Harvesting and making elderberry jelly

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

A few weeks ago, while walking the beasties, I saw some bushes loaded with berries that I suspected were elderberries. So I did some research, consulted with all my books, and a few folks I know and these are indeed Elderberries (Sambucus Canadensis).

Note: Be careful when foraging. Make sure you have correctly identified what you are picking. Elderberries do have some poisonous look alikes. Some people confuse them with poke berries which are poisonous, and there's a red variety of elderberries that aren't edible. Also the leaves and stems of the elderberry are poisonous.

I'd recommend buying a few books or even taking a class with a wild edible food expert.

Now Aaron had his doubts about making jelly out of berries we picked on the side of the road (or "crazy berries" as he called them). So I "correctly" labeled a couple jars just for him.

This is an elderberry, tiny aren't they?

So, once you have correctly identified plants, it's time to pick berries. Make sure you get ripe berries, not green (green makes you sick). Don't bother picking individual berries, just pop off the whole cluster at the joint. (gather about 3-4 pounds) Gather the rest of your ingredients.

• 
  
  4 1/2 C sugar
• 
  
  1/4C lemon juice
• 
  
  1 packet of pectin

Gently rinse. Take the berries off the stems, this is a little time consuming, but I found the best method was to pick off and discard any undesirable berries (these were a little late so some clusters had little "raisins" and some wrinkly berries). Once those berries are off, then hold the cluster upside down and rake your thumb over the berries.

Then I rinsed the berries about 3 times, twice letting debris float to the top and pouring it out with the water.

Next mash the berries in a saucepot over medium heat. While it comes to a boil keep mashing to release the juices. When it reaches a boil, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Then place berries in a jelly strainer, or a fine sieve would work, maybe even a few layers of cheesecloth. Let it strain out for a few hours. In the meantime you can prepare your canning jars. I used about 10-12 4oz jelly jars.

Measure about 3C of elderberry juice into a saucepot (use a big one this stuff foams up). (I found I got about 1C juice from each pound of berries) Stir in lemon juice and pectin.

Bring to a boil. Add sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon (this will stain your spoon purple, be ready)

Bring to a boil again, stirring continuously. Once it reaches a rolling boil that doesn't diminish when you stir, start timing. At 2 minutes remove from heat and ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.

Wipe rims of jars, position 2 piece lids.

Process in a water canner for 15 minutes.

Remove and let cool. Listen for the pop that means the jars have successfully sealed.

Enjoy your jelly!!! It tastes a little like grape, but with a wilder flavor.

How to make peach pie filling

I loove peaches and peach pie, and I was tired of canning. So, I searched through my trusty, wrinkled, and stained copy of the Blue Balls Book of Canning, or whatever it's called, and found this recipe for peach pie filling that you FREEZE.

Here goes

Gather ingredients. (which I did first this time.)

• 
  
  6 pounds peaches
• 
  
  1 lemon (for 2t of peel and 1/4C juice)
• 
  
  2 1/4Csugar
• 
  
  1/2C flour
• 
  
  1t cinnamon
• 
  
  1/2t nutmeg

Wash peaches and blanch them in boiling water. This makes it MUCH easier to peel.

Peel and pit them, and cut into slices. Now the book says "treat to prevent darkening", I sprinkled lemon juice on them, but they probably meant their "fruit Fresh produce protector". Whatever, lemon juice worked for me.






 Combine sugar, flour, and spices.



Rinse and drain peaches. Stir into sugar mixture. Let stand 30 minutes or until juices begin to flow. LEMON!!

Stir in lemon peel and juice.

Cook over medium heat until it begins to thicken. That took about 10 minutes.

Ladle hot mix into freezer jars, let cool off for no more than 2 hours.  FREEZE This was easy peasy lemon squeezy (lol, get it?)

AND

Shop at Klem's!

How to make Dill Relish

Please note this recipe is from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving.

