Last weekend Pim (of Chez Pim) taught a class on Marmalades at Love Apple Farms in Santa Cruz. This was my third Pim class (see also Macarons and Holiday Baking), and my fifth Love Apple Farms class (see Backyard Chickens and Cheese Making Basics). Each time I visit Love Apple Farms, I am again inspired to create in the kitchen.

Pim’s Marmalade class was centered around a basic technique with variations based on the type and sweetness of the chosen citrus. The three main things I learned from her class:

1. Use a pan to cook your jam that is wider than it is tall. I have been using a stock pot for ages, and my jam cooks unevenly (and slowly).
2. Use small plates, stored in the freezer, to test the consistency of your jam. I think I have been overcooking my jam all these years.
3. Making pectin from scratch, using citrus bits and a muslin bag. Oh, and loads of arm twisting strength.

I am now coveting a Baumalu copper preserving pan, as well as these cute Muji aprons that Pim wears. When I took her Macaron class, I added matcha tea from Mariage Freres and quatre e’pices. Sounds like a trip to Paris is in order!

If you are looking for fun cooking and homemaking classes, I highly recommend Love Apple Farms. Note: I am not being compensated for this recommendation, I have paid for all my classes myself and this is just a recommendation for a product I enjoy. I hear the tomato classes are great (you go home with something like 45 seedlings) and they even ofter beer making, soap making and artisanal yarn classes!

This week, my favorite local vegetable CSA, Two Small Farms, is delivering another load of tomatoes, maybe the last of the year. As I was encouraging others to participate in the buy, I thought it might be nice to write up the different ways you can preserve tomatoes for the winter, especially since I have tried all of them with the 80 pounds I have processed so far! Here are the methods I chose:

1. Canning (either water bath or pressure)

Within this category, there are a couple ways to process tomatoes, including a general peel, chop and pack. Sometimes I will pack whole tomatoes, but mostly I prefer quarters. You can also make your favorite sauce or salsa, and even tomato paste, but be careful about the canning method you chose, as tomatoes are one of those vegetables with sometimes low acidity, and so you will need to add lemon juice for a water bath canner or use a pressure canner. I have followed, with good results, the tomato guidelines at the National Center for Home Preservation.

2. Slow Oven Roasting

This method is super easy, and recommendations abound on various food blogs to help you get started. I am not very picky, so I just cut my tomatoes in half, lay them cut-side down on a cookie sheet lined with parchment (makes the cleanup much easier) and drizzle with olive oil. I pick a little thyme from the garden and sprinkle those bits on the top, and the whole thing goes into a 225F oven for 8-10 hours, until the tomatoes are super crinkly and done. I then pop them into freezer bags in 1 cup increments and put them in the freezer. Some folks peel them, you can make your own choice. To use, I pull out the 1 cup chunk, defrost and whirl in my food processor, then add to whatever I am making that needs some super awesome concentrated tomato flavor.

3. Slow Cooker

Once I have done some canning, and then prepared 3 sheets of oven roasted tomatoes, and I realize I still have a long way to go, I like to utilize my slow cooker. I put in a full load of tomatoes that have been washed. Lid goes on, heat on low, and I let them do their business overnight. In the morning, I put the now softened mess through a food mill, which removes seeds and skins, then back into the crock pot. Using Marisa from Food In Jars idea for fruit butters, I let the sauce cook, cook, cook, without the lid on, until it has reduced way down. This can take 12-24 hours, depending on how thick you like it.

Then I scoop into a muffin pan, freeze, and when frozen, transfer the little discs to a freezer bag. And whenever I need tomato paste, I pop out a little disc and there you go!

4. Freeze

This is new for me this year – I peeled the tomatoes (cut an X in the bottom of the tomato and drop into boiling water for 30 seconds. Rinse with cold water and the skin slips right off), placed them individually on a cookie sheet, froze them whole, then packaged into freezer bags. I can then pull out what I need when tomatoes are called for in a cooked dish. I am not sure I will use these for anything requiring fresh tomatoes, since I think they will break down upon defrosting.

