On Friday night, I went a little pickle-crazy. The refrigerator situation around these parts was getting a little out of control, and so I pulled everything out of the fridge that could possibly be pickled, cooked up a couple batches of brine and kept the canner going steadily for a good two hours. The result was over a dozen jars (mostly pints, but a few half pints too), of pickled cucumbers, garlic scapes, kohlrabi, white turnips, and beets. I was up far too late, but it was incredibly satisfying nonetheless. Now links!
- Rebecca from Cakewalk makes a handful of preserves and infusions with currants, all while nine months pregnant.
- I wish I’d thought to flavor my kombucha with strawberries while the local ones were still around.
- Brandied blackberry jam. Sounds like a fine idea to me!
- I just picked up a half-bushel of apricot seconds this morning, and so think that Shae’s honey-sweetened apricot jam is very much in the cards for me.
- Speaking of apricots, this strawberry apricot jam seems like a lovely way to go too.
- Lacto-fermented golden beets with cumin and basil. Sounds pretty darn amazing to me!
- Many years ago, my family had a Russian restaurant here in Philadelphia and my grandmother used to tell stories about how they always served strong black tea with sour cherry preserves on the side as a sweetener. I have a flat of sour cherries in a borrowed refrigerator as I type, and tomorrow, I’m making Sofya’s version of these classic Russian sour cherry preserves.
- Artisanal ketchups were all the rage last week at the Fancy Food Show, but we preservers know the best way to go is to make it yourself. Joy the Baker’s spicy homemade ketchup sounds like a particularly tasty option.
What have you guys been cooking up lately? Tell me about the things that you’ve been making and preserving this summer so far!
this year i’m more into eating everything fresh than canning it, but i did manage to make a small batch of raspberry jam, some garlic scape vinegar, and some raspberry-brown sugar bounce syrup. i also did strawberry popsicles, which i know aren’t technically a preserve, but they do last a long time in the freezer and i do make extra in the summer so i can pull out a popsicle in winter now and then 🙂
I have been a long time canner but this year I’m searching the blogs for “something different” Just wanted to stir the pot so to speak. I made pineapple jam with dark rum, strawberry fig jam, Strawberry Rhubarb Butter. Have to say I thought the butter was going to be nothing special……….OMG so glad my daughter has rhubarb growing in her yard. I have made this twice. I use it as my fruit at the bottom of my Greek yogurt and top it with homemade granola……..Was planning on giving it to my knitting group for Christmas but, don’t know if I can part with it 😉
I’ve used strawberry jam to flavor kombucha in the second ferment: but watch out! Mine carbonated so much I actually had to clean it off the ceiling! (After that, I always cracked the bottles with a towel covering them…). Thanks for the link love!
Thanks for your links, they always lead to interesting places. You have no idea how excited I am that you linked to MY blog for Strawberry Apricot Jam. One of my blogosphere heroes linked to me! I am proud and honored to be included.
Thanks for linking to my blog for the Brandied Blackberry Jam. I really enjoy your site. You have so many great ideas and links. I have found so many interesting blogs out there through Food in Jars.
Hubby helped me can tuna, wahoo, and several kinds of soups. I also canned some chicken broth. And last week began canning the garden tomatoes. So far, close to 150 jars of all those items!!
I’m so impressed!
Thank you so much for linking to my article, Marisa!
You’re so welcome!
After being inspired by your talk of Fillmore Container Company, we (amazing hubby, a canning friend and his supportive wife) spent the weekend in Lancaster picking up my rather large order of jars. We borrowed an enclosed trailer to haul the load (we did spend a few hours in the Lancaster Jeep dealership after having some brake issues but all is well). Picked up some kirby cukes while we were in Lancaster so yesterday I made a couple dozen jars of hamburger dill pickles.
So far this year I’ve made chive blossom vinegar, lots of nectarine jams with 50 lbs. of ripe nectarines I got at the local farmer’s market for $5.00!!
Sounds like a fabulous road trip to me (minus the brake trouble, of course). And I can’t believe you got 50 pounds of nectarines for $5. That is a seriously good deal!
Lots of quick, refrigerator pickles for instant gratification and no heat in the kitchen — our favorite so far are snap peas, and have been experimenting with pickling little white turnips, chard stems, celery, stem lettuce or celtuce,!and rat-tail radishes.
I love those little white turnips. They make such crisp, fresh-tasting pickles!
I’ve been dealing with loss lately and trying to keep busy so have been canning a lot the past 2 months. I went a little crazy last summer buying fruit and froze most of it to do later. Later never happened (I ended up back in the hospital with another kidney infection and then not long after got pregnant). So, it’s worked out that I needed something to do since my son passed away, and the freezer needed cleaning out to make room for more this summer and get things put into jars. I made your sweet cherry-plum jam, I used Blue Chair’s idea of cherry-peach jam (used Ranier cherries) but with your small batch stone fruit parameters, 2 batches of black raspberry jam, 2 batches of red raspberry jam, a large batch of strawberry jam, and so far a 5-pint batch of brandied cherries from a recipe I dug up online, and will be making more. I had one jar of them that I didn’t leave enough head space and it started exploding liquid from underneath the lid/ring when I took it out of water bath, so I stuck that in the fridge topped off with more brandy. Wow are they awesome! I tasted a little the other day just to see 😉 off to buy more cherries before they are all done. I have a few projects prepped and ready to go like sour cherry preserves (double batch), apricot jam (double batch), got some “pickle” cukes to make a first-ever batch if bread and butter, and working on Well-Preserved’s rumtopf recipe. Somewhere in there I’m going to make blueberry jam using a combo of local ones and frozen wild Maine blueberries. It’s looking like a busy preserving summer is the name of the game.
Devon, I am so, so sorry to hear that you lost your son. I’m totally impressed by how much preserving you’ve been doing, though!
I love your Sunday links lists! [I love your blog.] We came by a windfall of plums – our neighbor’s tree is bursting this year so I’ve been putting up plums. I love pear-plum vanilla jam so I’ve frozen some plums to save for later when the pears are on and I can make a bunch of that jam.
I really enjoy your blog- but since the new version has launched I am getting each post twice. Should I unsubscribe and then resubscribe? Or can your host streamline this? Thanks- and I’m glad you’re doing so well.
Rachel
Ditto on the twice thing. Love the new site though!
Unfortunately, it’s winter here in Australia, but it’s actually daikon season, so I made some Japanese-style pickled daikon!