NOT EXACTLY CANNING…

07 Saturday Feb 2015

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, EAT!, Gardening, Harvest, Vegetable garden, Winter

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cauliflower plants, fermented cauliflower, fermenting, pickling, Romanesco cauliflower, Veronica Cauliflower, Weir Seal, Western Stoneware crock

My heirloom preserving crock

IN MY PREVIOUS POST I SAID no more canning for awhile. While strictly true, I seem to have to much of a good thing in my vegetable garden. And that would be several Romanesco type cauliflower plants in various stages of growth and at least two needed immediate harvesting. I have pickled and canned cauliflower in the past and since I am decidedly not in the mood to pickle and can in the usual sense, I am having a go at fermented cauliflower pickle. This will certainly be something different and I hope, tasty.

Romanesco cauliflower ‘Veronica’

I don’t know how much this large head weighed but it was about seven inches across. A second, smaller one was more conical and not as flat as the one pictured above. I really like this type of cauliflower for its unique color, flavor, texture, and of course the showy form. The plants are quite robust, with stalks that top out around 2-3 feet high and here at least, need staking against winter wind.

The Western Stoneware with Weir Seal (any relationship to the meaning of a weir dam?)

I have a lovely and cherished, old heirloom crock that belonged to my wonderful, late mother-in-law who taught me to can and helped me plant my first vegetable garden many, many, years ago. The crock is Western Stoneware and proudly proclaims its maker, provenance and Weir Seal on its lid. I have a feeling that the crock originally belonged to her mother; her brother’s initials, JFM, are scrawled on the bottom of the crock with a grease pencil. The Mahoney family had a farm along the Willamette River in Gervais, Oregon, where my mother-in-law, Helen, grew up. I came into possession of it after she passed away in 1999. I think the capacity is not quite a gallon. I have used it for fermenting as well as making fruit infused vinegars. Just one more thing that reminds me of her generosity and love when I use it.

Not ready to pick, but soon!

I layered the cauliflower florets and peeled, sliced stems with a few small carrots (from the garden too), garlic (homegrown), onion and a couple of dried ancho chiles, some typical pickling spices and a 5% brine solution.

Ready to go!

Fermenting is kind of exciting because the results are always a surprise. It is also an exercise in patience and diligence.

The homemade plastic ‘seal’

This is my version of a ‘seal’ to keep the contents of the jar submerged. I saw something like this on someone’s website several years ago and it works great. If your ingredients still want to bob-up, a brine filled plastic bag will sit neatly on top. Cut up any plastic lid that is slightly larger than the mouth of the vessel; cut a slit from one edge to the center, fold to a cone shape and place over the contents and push down until the liquid covers the plastic and it is seated. The ‘seal’ is reusable or cut a new one next time.

Now I wait; will it be five days, seven days, or as long as two weeks for results? Darn! I’ll report back.

A GIFT OF WINTER APPLES

06 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, Cooking & Eating, Jellies & Preserves

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Apple Chutney, Apple-cranberry, Apple-Cranberry Jelly, Apple-Cranberry sauce, apples, Applesauce, canning, cranberries, Winter Banana Apples

Winter Banana apples

MY MOTHER’S NEIGHBORS HAVE AN ORCHARD in Sequim, Washington. Apples, plums, pears. 2013 yielded a bounty of Shiro plums and lots of plum jelly and plum butter. In 2014 they picked a bumper crop of apples and I was a lucky recipient of Golden Delicious and Winter Banana apples, a variety new to me. I brought home my first five or so, pounds at the end of October and I still had few pounds of our homegrown Spartan apples (after making Kevin West’s Apple Jam with Honey and dates—my addition, from Saving the Season—and Apple Chutney). I combined the remaining bounty of apples with some beautiful Oregon cranberries, for Cranberry-Apple Jelly.

Straining Apple-cranberry pulp for juice

I washed and quartered (no peeling or coring needed) five pounds of apples and placed them in a large pot with 12 ounces of cranberries, three clementines, 2 cups white wine (rosé will work nicely here), four cups of water, three, three inch cinnamon stick, three bay leaves and one tablespoon of black peppercorns (in a spice bag). Bring to a boil, partially cover and simmer 45 minutes or so until the apples are very soft and falling apart. Remove the spices and bay leaves and transfer to a fine sieve/strainer lined with cheesecloth or a chinois (pictured above) and allow to drain up to 8 hours; do not push on the solids or you will have cloudy juice. This yielded seven cups of juice and three half-pints of jelly—the big drawback to making jelly—a small yield for the effort expended, but it tastes great!

