Yeah I know as well as you do that strawberries don’t have heads but I can call it that if I want. Why? Because this past weekend, in one of my finer pilgrim moments (ever wonder if they were actually grim?) I made 21 jars of it.

Ok, so they may not have heads (the strawberries that is) but they are shrunken, which intensifies their berryness. And bobbing around in a sea of rhubarb, well let me just say….if an actual pilgrim actually made this oh I don’t know… she would have been hanged.
(I am in Massachusetts you know).

It’s that good. Now on to the reason I brought up pilgrims in the first place…this jam takes a few days to make. I know, I know, why take a few days to jam strawberries & rhubarb when there are so many recipes out there that do it in a day…a couple of hours even. Because it’s worth it.

This is beyond slow food people …it’s pilgrim time! speaking of pilgrimages, this year I was not alone at thompson finch farm. M’s mom, otherwise known as my favorite mother-in-law, helped with the 40 pound bounty.

She likes strawberries.

See:
It’s all about timing it correctly and it is not difficult at all, so get that b outta your bonnet and get on it!

Rhubarb & Shrunken Strawberry Head Jam

4 1/2 pounds strawberries – after the hull
7 1/2 cups of sugar*
juice of 2 smallish lemons

2 1/4 pounds rhubarb – sliced lengthwise, then diced
3 3/4 cups sugar*
Juice of 1 smallish lemon
About 15 half pint jars, or 8 pint jars

*I always use raw sugar which is why my jams look a bit darker than most. I know that most jamming books suggest white sugar so as not to darken the color or alter the taste. I rarely eat white sugar so I can’t bring myself to put it in jams. It’s up to you, just don’t use brown or any other from of sweetener or you will alter the color/taste/gel greatly.

This recipe can easily be cut in half. Yes, the ingredients are in two separate groups because you have to make two separate jams. I will assume you want to make it in the evening and lay it out that way, but you can switch it around to do the final jamming in the morning if that better suits you. Here goes:

Day 1 -in the am
1. Rinse and drain the strawberries before they are hulled, I even dry them out on a paper towel first before I hull them to get off excess water. To hull just take the green off, don’t dig in the the center of the berry. keep them whole.

2. Place them in a stainless steel pot with sugar (just the 7 1/2 cups). Start with a layer of berries and then a layer of sugar, etc. Pour juice of 2 lemons over. Place top on pot and let macerate out of fridge for 8 or so hours.

Day 1 -in the pm
1. Separate the berries from the juice – use a handled skimmer or strainer and take the berries out and place them in a bowl, keeping the juice in the pan. I like to place the berries in a colander over a bowl, and then pour the excess juice back in the pan. Remember you are trying to keep the strawberries whole and intact so you want to be careful. Bring the juice to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Take off heat and place the strawberries back in the hot syrup. Cover and leave to macerate out of fridge overnight.

Day 2 -in the am
1. Keeping the strawberries in the syrup this time bring the whole thing to a boil. Once it boils take off heat and let macerate for 8 hours out of fridge.

Day 2 -in the pm
Bring strawberry mixture to boil then macerate as above.

Day 3 -in the am
Bring strawberry mixture to boil then macerate as above.

1. Clean and mince rhubarb and place in a bowl with remaining sugar and juice of 1 lemon. you can stir this a bit. Let this macerate out of fridge until ready to jam.

2. Get your jars together – clean them in hot soapy water or put in the dishwasher.

Day 3 -in the pm
Bring strawberry mixture to boil and macerate as above.

(You’re not seeing quadruple people, this boiling of the berries has to be done 4 times, that’s how we get shrunken strawberry heads!)

Here’s where it all kicks in so plan accordingly! Allow yourself a couple of hours to jam.

1. Start by placing your clean jars in the canning pot and turning up the heat to sterilize them in boiling water for 10 minutes. You should also place 3 small plates in the freezer – you will use these to check the set later.

2. Separate the berries from the syrup as in step 1 under day 1 -in the pm.

3. Bring the syrup to the boil and boil for 5 minutes.

4. Return the berries to pan and bring to the boil. Make sure it comes back to a solid boil, skim foam gently if needed. Take off heat.