5. Dehydrator

Another technique new to me this year, but Audra from Doris and Jilly speaks so highly of cherry tomatoes in the dehydrator that I decided to throw in a basket of cherry tomatoes. They will shrivel and shrink and resemble sun dried tomatoes, except they are going to taste a whole bunch better. I might throw those into pasta dishes or accent salads.

Hope this helps you when faced with a bunch of tomatoes to preserve for the winter. There are not that many weeks to take advantage of all this!

Three 20# boxes of tomatoes

Ready for slow oven roasting

Jars of tomatoes and salsa

This year, I canned 11 pints of crushed tomatoes, 6 quarts of whole tomatoes, 6 pints and 1 quart of salsa, 10 pounds of oven roasted, and a crockpot full of thick sauce (almost paste). Some on the shelves, some in the freezer.

Strawberries

Yes, I am jumping on the strawberry jam bandwagon, canning my own collection. Sean at Hedonia had an interesting looking recipe for Strawberry Jam with balsamic and black pepper. Carol at Simply Gluten Free has a nice recipe for Strawberry Jam, Granulated Sugar Free. And Nicole at Pinch My Salt has a Strawberry Freezer Jam that looks easy. With this sort of inspiration, I had to get in the kitchen and make some myself.

I had picked up a flat of strawberries on Friday from Two Small Farms and was looking for a recipe to maximize their strong and beautiful strawberry flavor, without a ton of sugar. Originally, I wanted to know if I could make jam with Stevia, using Sure-Jell Low-Sugar Pectin. The results were not that awesome – the color of the jam was nice, but the pectin added an unnatural gelatin consistency that I did not love.

Searching through the blog world, I found an interesting recipe at Foods for Long Life for Organic low-sugar Strawberry Jam, using a new pectin, and another at Food In Jars for Strawberry Jam with vanilla, which called for macerating the fruit with sugar and vanilla bean overnight. I decided to see if I could combine the two and get a decent result. Pleased to report, I did!

Dr. Joanne at Foods for Life introduced me to Pomona’s Universal Pectin, a product that relies on calcium to do the jelling of the jam, rather than loads of sugar. Pomona’s provides recipes for low-sugar jam, using almost any kind of sweetener, including granulated sugar, honey and non-sugar alternatives, as well as 100% fruit spreads. Each box makes several batches of jam, also making it a good value. I found it at Whole Food’s, and I see you can also find it on Amazon.

The strawberry jam I made ended up with tasty vanilla flavor and the consistency of a fruit spread. The pectin is barely noticeable and the fruit flavor really shines through. And since it is not so cloyingly sweet, I am enjoying it a lot more on my morning toast.

Strawberry Jam

• 10 cups fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and cut into large pieces
• 2 cups sugar, plus additional 1 cup for the jam making
• 1 vanilla bean, split long wise

In a lidded container, mix the strawberries and sugar. Bury the vanilla bean, put the lid on the container and put the whole thing in the fridge overnight.

The next day, remove the strawberries from the refrigerator. Remove the vanilla bean, and pour the strawberries into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 2-3 times to chop the strawberries (but be careful not to puree, you want fruit bits). Pour into 8 cup measuring cup and ensure you have 8 cups of fruit. If not, add additional chopped strawberries.

Following the instructions from Pomona, make the calcium water by dissolving the smaller packet in the box with 1/2 cup water. I put this in an old jam jar to store in the fridge between jam making episodes.

Put the fruit into a large, heavy bottom pot. Add 4 teaspoons of the calcium water.

In a separate bowl, combine 1 cup sugar or room-temperature honey with 4 teaspoons pectin (from the second packet in the box). Mix well.

Bring fruit to a bowl over medium-high heat; add the sugar-pectin mixture and stir vigorously for 2 minutes until well combined. Return to the boil and remove from heat.

Pour into canning jars, leaving 1/4″ head space, and seal with lid and ring. Process in water bath canner for 10 minutes, adding an extra 1 minute for every 1000 feet above sea level. [Editors note: I process for 10 minutes, the recommended time, and my jam separated. I am going to try 5 minutes of processing next time]

Strawberry jam on toast

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This week, in preparation for my pie baking marathon Thanksgiving week, I roasted up a Musquee de Provence pumpkin. This variety of pumpkin is huge – the small ones are over 15 pounds apiece! In two batches, I roasted pumpkin pieces, then pureed them in my food processor, strained them through a small-holed strainer, and packaged up for the freezer.

