Our stuff is slowly finding spots around the house. There are still many boxes to unpack but I've moved them to the basement so that they can be conveniently ignored. There hasn't been much time for unpacking, not with all the produce needing to be...
I enjoy relish, but my husband does not. Several years ago I made my own cucumber relish. It was a lot of work but nobody would eat it but me. I was so disappointed that I haven't made relish since. After my sister got married her mother-in-law...
Canning makes me happy. There's something about the smell of simmering fruit, the sound of the bubbling canner and the putting-it-together process that makes me giddy.Right now it's time for rhubarb. My rhubarb plant is pitifully small but a friend gave me a bunch of...
As a child, I have distinct recollections of eating canned pears that were preserved by my mother. Sweet, soft and totally irresistible. I am always amazed how food can affect emotions and stir up memories. When I began canning, naturally I started with pears....
To most, pressure canning seems like a dangerous and complicated task. Something like detonating a series of fireworks without getting singed. There are stories that feed the fear of pressure canning. My husband's aunt suffered serious burns after a...
Around this time last year we were hard at work picking and pressing apples to make apple cider. With the recent passing of my Hubby's grandmother our apple picking plans got changed. We did gather several large buckets of apples from our own apple tress, but it...
In my perfect preserving world, everything I'd preserve would be organic, locally grown and cheap (or free). Living in the North makes it difficult to get certain fruit locally, never mind organic or even cheap for that matter. I was fortunate enough to can...
This past weekend we went to the local u-pick and scrounged up 4 lbs of raspberries. The bushes were pretty picked over by the time we arrived. Some deep bush diving was necessary and scratches and thorns were endured, but we filled one ice cream bucket....
I waffled on this one. I wanted to preserve cherries, Sweetpea got sick so I didn't want to anymore, then I came across some beautiful Okanagan cherries at the farmers' market and there was no turning back. Twenty pounds of cherries is a decent amount. Once you start...
It's hard to remain calm, collected and cool when you see something you really want at the farmers' market. Yesterday I spotted a large bin of garlic scapes. I practically jumped into it! But self-control prevailed. I noticed there was no advertised price...
When our Korean student left a couple months ago, I stopped making kimchi. Being the only person that would eat it, I figured it wasn't worth it. But, a few days ago I had a hankering for some kimchi and rice. I bought some napa cabbage yet forgot the daikon radish. A...
The idea of making a rhubarb cordial comes from The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves and Tigress in a Jam. Cordials are sweet and delicious. They are meant to be diluted in pop, alcohol or whatever you like. I wanted to make...
Last year, I didn't can strawberries. I never came across enough affordable organic strawberries to make much of anything. Strawberries are one of the worst fruits for pesticide contamination. According to this list it comes in third place, after celery (no....
Yesterday was a day of firsts. It was the first canning of 2011, the first time I pickled fiddleheads and the first time I used my Tattler canning lids.Fiddleheads are baby ferns still in fetal position, or all curled up. They have a very short season. One week...
I believe that I'm officially done canning this year (please ignore the pears processing behind me). This is the most canning I've done - ever! I've discovered that I'm quite a fan of it, obsessed might be a better word. You know...
Long ago I made some lemon curd for a cake and decided that it was really yummy stuff! But I've never made it again...until yesterday. I've read that some people make up a batch of lemon curd and store it in the fridge to use on scones or other baked yummies....