5. Separate the rhubarb from its juice (using the same technique as the strawberries). Pour syrup into its own pan and bring it to a boil. Continue boiling until it reaches 221 degrees on a candy thermometer, skimming any foam off of the top.

6. Add the diced rhubarb and bring back to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, continuing to skim if needed.

7. Combine rhubarb and strawberry mixtures and bring to a boil for 3 minutes or until set. To check, take off the heat and place a teaspoon of jam on one of the frozen plates. Place the plate back in the freezer for about a minute. Then run finger through jam and see if it it wrinkles under your finger slightly. If it is not sufficiently set, bring back to a boil for another minute and then try again. You may need to do this a couple of times.

There is no store-bought pectin here, and strawberries are not high in natural pectin at all, so do not expect this jam to be highly gelled. But it will gel sufficiently and not be runny for sure. You don’t want to overcook this, the strawberries should remain whole and the pieces of diced rhubarb fairly intact.

Meanwhile, back at the canning pot; I trust that your jars have been boiling for at least 10 minutes (once they have, turn burner on low).

8. Boil filled jars for 5 minutes in a hot water bath and there you have it! See those little strawberry heads in there? -yum!
One more thing that you might find useful, strawberries freeze beautifully, and here’s the trick:

1. Rinse them in cold water before you hull them.
2. Drain and place on paper towel.
3. Hull – just take the green leaves off – do not dig into berry.
4. Place on cookie sheet or plates and freeze.
5. Once frozen, put them in bags.

Here in the northeast, I like to think of this time of year as almost summer. Because even if I’m wearing a scarf when going outside, or need to pull out my puffy coat for one final day or two, when the light starts to change, everything changes. Without fail, one fine evening in March or April when I’m cooking dinner in my city digs, I look up and realize – damz! It’s still bright outside! And it’s uphill from there until at least October as far as I’m concerned.

As soon as it’s almost summer I long to get my paws on some luscious summer fruit. Rhubarb first, then strawberries, gooseberries, and before long an abundance of blues hang like baubles right outside my door complete with birds diving like missiles directly into the surrounding nets for a forbidden taste. Peaches, plums, apricots, oh, and how could I forget the most fleeting of all – raspberries.

This particular almost summer I am happy to get my paws on a brand new preserving book, the sequel in fact to one of the best all around preserving books of recent years.  This one focuses on, you guessed it, fruit!

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Having worked quite a bit with Sherri’s first preserving book, I was very excited to receive my copy of put ‘em up! fruit from her generous publisher, Storey. A lot of great recipes here for sure – blueberry ketchup (I must try!) grapefruit sections in lavender syrup, maraschino cherries (if that doesn’t impress your friends, nothing will!) and five spice plum sauce to name just a few. What I also love about this book is the troubleshooting section – concise instructions and tips on how to avoid such mishaps as the dreaded fruit float, siphoning, cloudy jelly, and preserves too thick or too thin. There’s also primers on acid, pectin, and reaching the gel point – essential things to know when putting your fruit in jars.

By now most of you that have spent anytime around here at all know

I have a thing for Indian lemon pickle. Those fine specimens of fermented perfection that do me right everywhere from curries, to flatbreads to yogurt and rice… You may even know that I got married in Rajasthan and traveled around for a month, where I kid you not –
that whole month I never longed for a morsel of any other persuasion than those sultry masalas.

But here’s the thing- Way before I lost, for a moment, my breath at the first sight of the Taj Mahal. Or tried to coax it back in & out, respectively, in the middle of the night while traveling down a 4 lane highway at 70mph realizing I was looking straight into the eyes of a caravan of cargo carrying camels…

I was seduced by this:

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And this too:

Lest you think my palate promiscuous, let me explain:

(I sort of half prepared a discourse about growing up in an Italian-American-Slovakian home and while those flavors and textures will always be part of who I am, my world literally opened up when I began to experience the world. Not only by the good fortune and wherewithal of actually getting to these places, but by experiencing them on the palate. And how, even when one cannot actually trot around to all those faraway places, the palate can. And by studying world food cultures, one can learn a whole lotta ’bout the cultures of the world.)

But basically all I’m sayin’ is variety is the spice of life baby. (Ok, my palate’s a tramp)

So I’m there with my 5 lb. bag of carrots thumbing though a myriad of canning books looking for something to get excited about when as luck would have it, excitement came knocking at my door.