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Step by Step Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 375F
• Cut pumpkin in half, or quarters if very large. The pumpkin above was cut into 9 pieces
• Rub cut side of pumpkin with olive or canola oil. Place cut-side down on a cookie sheet. A Silpat lined cookie sheet makes cleanup easy
• Roast 45 – 90 minutes, until you can poke it with a fork and the rind is soft. Thick skinned pumpkins will take longer to roast
• Remove from oven and allow to cool
• Puree in a food processor
• If your pumpkin contains a good deal of liquid, strain through a small-holed sieve, or a colander lined with cheese cloth
• Freeze puree in 1-cup increments for easy pie making later in the season
• Use as you would canned pumpkin puree, satisfied in the knowledge that you are making a pumpkin pie truly from scratch!

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Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie
adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

• 1 Pie Crust, unbaked
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated is best)
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• Pinch salt
• 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree
• 2 cups half-and-half, light cream or whole milk (I use 1 cup skim milk + 1 cup heavy cream)

Prebake the pie crust, and start the filling while the crust is in the oven. When the crust is done, turn the oven to 375F.

Beat the eggs and sugar together; add spices and salt. Stir in pumpkin puree then the cream/milk. Warm this mixture in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until it is hot to the touch. Do not boil.

Put the prebaked pie crust in its pie plate on a baking sheet. Pour pumpkin mixture into still-hot crust and bake 30-40 minutes, until the pie shakes like Jell-O. Cool on a rack.

Note: When using my own pumpkin puree, I like to make sure the seasonings are correct, which sometimes means adding a little more spice than the recipe suggests. Be sure to test as you go to ensure the pie is properly flavorful.

Figs are starting to appear in the store and farmer’s markets, and this recipe seems a great way to preserve the figs for the cold winter. This pickle uses cinder vinegar, sugar, cloves and cinnamon, which gives a deep, hearty flavor to the fruit.

The recipe comes from my Grandmother’s neighbor, Mabel, and was originally written out in 1949.

Pickled Figs

• 15 pounds figs
• 7 pounds white sugar
• 1 quart cider vinegar
• 1 ounce stick cinnamon
• 1/2 ounce whole cloves

Boil figs for 10 minutes in 4 quarts of water and drain.

Prick on two sides and boil in syrup for 30 minutes, each day for 4 days. On 4th day, after boiling, put figs into hot, steralized jars, strain syrup and pour over. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Check out Joy of Desserts for more Vintage Thursday recipes!

For some reason, the pickling bug hit me hard this summer! Every fruit and vegetable that came through my kitchen was eligible for pickling, and most of that is because of my new pickling book, Joy of Pickling, by Linda Ziedrich.

The book starts out with a Pickle Primer, going over many of the basics that the home cook needs to know before embarking on pickle making, including information about salts, vinegars, herbs and spices, necessary tools (a canner, a jar lifter, kitchen tongs, a large mouth canning funnel, jars with two piece lids, and a long chopstick or rubber spatula to remove bubbles), and storage recommendations. Armed with this information, you read through the rest of the book and find the recipes that strike your fancy.

I embarked on an exploration of the variations of watermelon pickle, making both the Minty Watermelon Pickles and Dark Watermelon Pickles. Thinking ahead to Thanksgiving, I also made a batch of Cherry Relish, and when I am inundated with Zucchini, I plan to make Zucchini Bread & Butter Pickles and Zucchini Relish.

Ziedrich also taught me some tricks for pureeing tomatoes (use a stainless steel food mill with slightly cooked tomatoes) and suggested purchasing all-plastic mason jar caps to replace the metal rings once the jars are open.

The recipes are easy to follow, and in the case of Cherry Relish, because of how onerous pitting cherries is, Ziedrich made the recipe a manageable size. Some of the recipes are quite detailed (Watermelon Pickles and Sauerkraut with Juniper Berries both come to mind) but Ziedrich goes through the instructions carefully and clearly, which yields a good finished product. She also includes recipes from many cultures, and it is fascinating to compare pickles from Thailand, Vietnam and Japan.