I liked the jelly so much that I asked my mom if her neighbors had more apples. Yes, they did! How about twenty pounds of Winter Bananas? Please take them! Half of them went into a small fridge and the rest sat in their box in the garage. In early December I made a second batch of apple-cranberry jelly. Ten pounds of winter Banana apples, three pounds of Oregon cranberries, two large pots and two cups of water; this time I ended up with four and a half quarts of juice so I made two batches of jelly. One batch was straight forward and the second included the addition of port and star anise. Yield: 8 half-pints of jelly.

Ten pounds of apples and three pounds of cranberries yielded a fair amount of apple-cranberry pulp that tasted too good to toss out. I put the pulp through the trusty old Foley food mill and I had instant apple-cranberry sauce. These apples were so sweet that even with tart cranberries, no sugar was needed (to suit our taste). For each four cups of pulp, I added back three cups of juice and two tablespoons of lemon juice. I canned 10 pints of it. It is delicious stirred into thick yogurt. Mom’s neighbors received jelly and applesauce and family received apple-cranberry jelly at Christmas.

Apple-Cranberry jelly

Apple-Cranberry jelly and cran-applesauce

10+ pounds of apples

January rolled around and we getting ready to take off for the desert. There were still lots of apples in the box and mini-fridge that kept staring at me every time I walked into the garage. I couldn’t bear to toss them so I broke down and made applesauce–16 pints of it to be exact. The apples were still pretty firm, only a few soft or unusable. And by sitting around for a few months, the sugar had concentrated and they were very sweet. This batch of applesauce did not need the addition of sugar either.

Vanilla bean flecked applesauce

Hmmm…only two of us in the household and a lot of applesauce. Naturally, mom’s neighbors got more applesauce. Mom took a few pints. My neighbors with a baby/toddler received their share too. And two neighboring households. And my two sisters. And there is still plenty to get us through until next fall. I won’t even think about canning until asparagus season begins sometime in April and May here.

CHARRED & JARRED—CHILE PEPPERS

15 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, Growing, Harvest, Peppers

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Anaheim peppers, canned chile peppers, Chile peppers, how to roast chile peppers, marinated peppers, roasting peppers

Ripening Anaheim chiles

OUR LONG, WARM SUMMER TRAIPSED RIGHT INTO OCTOBER. That meant that the Anaheim peppers that rarely ripen around here did so–more than half of them turned red. I ended up with about seven pounds of them to put away for later use. Several years ago when I had a bumper crop, the thought of placing lots of peppers on the gas burners in my kitchen seemed daunting until I had a bit of a brainstorm!

All four pounds roasting on the BBQ.

How about utilizing the gas grill/bbq? I can roast/blister/char all of them at one time, outside instead of in the house, with no smoky odors lingering for hours. To roast all of the peppers this way takes about seven-twelve minutes! On Monday I dispatched 4 1⁄2 pounds of peppers, from roasting to in-the-jar-and-finished in just about two hours.

Make a small slit in the shoulder of the pepper (so the peppers don’t steam from the inside) before roasting.

Once charred, place in a large bowl, cover and rest about 15 minutes.

Easy peeling.

Once the peppers have rested and steamed a bit they are ready to peel. The more mature the pepper, the thicker the flesh and skin; steam is created between the skin and flesh and the skin separates easily. Thinner walled peppers have thinner skins and need scraping in my experience.

Four pounds of peppers ready for canning.

Well Preserved by Eugenia Bone.

In her book Well Preserved, Eugenia Bone has a recipe that she attributes to Michigan State Extension, for Marinated Peppers. She call for red bell peppers but I have found it works just as well for Anaheim and other home grown sweet/hot peppers. (Since I do not have permission to reprint the recipe here I will leave it to you to find it online; like here for example.)

The finished product.

