserving The Bounty

When it rains it pours.  For the last few weeks we have been working like crazy people, putting up the bounty of fruit and vegis produced here. The shelves are stocked with many varieties of apples, pears, plums, summer squash, winter squash, tomatoes, raw honey, and cheese from all the milk our doe is producing.  This years favorite ways of preserving the bounty are roasted red and yellow tomato salsa, raw pack plums with a hint of honey, Gravenstein apple sauce, as well as, green and yellow zucchini chips.  

After getting some inspiration from one of my favorite blogs, we have been transforming gallons of milk into raw goat cheese labneh balls preserved in extra virgin olive oil (with a bit of rosemary and sun dried tomatoes!).  We used to make labneh regularly years ago, and I had forgotten how incredibly yummy it is.  The best thing about making the cheese this way is that it is shelf stable.  

Good old plum jam is a winter staple in our house.  Sour and sweet, the color brightens any shelf and tastes wonderful on freshly buttered toast.  

Even though we recently lost one of our hives to ants and yellow jackets, the latest honey harvest was a success. Our little kitchen has been such a busy place!  We are still trying to decide what to do with these top bars which are left after the honey processing.  No matter how many times we do this it never gets any less amazing.  

All of the work involved in processing the food we produce here makes us long for many more hands and a better network of helpers, especially since we try to waste as little as possible.  We have learned that taking it all in small batches, with smiles and some good music really works for us.  It is a satisfying and rewarding feeling to see the fruits from a year of labor filling our pantry.  Continuously giving thanks!