Gather ingredients:

• 8lbs pickling cukes
• 1/2C salt
• 2t turmeric
• 1qt water
• 1lb yellow onions
• 1/3C sugar
• 2T dill seed
• 1qt white wine vinegar

Wash cukes, drain, chop in food processor.

Place cukes in bowl (not a white bowl like I did, because turmeric stains it yellow), sprinkle on salt and turmeric. Pour water over top and let sit for 2 hours.

Curse and drive to store because you didn't listen to the advice at the beginning (gather ingredients), and you've now discovered you only have a cup of vinegar and no dill seeds. =0)

Peel and finely chop onions. Drain cukes, rinse, drain again. Combine vinegar, dill seeds, onions, cucumber mush, and sugar in large saucepot.

Notice my bee-u-tee-full glass saucepot in the pic below?! I got a whole box of 'em at a yard sale for $12!! No aluminum, no teflon, just glass, and very breakable.

Anywho back to relish, bring it to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.

In the meantime prepare your jars and lids, plus make sure your water canner is close to boiling.

Ladle hot relish into hot jars, leave 1/4 inch headspace, and remove air bubbles. Process for 15 minutes.

Then you get this!!!! A very nice dill-y relish that people seem to love.

How to: Seasoned Tomato Sauce

Please note this recipe is from the Blue Ball Ball Blue Book of Preserving.

Comments and snarkiness are all me! 

Ingredients:

• 
  
  45 pounds tomatoes                                                
• 
  
  6C chopped onions
• 
  
  12 cloves garlic, minced
• 
  
  1/2C olive oil
• 
  
  2T oregano
• 
  
  6 bay leaves
• 
  
  1T black pepper
• 
  
  1 1/2T sugar
• 
  
  PATIENCE
• 
  
  1/4C salt
• 
  
  bottled lemon juice

 

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil in large saucepan.

Looks good right? Smells good too!








Now here's the bitch fun, remove core and blossom ends of 45 pounds of tomatoes then quarter them, this is a lot of work, and MESSY!

Then add the tomatoes,oregano, bay leaves, black pepper, salt, and sugar.
Simmer for 20 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.

Remove bay leaves and puree using a food processor. Now if you're lucky like me, the nice hot liquid tomato juice will pour down the side of the food processor and run all over your counter and floor before you notice. Be prepared for a mess!


Then strain puree to remove seeds and peels. I used a fine mesh strainer, which did not work well at all. I also tried cheesecloth, that sucked too, then I tried my spaghetti colander which worked ok but let in lots of seeds and peels. At this point I did not care, so I  proceeded with the strainer and seeds and peels.....

Cook the pulp, uncovered, on med-high heat until sauce thickens. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Reduce volume by half (this part took about 6 hours).

In the meantime, clean up your kitchen (this could take awhile), and prepare your canning jars.

Place 2T lemon juice into each quart jar. Funnel sauce into jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Adjust caps. Process quarts for 40 minutes in boiling-water canner.

And then proceed to promise yourself that you'll never make sauce again when you realize all that work and mess made 9 jars of sauce!!

Although, it does taste pretty good....

How To: No-Can half sour refrigerator pickles

Anyone who has lived with me knows I LOOOOVE pickles, I mean love them, like could eat a whole jar of pickles, like my fridge is rarely out of pickles. My first memory of awesome pickles, is eating some of Gramma's home made canned pickles. I've been chasing that taste ever since, but canning pickles is a pain, so I like to make these No-Can half sour refrigerator pickles. They are so easy and taste nearly as good.

Now the key, as I see it, to good pickles, is good pickling cucumbers. They should be pretty uniformly green and ripe, not over ripe(bloated and yellowish with few warts is over ripe), firm, and mostly free of defects.

First gather your ingredients.