I choose to put up my peppers in half-pint jars as there are only two of us in this household, so more convenient for me. I also add just a bit more garlic than called for, leave the peppers whole (to use for chiles rellenos should the urge strike); using four pounds as called for in the recipe, I usually end up with about half of the brine left over. These are really delicious in the middle of winter, when like tomatoes, the taste of good summer produce is hard to come by. The total yield for seven pounds of peppers was twelve half-pints.

Happy canning!

WHAT’S IN THE 2013-2014 BACKYARD FARM LARDER?

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, Creative

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canning, fonts, label design, labels, preserving

I THINK THAT I GET AS MUCH PLEASURE DESIGNING new labels every year as I do canning. I fell in love with a new font, Desire, that inspired this year’s labels. I think I’ll stick with this design for awhile. I like having labels on the lids; easy to see at a glance and I don’t have to try to remove them and their glue off of the jar. The tags for vinegar and vodka are punched to accommodate a tie of some sort.

The labels above show what went into jars and bottles in 2013. In addition to canning, I froze green beans (they were plentiful), blueberries and strawberries, so we’re well stocked for 2013. 2013 was also a good year for harvesting and drying herbs, so I have a winter’s worth of those too. I give the bulk of canned & preserved goods away to family and friends, since there are only two in our household.

The challenge every year is be clever and creative in using what I’ve preserved and going beyond putting preserves on plain yogurt.

What do you do with all of your preserved goods?

BRIGHTEN UP WINTER WITH FRUIT INFUSED VINEGARS

02 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, Cooking & Eating

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cranberry vinegar, fruit vinegar, infused vinegar, peach-basil vinegar, plum vinegar, shiro plum, vinegar, white wine vinegar

Fruit infused vinegar

PART OF THE PLEASURE OF PRESERVING is in the creation, being able to savor flavors you love throughout the year. I like infusing vinegar and vodka with fruit and herbs to capture those favorite flavors of summer. Depending on the fruit or fresh herbs, I use rice, white wine or red wine vinegars as my infusion base. Chile peppers and many herbs seem to pair better with rice wine vinegar. I generally infuse about a quart of vinegar at a time; enough to cover the fruit in a large jar (those marinated artichoke jars from Costco are pretty handy for this). Salads are of course the most obvious use for these infused vinegars, but sautéed or steamed vegetables are also perked up with them. I prefer to make dressings for salad as I need it, so I can be flexible and tailor the dressing to the salad.

Shiro Plum vinegar

PLUMS: In 2013 I had plenty of Shiro plums donated by my mother’s neighbors. I made plum jelly, plum butter and infused white wine vinegar; I made two versions of the plum vinegar, one with hot chile peppers and another with white peppercorns and corriander seeds. I left the fruit whole and slit the plums from ‘pole-to-pole’.

Peach infused vinegar

PEACHES: I made Peach-Basil vinegar since I bought a 20 pound box of peaches and had some to spare after making peach-basil preserves and brandied peaches. I cut the peaches into big chunks and included the pits.

CRANBERRIES: One of my sisters lives in cranberry country on the Long Beach, WA peninsula and she brought me several pounds of them at the end of October. After making (and canning) cranberry sauce there were cranberries left to infuse vinegar. I used equal parts red and white wine vinegar and added corriander seeds, black peppercorns and cinnamon stick. And since there were so many cranberries I infused vodka too (with a cinnamon stick).

I find that six-to-eight weeks is about right for infusing the flavors; start tasting at about four weeks, the minimum. When it is time to strain the vinegar from the fruit I use a super fine strainer like a chinoise for the first straining. I do not press on the fruit to release any liquid left in the fruit as it tends to make the vinegar cloudy. Second and subsequent straining is done using paper coffee filters (rinse and compost) or a super-fine mesh coffee filter, until it is clear to my liking. Decanted into small bottles, infused vinegars make nice gifts for people who like to cook. (I save a lot of small, nice looking bottles.)

In past years I have also made cherry, blackberry with black peppercorns, raspberry, and apricot. I tend to go a bit heavy on the fruit so that those flavors are pronounced against the vinegar. Plums, peaches, and apricots tend to have have more subtle flavors than raspberries and blackberries, so you could use a heavier ratio of fruit to vinegar.

Since pomegranates are still in the markets, I think I’ll give them a try. At the beginning of last month I started a batch of pomegranate and cardamom infused vodka. That seems to be a good pairing of flavors.

Happy infusing!