Another Successful Bramblefest

The fourth annual Berry Weekend has come and gone.  This year we were only four: Emmy, my mom, and my friend KD, all others having weddings or school to attend.  This year, thanks to local Philly blogger and canner Marisa McClellan and her amazing book Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year Round, we really felt like we got into the swing of things are were finally comfortable with the entire process.

We were so comfortable in fact that we ended up making about 8 batches of jam, including peach lavender, peach spice, blueberry vanilla, and of course bramble jam, which was made using the juice from the wild berries that grow on Emmy's property.

It rained most of the weekend, but we still got a chance to do the things we like to do on Berry Weekend other than jam - go antiquing and shoot guns.  And after the rains, we were rewarded with this incredible sunset on Saturday night.

Enjoy the very end of summer, autumn is on its way!

- Erica

P.S. Posts from Bramblefest 2009, and 2010, I didn't document 2011 :(

Christmas recap: candied orange peels

Alright, here's the last of the Christmas projects: candied orange peels! My future mother-in-law Ruth made these at Thanksgiving and I had to try it. (She got the recipe from Parade Magazine, Dec. 13, 2009). I wanted to make them to give at Christmas in jars like I did with the honey roasted nuts, but I was too afraid of them rotting while people stored them so I ended up just giving them all to my mom who used them at the holidays (or just ate them between her and my dad, I'm not sure!).



I also tried to dry them out a bit in the dehydrator to see if I could get them to a point where I was comfortable they wouldn't rot but that didn't work at all. They just got too hard and never quite dried out. So here's the recipe, make and enjoy in quick succession!



Candied Orange Peels
makes about 50

• 5 navel oranges
• 4 c. water
• 3 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. lemon juice
• extra sugar for sprinkling on top

Slice the peel (including pith and a thin layer of fruit) and cut into 1 inch wide strips. Boil in water for 2 minutes, drain and rinse, Repeat twice more.
Rinse the pot, pour in the water, sugar, and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Add the strips, lower heat, and partially cover. Simmer gently for 1 hour, until soft.
Pack in a heat proof jar, covered with cooking liquid, cool, then refridgerate. For dried peels, drain and leave on a rack for 1 to 2 days. Toss with granulated sugar.

Christmas recap: honey roasted nuts

I made these delicious nuts using Marisa McClellan's recipe in Grid (the perfect combo of two of my favorite Philly publications, Marisa's blog Food in Jars, and the free Philly magazine Grid).



And they were a huge hit! I adapted it a tiny bit by adding sesame seeds, and I've included it below with some tips I learned along the way. I also made candied orange peels, which I'll post about next.



Honey Roasted Nuts
makes approx. three pint jars

• 5 c. raw nuts (peanuts, almonds, cashews, etc.)
• 4 T butter
• 6 T honey
• 1.5 tsp. vanilla
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• pinch cayenne
• flaky salt to taste (kosher or Maldon sea salt)
• sesame seeds to taste
  

Place the nuts in a large skillet or Dutch oven and toast over medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and honey together. Once melted, add vanilla, cinnamon and cayenne (just for nuance, it's not enough to be spicy).
When the nuts are toasted (most have dark spots), pour the butter mixture over them and toss to coat. Use just enough to coat, there might be some still left in the saucepan at the end.
Spread the glazed nuts out on a silicon liner or parchment-lined cookie sheet and roast in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Watch them carefully, as they burn quickly.
When you take the nuts out of the oven, sprinkle immediately with salt and sesame seeds.
After they've cooked, pour into pint jars (or half pint jars to spread the goodness further).

O Tannenbaum

We had our annual Wigillia dinner this weekend, complete with home-made pierogies made by me and my parents. This year we used the recipes we learned in Poland last Christmas and they were much easier to make. The key is that the filling has to have a cookie dough-like consistency so you can roll it up in a ball and it won't ooze out while you're boiling them. Here's the original recipe post, just adjust it to incorporate this new tip.





I also went with my parents to pick out their Christmas tree, at an actual Christmas tree farm that my dad found a few towns away from theirs in suburban New Jersey. We were all kind of shocked to find it and to see the acres and acres of trees that we never knew were there!





I'm also busy busy busy with other preparations, mostly secretive at this point. But some gifts have already been wrapped, which strangely is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. I just love to plop down in front of the TV with my newspaper or paper shopping bags, scissors, tape, and ribbon and just go to town.





Four days to go!!

My Precious

Bramblefest 2010 was a success! We made six different kinds of jam: Bramble, black and blueberry, blueberry lime, plum peach, peach cinnamon, and low sugar peach.



As predicted, the brambles were not very fruitful this year, though we insisted on venturing into the thorns anyway. We managed to collect about 2 lbs of berries, which we mashed and juiced to add to the bramble jam.



My parents also came prepared with these adorable picking buckets that we tied around our waists.



And this year we had a new family member to help us pick: Maybelle! She's a tiny rough and tumble love bug farm kitty.

Here are some pics from the process:









And here's the haul!



We made 51 jars of jam, mostly in 1/2 pints. Next year we vow to make more 4 oz. jars because then we'll have enough to give as gifts. As it is, I don't want to part with my precious share.

