Garden Therapy

A Perfect Pearing for Breakfast

The time has finally come to open up my Vanilla Spice Pears from the summer’s canning adventures.  What a perfect “pearing” with these beautiful sourdough waffles.

November 09 2009 | Canning and Photography | No Comments »

Plums Plums Plums

For a brief moment in time I rented a house with a huge Italian Prune Plum tree in the backyard.  When the plums were ready, they would fall off the tree and knock me on the head as if to say, “Hey, pay attention to me!”  And when I finally obliged, I was pleasantly surprised that the tart but sweet egg-shaped beauts are not the messy drippy plums, but neat and organized, offering fabulousness and no muss.  So we climbed up the tree and shook the branches to get a bounty to eat and we left the rest to the birds. 

So when I bought my own house, the first thing we bought for the yard was a prune plum tree.  It is now a member of the family.  Sitting right by the compost heap, it gets regular organic feedings and enjoys a yearly pruning (snicker).  Then the question begs, what to do with hundreds of plums?  Last year I made preserves with vanilla and orange.  This year it was, Plum Apple Bran Muffins, Chinese Plum Sauce and the most amazing torte.  All were delicous but the torte was such a hit the first time I made it (on Thursday) that I remade it for the harvest party (Sunday) at the community garden.  The recipe is here: The Original Plum Torte.

It’s easy and tasty, and if you have some extra prune plums, give it a try.  I’m glad I was encouraged to!

September 28 2009 | Canning and Growing Food and Harvest and Photography | 2 Comments »

The Rise Again of the Fallen Apples

At my community garden, there is an organic heritage orchard with a number of large apple, pear, quince, and Asian pear trees.  There is also a bunch of rows of espalier apple trees.  The heritage apple varieties on the espaliers are so unique that I thought it would be fun to pick up the fallen apples and make an applesauce with the 40 or so different flavours.  I was right, it was fun.  Cutting open the apples, fearing a worm, but finding crisp white or golden or even pink flesh was a thrill.  The flavour?  Well, the richness and zing they provide to the final applesauce is magnificent.  I’ve posted the recipe here so that no more poor fallen apples will ever have to go uneaten. 

Fallen Applesauce Recipe

• 1 crate fallen apples
• apple cider
• water
• 1-2 cups sugar (many of my apples were sweet, so I used less than a cup of sugar.  Plus I like it to taste true to the apples).
• cinnamon sticks, ground cloves, ground nutmeg

Directions:

1. Wash, core and peel the apples (cut out worms or any bruising) only use what you would eat fresh.  No need to peel the apples!
2. Cook the apples, sugar, cinnamon sticks and spices slowly in a cup of cider and a cup of water.  Add more liquid, sugar and/or spices as you cook to get the flavour and consistency you like.  Personal taste is the only rule here!
3. When apples are tender, remove cinnamon sticks and set aside.  Blend apples with an immersion blender until smooth. You can add the cinnamon back in now if you’d like.
4. Continue to add liquid and cook the apples, until you get the consistency and flavour you like. 
5. Ladle into sterile jars leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.
6. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes (adjust for altitude if necessary).  The applesauce can also be frozen if you prefer.

September 18 2009 | Canning and Community Garden and Growing Food and Harvest and Photography and Recipes | No Comments »

How I Spent My Summer “Vacation”

It is no accident that there is a fruit fly in this photo, they were my entourage all month

Hot N’ Spicy “Pickled” Beans – pickled with Bombay Saffire Gin. I’m tickled by the pun (& the rhyme).

This is a small sampling of the jars I now have stored. I only put out a few of each for the photo.

Mango Chutney – not from my garden but the lovely mangoes at the market begged for this

Wild Huckleberry Preserves – tart and tasty!

Fig Brandy and Honey Mandarine preserves

Fig & Ginger 2009 – not quite as good as 2008 but that was a hard year to follow

Vanilla & Spice Pears

It is no accident that there is a fruit fly in this photo, they were my entourage all month

 

September 17 2009 | Canning and Growing Food and Harvest and Photography | 7 Comments »