• 
  
  Large Jar (I use an old gallon pickle jar)-which has been sterilized (you can run it through the dishwasher, OR you can immerse it in boiling water for 15 minutes)
• 
  
  Pickling cucumbers roughly 3-4 pounds, but it's hard to say because I eat alot of the cukes on the way home....
• 
  
  1 grape leaf (if you can't find one it's ok, but it does help keep them crunchy. I found mine growing wild at the beach in RI. If you pick 'em wild make sure you are sure about what you're picking!)
• 
  
  1 piece rye bread with seeds
• 
  
  1 onion
• 
  
  5-6 cloves garlic peeled
• 
  
  dill (some use heads, I prefer sprigs, but whatever you have works)
• 
  
  1/4C canning salt
• 
  
  1C white vinegar
• 
  
  2 qts. water

Heat the water, vinegar, and salt until the salt is dissolved. Let the liquid cool. 

In the meantime wash all the ingredients.

Peel and quarter the onions.

Place the onions, grape leaf (well washed), garlic cloves, and a handful of dill sprigs on the bottom of the jar.

Then wash and quarter your cucumbers, and pack them straight up and down in the jar.

Whatever doesn't fit, I eat!!!

On top of the pickles add more sprigs of dill and the piece of rye bread.

Then pour the now cooled liquid over the pickles. Go slowly.

\

Put the lid on and set the pickles aside, out of direct sunlight, for 2 days and then refrigerate.

At that time I remove the rye bread.

Then eat, they are best at 1 week, but who can wait that long?! They won't keep forever, but these don't last long around here.

How to preserve butter and sugar corn:

We love butter and sugar corn. It's just about the best part of late New England summers. It's tasty and messy and I could eat it every day.

......and if you freeze it you can eat it in the winter too!

So I bought 3 dozen ears of corn, husked, and rinsed them all. Then I cut off any funky ends.

Immersed them in boiling water for 3 minutes. (this is called blanching I'm told) =0P

And once the timer went off I quickly put them into a big bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

Then I packed them all tightly into large freezer bags. About 8 ears to a bag. The next step is important. I close the bag up except for a teeny slit and insert a straw, then I suck out all the air, quickly remove the straw and completely seal the bag.

The top bag has had the air sucked out, the others haven't and you can see the difference. This helps eliminate freezer burn and the corn lasts longer.

How to make and can SALSA

Here's the recipe! Go to it! Notice all the crossing out and additions? That just makes the recipe better!!!=0) Note I use TWO jalapenos not SIX, because Aaron can't take the spiciness. I also leave out the chilies, the red pepper flakes, and add a little lime juice. Instead of pureeing the chiles I puree the jalapenos, that way you don't get any really HOT bites. Now if you have never canned before, well go read this first. It has a little intro on canning.

I love clinatro!! I hate peeling seeding and dicing tomatoes, so Aaron did it.

Here's everything all mixed and in the pan. I tasted it a few times and it was like the best pico de gallo EVER!!

And here it is..... a while later we have our finished product. Seven teeny jars of salsa, but it's worth it!

How to make rose hip oil

Well it's a little early for  harvesting rose hips, usually they are best (especially for tea) right after the first frost. However, we've spent quite a few August weekends down in Rhode Island at a beautiful beach in the Narragansett Bay. They have wonderful beach roses (rosa rugosa), and I felt the urge to make some rose hip oil.  It's great for scars and moisturizing super dry skin.

If you want to make your own, here's the recipe. Make small batches because this stuff does have a shelf life.
First pick your rose hips, then wash them thoroughly.

Then cut off both ends and place rose hips into a jar, then pour in your carrier oil. In this case I chose sweet almond oil for it's pleasant mild aroma and lightness. You could use safflower oil, grapeseed oil or any other light oil. I wouldn't recommend using olive oil.

Let sit in a warm darkish place for about 2 days. You can cover it with a towel to keep it dark if you need to.

After 2 days put the oil and hips into your crockpot and let simmer on low, uncovered for about 10-12 hours.

 When your oil is done strain out the rose hips. Squeeze them well to get the oil out. (be careful they are likely HOT!!!)

Then pour the strained oil back into the original jar or whatever container you like. Glass is best, and the darker the better, but you can always use what you have. Date and label and keep in a dark cool place. It will last for about 6-8 months before it goes stagnant.