If you are interested in learning more about pickling at home, I recommend this book easily. And then you can be like me, with a garage full of pickles jars in every shape and size!

And as I cruised through my garden, I discovered that I had a little dill plant hidden under a tomato, so Dilly Beans were born. I am pleased to have this as my entry for Grow Your Own, hosted this time by Amy of Playing House.

I followed a recipe from my favorite preserving book, Freezing & Canning Cookbook, by the Food Editors of Farm Journal (published 1963). The biggest tip I have to share is to measure one bean to the right size for your pint jar, then use that as the ruler to cut the rest of the beans. I was not that precise with my measurements, but I think attention to this detail leads to a better final dilly bean.

dilly-beans

Dilly Beans

• 2 pounds small tender green beans
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 large heads dill
• 2 cups water
• 1/4 cup pickling salt (very fine salt, without iodine)
• 1 pint vinegar (5% acidity)

Stem green beans and pack uniformly into hot, sterilized jars.

To each pint, ad 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, one clove garlic, and one head dill.

Heat together water, salt and vinegar. Bring to a boil, pour over beans. Seal at once with two piece lid. Process in boiling water bath 5 minutes. Makes 4 pints.

loading-the-beans

Sunday I hosted my first-ever jam making workshop for three friends who were interested in learning how to make jam at home, and who were willing to put up with me for 3 hours on a hot afternoon in July! Thank you to Cameron, Shannon and Kelly for being my test subjects, I think we all survived relatively unscathed.

Before they arrived, I started a batch of Peach-Plum Jam, from my Farm Journal Freezing & Canning Cookbook (see recipe below). I wanted to demonstrate a no-pectin, or long-cook jam. I also asked the three of them to bring 1 pound of stone fruit with them, and I demonstrated how to make jam with pectin. From that fruit, we made a peach-nectarine jam and two batches of apricot jam, using both liquid and dry pectin.

My preference is not to use pectin in jam making, because I enjoy the final product more. The fruit and the sugar cook together longer (about 45 minutes to an hour and half) and the texture and taste is much richer, in my opinion. Using pectin is much quicker, however, and with some of our jams, we were able to taste a crunch of the fruit and the color stayed much brighter.

I answered heaps of questions about canning including “what equipment do you need?” (answer: a canner, a jar lifter, kitchen tongs, a large mouth canning funnel, jars with two piece lids, fruit and patience), “why don’t you use pectin?” (answer: because I don’t have too), “why do you can?” (answer: because I like to have more control over my food and where it comes from) and “can I just sit here and eat warm jam on bread all afternoon” (answer: yes, you can Kelly).

Sharing one of my hobbies this way was such a joy, I now see why others do workshops and classes. Talking about a passion with interested friends inspired me and reignited my interest in preserving foods. Perhaps I will now be like Sean and can anything that doesn’t move (and some that do, I guess!).

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For those of you interested in embarking on the canning and preserving path, here are some recommended resources:

National Center for Food Preservation

This is the site that originally helped me get started. Yes, my grandmother and mother both canned, but somehow I missed out on the knowledge transfer, so about 10 years ago I decided to teach myself. This site is full of outstanding information on canning, and includes information for the beginner and expert alike. The NCFP has many resources for making jam without pectin, and I use their canned tomato recipe each year.

The Farm Journal Freezing & Canning Cookbook

My version was published in 1963, and many of the recipes stand true today. I held onto this cookbook after my Mom died, but it was not until after I started canning that I pulled it out again and realized what a great resource it is. The tone is conversational, but confident, and the recipes are good, easy and don’t require loads of complex ingredients. If you can find this book, or a newer version, I would recommend snapping it up.

Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving

This USDA book was recommended to me by the aforementioned Sean of Hedonia. It is very basic, but the information is easy to read and understand. The book covers many of the basics of canning, and includes all the USDA recommended guidelines. It is a little light on actual recipes, but if you are looking for a general guide to preserving foods, this would be a good addition to your library.

Fancy Pantry

Recommended to me by my college friend Devora, this book has loads of fun, creative recipes for preserving foods. Once you have mastered the basics, you will turn to this book for additional inspiration and ideas, including Fresh Herb Jellies, Tomato Jam with Ginger & Coriander, and Four Fruit Vinegar.

