Apple Season

Autumn is here and that means apples. Lots of apples. Dan and I headed out the weekend before last to the Hood River Valley area known as the Fruit Loop. It's a gorgeous part of the state that is filled with farms and farm stands, plus wineries (that's a whole other post). The Saturday that we visited was part of the annual Pear Celebration weekend. And, we did indulge in pears. But, I was focused on apples. Why? Because I wanted to make more apple preserves. It's not a fancy recipe, just one from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. However, it is a really tasty recipe that Dan and I discovered a couple of years ago when some friends gifted us about 10 lbs. of Gravenstein apples. We needed to do something with all of them and there are only so many crisps and pies that you can make and eat before they go bad. Plus, we did not have enough room to properly store them for any length of time. So, since we had just started learning to can, we decided to make preserves. Much to our delight, this recipe turned out to be a keeper. It is not a preserve that is great on toast. But, it is fantastic with pork and even better with cheese. Wonderful to add to a cheese board when you have guests over. Needless to say, we picked up a few pounds of Gravenstein apples and I made a batch of preserves earlier this week. Last year, we made a batch of this preserve with some Tokyo Rose apples. It was good but not as good as with the Gravensteins. We might give another variety of apples a try for second batch just see which we like better. It is fun to experiment with the different varieties of apples. 

Our next project involving apples is making hard cider. More on that to come...

Blackberry Jam

It's canning time. Dan and I, finally, made our first batch of jam this past Sunday from some gorgeous  blackberries that we got at our local farmers market. Unfortunately, we're a bit late this year with our jam making.  So, we are going to try and catch-up over the next few weekends. The berries have been unbelievable and we are hoping for one more batch of blackberry jam and then at least one batch of raspberry...if we're lucky. Oh, and let's not forget peach. Gotta have some peach jam to bright up a cold, rainy northwest winter day.

Blackberry Jam

Dan and I finally got up the nerve to trying canning on our electric stove in our little home in Portland. We hadn't canned anything since last fall, so we were a little bit nervous and feeling a tad rusty. But, everything went well and we even managed to can two batches of jam in just a few hours yesterday afternoon. 

The berries are just glorious in the Pacific Northwest. We had great berries in California but nothing like the ones that I have tasted here. I had purchased a half-flat of Oregon blackberries from one of the farmers at out little, neighborhood farmers market in King. Their sole purpose was to become jam. However, they were so ripe and delicious that we were barely able to control ourselves and not eat them right out of the box. Fortunately, we have a bit of willpower and 15 half-pint jars of blackberry jam to show for it. Most of which, will more than likely be given away as gifts. Our next canning project is raspberry jam while those are still in season. Oh, we are still hoping to find some local apricots as well since that is one of our favorite jams.

More Peach Jam

Dan and I are finally starting to get comfortable making jam. Yesterday, we made our second batch of peach jam. It was amazing to us how different the two batches are. The first batch we made with some freestone yellow peaches from the farmer's market. The jam has this lovely pink hue to it and a very sweet flavor. Then, this second batch was made with clingstone yellow peaches from the Path to Freedom Urban Homestead. The jam came out much more yellow and the flavor was not quite as sweet as that first batch even though we used the exact same recipe. We really love the diversity in the jam that using different varieties of peaches have given us. It is a great reminder to us as to why it is so important to make sure that this type of biodiversity continues to exist.

Peach Jam

I am a bit late posting this. Dan and I actually made this peach jam last Saturday. This is our second canning project. And, it came out pretty damn delicious. I was able to get peaches at the Pasadena Farmer's Market at a really great price. One of the farmers often has a couple of boxes of seconds. I dug through the box and got enough peaches to make this batch of jam. The seconds were only $.90 per pound, which is a great price and totally makes doing this worthwhile. What is batch number three is going to be? Not sure yet,  might be fig jam or may be pickled carrots.

First Time Canning - Apricot Jam

Well, I finally did it. Or I guess I should say we did it. Dan and I made homemade jam (yep, it took two of us). It's my first time canning. I've been wanting to give it a try for over a year now but I have been too intimidated. I had already purchased all of the appropriate equipment. However, all of that safety stuff and fear of pathogens can make someone a bit nervous about giving this age old form of food preservation a try. But, I finally committed after buying a box of apricots a few days ago. It was that or make a lot apricot crisps. Next up, homemade pickles.