P.S. We managed to hit up the antique store in town as well (two of them, actually!) and I'll share my incredible findings from that in another post.

Ume update

Remember that Japanese plum wine I made last year? Umeshu, it's called. Well it's been almost a year and I finally cracked open the jar. Verdict? Delicious. Incredibly sweet, and slightly medicinal, but delicious. Here's the original post, and here's the youtube video with the recipe I used.

The time has also come to pick more plums and start another batch. I will do so, this time adding more alcohol and less sugar. Yikes!

Blog Swap!

I recently participated in a blog swap that was organized by Rosemary at 1017. My blog swap partner was Bridgett, of South City Musings (and other blogs). I sent her some fabric, home-made blackberry jelly, and local-made soap from one of my favorite Philly stores.

In return, I got yummy edible goodies! Apple butter from her CSA, and home-made blackberry jam and zucchini/summer squash bread and butter pickles. I've already cracked open the jam, and it's amazing. I can't wait to try the rest.

Sprout Love

My parents gave me this book for Christmas (which I forgot I had asked for and was so excited to see!), "Fresh Food From Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting." Unfortunately it's more of a beginner's book, and it's more vague and less organized than I hoped it would be. Regardless, I did learn some things about how to maximize the light that I have on my porch (levels are your friend, I will be experimenting with those this spring). I also remembered that I love to sprout, and there are some good examples of different types of seeds to sprout and how to use them. I've got some broccoli seeds going in this jar right now, and some mung beans and soybeans waiting in the wings.

Can't Get Enough Kraut

I'm back into the groove of sauerkraut production and I might even try to can some of it this time. It's just so good and easy to make, I can't say enough about it. The recipe I use is from Sandorkraut's Wild Fermentation, of course.



Nicole's wedding was gorgeous and personal, as you would expect. Pictures to come.

Umeshu progress

And now, back to our regular programming:



Here's the ume plum wine, about 2 months into its life.



All of the sugar has dissolved and the plums are starting to shrivel!

Pickle Me

M and I currently have seven jars of pickled cucumbers, one jar of pickled beets and one jar of pickled jalapenos in the fridge. Whoa. The "Bush Pickler" cucumbers we planted are really living up to their name and we are constantly coming home from the garden with five or more small cucumbers.



So far we've used four different recipes: the Sour Pickle recipe from Wild Fermentation, a recipe for Asian-Inspired Quick Pickles from Food in Jars, and the Cucumber Pickles from Mrs. A. (Marguerite) Miltner at The Pickle Preservation Society. I really like the latter recipe, the turmeric is very prominent. But we wanted something that tastes just like the dill pickles we buy in the store so M came up with the following recipe that seems to hit the spot:

Ingredients:
4 medium cucumbers, cut into spears
2 grape or cherry leaves
1/2 head flowering dill, minced
4 large garlic cloves, sliced
1 T celery seed
1 T ground mustard seed
1.5 c white vinegar
6 c water
1/4 c salt

Stuff the first six ingredients into two 23 oz jars. Bring the vinegar and water to a boil, add salt. Pour the brine over the cucumbers, screw lids on and let sit until cool. Put in fridge and eat within 3 weeks.
**************

M wants to tweak the recipe by adding more salt and less vinegar, so that might be the next step. We've also found that adding the tannin-filled grape or cherry leaves keeps the pickles nice and crunchy, ala Sandorkraut's suggestion. We haven't made the leap to canning these and sterilizing them for long-term storage but the jars seal as they cool so they keep for a really long time in the fridge.

Bramble Jam

Last weekend a few friends and I joined my parents and The Moo at my Aunt E and Uncle T's house out near Scranton. They have about 35 acres of woods and lawn, with wild berry bramble growing on the margins. My sister and I used to spend a week there each summer, so we're very familiar with the land and the berries. But last year E got the brilliant idea that she could pick the berries and make jam all summer, so this year we decided to join her for a Berry Pickin' Weekend.


***The path to The Bramble***


***The Bramble***


***Chloe in The Bramble***

E and T always had a menagerie of farm animals on their land, including (though not all at the same time) cows, horses, a goat, turkeys, a duck, chickens, dogs, and many many barn cats. Here are some of the animals we saw during Bramble Weekend.


***Teenage chickens***


***Polyphemus moth***


***The Moo***

We also partook in other activities during the weekend. I couldn't help myself and collected buckets and buckets of wildflowers for the house. And my Dad taught us how to shoot Uncle T's shotgun! We also found an incredible antique store in town that E didn't had never even been in. I'll post my findings from that another day, it was too exciting to take pictures.






***Katie with the "ladies gun"***

We ended up having enough berries for two batches of jam and one batch of jelly! We combined raspberries from The Bramble, blackberries from Bartram's Garden that I picked before we left, and blueberries that my mom brought from NJ.


***Mashing raspberries***


***Squeezing raspberries and blackberries through cheesecloth to make the jelly***


***Sterilization***


***The haul***

The weekend was ideal. The perfect mixture of friends, family, chickens, berries, shotguns and antiques.