Online, I recommend Food In Jars, The Slow Cook, Bumblebee Blog, and Lelo in Nopo.

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Peach-Plum Jam

• 4 cups peaches (about 3 pounds)
• 5 cups red plums
• 8 cups sugar
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced

Peel and pit peaches. Pit plums. Cut fruits into small pieces of chip. Measure into large kettle.

Add sugar and lemon (very thinly sliced) and stir to mix well.

Boil rapidly, stirring constantly, until jellying point is reached, or until thick.

Remove from heat, skim and stir alternately for 5 minutes. Ladle into hot jars and seal with two piece lids. Makes 10-12 half pints.

Zucchinis will soon inundate my garden (probably because between my daughter and myself, we planted about 4 zucchini plants!). So, I must be prepared. And fortunately, I found a an old family recipe in my box for Zucchini Pickles, which use four (4!) pounds of zucchini.

That is like one big one.

They actually sound very similar to the bread and butter pickles I made last year, which is good, since I know I like those. See what you think:

Zucchini Pickles

• 4 pounds zucchini
• 1 pound onions
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 quart cider vinegar
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 Tablespoons turmeric
• 2 teaspoons celery seed
• 1 Tablespoon dried mustard
• 2 teaspoons mustard seed

Cut zucchini into thin slices. Peel and slice onions thinly. Cover with water; add salt. Let stand 1 hour. Drain.

Combine vinegar and remaining ingredients, and bring to a boil. Pour over vegetables. Let stand 1 hour.

Bring to a boil and cook 3 minutes. Pack into hot jars, seal with 2 piece lids and process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

For more Vintage Thursday recipes, check out Joy of Desserts!

Step 1 – I washed the persimmons, then cut around the top of the crown.

Step 2 – Peeling the persimmon

Step 3 and 4 – Attach a rubber band into the cut around the crown. Connect rubber band to binder clip

Step 5 – Hang the persimmons on their binder clips from pretty ribbon strung between my kitchen cabinets. I am fairly certain this part of the process could be vastly improved, it was slightly odd having the persimmons hanging there all month (or 6 weeks in my case).

Step 6 – Slice and serve, or package between wax paper and save in airtight container. Interesting to note, my persimmons did not “bloom” which I wonder if that means I did something incorrectly. My friend Donia thinks it might be because of differing levels of sugar in the persimmon. Humm, no way to tell until I try it again next year.

Hedonia posted a winter salad using hoshigaki. And on Chowhound, there is a nice post about how to dry persimmons in 3 days in the oven.

Several weeks ago (oh, wow, I think it might have been October!) I wrote about our family visit to Gizdich Ranch in Watsonville. While there, I purchased a bushel of apples, two kinds, Pinova and Golden Delicious. And today I finally got around to making applesauce!

With my pressure cooker, it was pretty quick and easy. I decided to can my sauce, for future use, so that step took a little longer. It was also a great time to experiment, as I had loads of apples and so I tried out a couple different things – different amounts of liquid in the pressure cooker and different cooking times. I felt almost like one of the recipe testers at Cooks Illustrated.

The basic recipe was this:

Applesauce

• 20 apples, cored and cut into chunks (yes, I did use my apple corer/slicer for this!)
• 1/2 cup water (you could also use apple juice)

Apples and water went into the pressure cooker. I attached the lid and put it on the stove on medium-high heat. When the steam started to come out, I locked the cooker lid, and when it started to make that pressure cooker noise, I set the timer for 4 minutes.

After the time was up, I removed the pan to the sink and ran cold water over the top. When the pressure was released, I opened the lid and removed the apple sauce to the food mill into a clean pot. To the clean pot, I added:

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

And I cooked this mixture another 15-20 minutes, on a low boil, until sauce started to thicken. And into the hot jars it went.

My kids are happy with the texture of this sauce, and while it is not as thick as my past versions, the consistency seems more in line with jarred sauce. It would be great as an accompaniment to pork chops, or as an afternoon snack. And with the pressure cooker, it was easy to pull this together in less than an hour.