August is the season for figs in Vancouver. I know this because on a bi-daily basis, my neighbour comes over with a huge bowl of figs for me to turn into something delicious. He has 5 trees that bare 2 kinds of figs of which I don’t know the name, but each one has green skin, one variety is large with sweet, mild white flesh that turns golden as it gets really ripe, and a smaller variety that has red flesh and is a bit tangier.
Two years ago I used the white-fleshed figs when they were really ripe to make fig ginger jam. I skinned every fig and just used the flesh for this jam with lots of texture from the seeds and chunks of candied ginger. It turned out so well that I saved and savoured the jars knowing they would have to last. One sad, sad day my last two jars hit the tile floor on the laundry room and smashed in a glassy figgy mess. As I was contemplating licking it off the floor (and picking the glass off my tongue from the splatter that hit my leg), I decided I better make some more to avoid this sort of desperate craziness.
In 2009, I used both kinds of figs together to make jam, again making Fig Ginger Jam , but this time I left on the skins. This changed the colour and texture of the jam as I needed to pulse the jam with an immersion blender to chop up the skins this time making it thicker. And because I had added the candied ginger in the jam before blending, there were no yummy candied ginger chunks. The colour was not nearly as nice as the 2008 jam (which was a rich, shiny, golden colour) but it tasted just as good.
I made a second Jam in 2009 as well, Fig, Brandy and Honey Mandarine. This had a lot more citrus and some richness from the brandy both of which went very well with the figs.
Then came August 2010:
I don’t know if it is a love for figs, the daily harvest delivery from my neighbour, or the squirrel in me but I made 7 recipes from the figs this year:
Oh, and I froze some halved figs too. Whew. I actually went out yesterday to see if the trees had any more ripe figs (um, crazy) and thankfully, that’s it for the year. I can put this figgy month to bed enjoying a pantry full of riches, of the fig persuasion.
August 31 2010 | Baking and Canning and Gardening and Growing Food and Harvest and Projects | 22 Comments »
Today, on the annual organic blueberry run to Richmond, I stopped to walk the pooch by the Fraser River and found some huge, ripe blackberries that practically leaped into a little beach pail that I picked up for the occasion. I always snicker a bit when I see blackberries on sale around here as they are pretty easy to get a hold of here in BC. But I guess many folks are too busy to get out and pick blackberries if they want them.
The Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus laciniatus) is an invasive intruder that can be found by the side of the roads nearly everywhere there is still green space. There are brambles of the arm-stabbing, leg-slicing, nasty ass blackberries all around my community garden, but I’m fairly cautious about what I get from there given the transient nature of the neighbourhood (I’m putting it lightly – there is quite a bit of prostitution and drug use at night). I’d much prefer to get out in the woods somewhere as I did today and for my efforts I went home with a pail and a half. Plus I had a great walk, very much enjoying the first rainy weekend we have had in about 5 weeks, even if I did have to pick around the local wildlife.
Once home, the blackberries were so ripe that really, the only way to keep a large amount is to preserve them. I call this Stupendously Simple Wild Blackberry Jam because it only has 3 ingredients. The whole experince was very entertaining so even though it took a whole day, it was a day well spent.
Stupendously Simple Wild Blackberry Jam
- 8 cups fresh wild blackberries
- 4 cups sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
Directions:
Lightly rinse the berries and put into a large pot. Mash them up a bit with a potato masher or fork. Add sugar and lemon and bring to a boil. Reduce to medium low and keep it bubbling lightly until the liquid cooks down to the thickness you desire. I cooked mine for 3 hours, stirring occasionally, to get a really thick final product. This jam will sit piled up on a cracker if I want it too.
Ladle finished jam into 12 clean, sterilized 125ml canning jars or 6 x 250ml (I think these are called 1/2 pints across the border). Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes for the small jars and 15 minutes for the large jars. Store for up to a year in a cool, dark place.
August 08 2010 | Canning and Harvest and Vancouver | 16 Comments »
Oh, the strawberries this year. While the cool wet weather this May and June kept many of the strawberries watery and bland, somewhere in California an organic grower got it right : the berries, just at the peak of ripeness, were deep red with a rich sweetness that reminded me of strawberry molasses. Given that my berries, as lovely as they were, were affected by the raincoast weather, I picked up a steal on 27 pints of those organic berries from Cali.
What does one do with 27 pints of strawberries? Well, first I made up the Strawberry Coconut Torte I just posted and served it with champagne and strawberries. I froze a bunch in freezer bags for future berry goodness and made some into Perfect No-Cook Strawberry Ice Cream and Strawberry Rhubarb Compote. And then I made jam two ways: Strawberry Jam and Strawberry Balsamic & Black Pepper Preserves.
Organic Strawberry Jam
I started with a basic recipe for light jam:
- 6 cups crushed strawberries
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 box Certo Light Pectin
Directions:
- Hull berries and process in a food processor – pulse only 3 times per batch so it is the consistency of fresh salsa not mush.
- In a large stock pot heat strawberries until they start to release juices – add water is you need some.
- Combine fruit pectin crystals with 1/4 cup (50 mL) of measured sugar and add pectin mixture into fruit on the stove.
- Stir over high heat until mixture comes to a full boil. Add remaining sugar (I know, it’s a lot of sugar but it does really need it to bring out the bright strawberry flavour). Continue to cook and stir over high heat until mixture comes to a full rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Wipe off hot spatters from boiling jam off your arms, the stove, the floor, etc. Prevent burns by keeping a wet cloth near you this is dangerous stuff, folks.
- Remove from heat and keep stirring. You can skim off the foam now as well.
- At this point I canned 2/3 of my batch as strawberry jam—ladle into warm, sterilized jars filling up to 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) from rim and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes / pint or as required for your altitude. Use the remaining 1/3 of the batch for Strawberry Balsamic & Black Pepper Preserves in Part 2.
July 13 2010 | Canning and Harvest | 4 Comments »
Strawberry Balsamic & Black Pepper Preserves
(adapted from this recipe from Canadian Living)
Using the remaining 1/3 of the Organic Strawberry Jam batch and add:
- 4 more cups crushed strawberries
- ½ cup cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp coarsely cracked black pepper or to taste
Directions: Bring this mixture to a boil again – a hard boil for 1 minute stirring constantly– and then can just like the strawberry jam. Voila! Strawberry Jam Two Ways.
July 13 2010 | Canning and Harvest and Recipes | 10 Comments »
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 »
