I hate waste. And, let’s be honest, whenever you take fresh produce and prepare it in some way, there is waste. The peels. The tops The pits of cherries–well hang on a sec, I’m getting to it! Sure, you can always toss that stuff in your compost pile. (Learn more about … Continue reading
Around here strawberry season is short–if we’re lucky, maybe, it lasts for four weeks–so there is a lot of strawberry goodness that needs to be squeezed into that short time! It’s the time when I dust off my dehydrator, and bust out my canning equipment. And, yes, there are days when … Continue reading
Hello and welcome to another My Week on Wednesday! Now, some of you may know that I have a teeny-tiny jam-making problem. In that I LOVE to make jam and that I have a slightly unrealistic idea of how much jam I really need to make in any given … Continue reading
This summer, just when I had thought I had canned, dehydrated, frozen, and made jam out of a season’s worth of cherries, I found a huge basket of cherries at the Public Market. Cheap. Real cheap. Like the kind of cheap where I expected half the basket to be … Continue reading
The Year Wheel has turned again, and fall is upon us. We just passed Mabon, the second of the Harvest Festivals, the Autumn Equinox…and for a brief moment the day and night were balanced, and now we are heading into the dark part of the year. It is a time … Continue reading
Blueberries are a delicious, healthful part of summer, and something we preserve in vast quantities by drying or freezing. But you just can’t bring home a basket of blueberries without turning some of those delicious berries into jam! (Honest. You can’t.) This Spicy Blueberry Jam recipe uses Pomona’s … Continue reading
Peppers are just about the easiest thing in the world to freeze… all you really need to do is cut them up, raw, and stick them in the freezer. However, when I’m using fresh peppers in a dish I like to cook them a little in a hot, dry … Continue reading
Red currants. I saw them at the farmers’ market, all bright red and glistening (it was raining) and I knew I had to have them. Total impulse purchase. When I bought the things, I had no idea what I would do with them… other than that they were reputed to … Continue reading
Only grow mint in pots, they told me. It will take over your yard, they told me. Good! I thought. I could use something that is largely indestructible in my gardens. Plus the bees like it. So… This summer the mint might, or might not, have taken over the back … Continue reading
Like most of my really brilliant ideas, the recipe for my Apple Prune Preserves was the product of necessity. Er… stubbornness. Plus an accident. It came into my life a couple of years ago when I decided that pears would make a nice addition to plain old prune … Continue reading