By way of a friendly neighbor carrying a paper bag swelling it seemed with these:

Of those carrots and apples, I made this:

Another thing that happens around this time of year: I start to get antsy about using up all of my freezer-preserved produce in anticipation of the coming season. Rhubarb and strawberries’ days are numbered in the late winter months because they are some of the first things to spring forth in the new season. These two happenings combined prompted me to make this:

Without further ado:

Carrot Apple Butter with Cardamom

I’ve been so excited about my holiday list of my fave preserving and DIY books of 2011 that I decided to have a big ole’ cyber party on Facebook and give ’em all away!

It’s true!

I have so much to say: about the party, about the books, about how-we-gonna-have-one-of-those-holiday-cookie-parties in cyberspace?

Let me start with the books – the books that would totally be on my holiday wish list (and should be on yours!) if I didn’t already have every last one. I love these books!

Can it, Bottle it, Smoke it

by Karen Solomon is chock full of beautiful photos and clear instruction on things like plum catsup, carrot almond jam and pickled grapes. But the best part of Karen’s book is that she goes even further afield in her DIY kitchen. There’s a ‘stalk it’ section with tortilla chips, a ‘smoke it’ section with chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, and ‘munch it’ with crunchy lentil snacks. Need I say more?

The Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking

Kate Payne and I go way back. I’ve been following her blog since it’s inception, and we even picked strawberries together once. Even if those facts weren’t true, I would still say that Kate has written a gem of a book. There isn’t a thing about homemaking left uncovered; hip décor on a budget, composting, environmentally friendly cleaning products, entertaining with style (while on a budget) canning, bread-baking, button-mending. She’s got the Martha gene, but cooler, much cooler. Even pilgrim me, whose had my house for quite some time now, learned a thing or ten from Kate. This book should be on your holiday gift list for anyone learning how to build a (hip) home.

Canning for a New Generation

by Lianne Krissoff has been out since 2010. I’ll be perfectly honest, it got lost in the shuffle of a gazillion preserving books that launched in 2010. But now that I finally have it in my paws, I can tell you it is definitely a cut above the rest. It delivers exactly what it promises; bold fresh flavors for the modern pantry. And, you gotta love a book that ends with a chapter entitled ‘Baked and Creamy Things to put Preserves on’.

The Urban Farm Handbook

by Annette Cottrell and Joshua Mchnichols is more than just a resource for city folk who want to take control of what they eat, it’s an inspiration. I’ve been following Annette’s blog since she began her journey in 2009 and all is can say is, wow! She did it – in the city! Yes, you can grow your own food – and a lot of it – on a little plot of city land. If you’re serious about getting closer to your food source, buy this book. But please, don’t take my word for it, you can view the first 50 pages on the urban farm handbook website.

We Sure Can!

by Sarah Hood is a fun book loaded with great canning recipes. What’s different about Sarah’s book is the spotlight she puts on the online canning and preserving community. Which, in case you haven’t noticed, has exploded in the last three years. You’ll find a short interview with yours truly and a couple of my recipes too. I’m not the only one – many of your fave canning and preserving bloggers are featured here.

Tart and Sweet

by Kelly Geary and Jessie Knadler hasn’t left my kitchen since I received a copy last spring. Like I said in April, out of the 101 recipes, there’s like 99 that I want to try. It’s been a joy to dig into this book and play with the modern flavors presented by these two talented preservers. And with a winter chapter that contains things like grapefruit honey jam and candied kumquats with cinnamon and star anise, this book is not leaving my kitchen anytime soon.

Homemade Living Series

Yes, I’m giving away Ashley English’s entire series to one lucky winner! Another one of my blogging buddies, I’ve been diggin’ Ashley’s blog since the beginning. This is a set of gorgeous hardback books – a great gift for anyone interested in small-scale homesteading. All four of the books are so well done; canning and preserving covers the classic recipes every beginner wants, and then offers up things like rhubarb and amaretto chutney. The home dairy book is one of the absolute best on the market – and has replaced my old stand-by. If you are thinking of dabbling in dairy, you want this book. While I don’t have my own just yet, keeping bees, and keeping chickens has me longing for that day. And I know I’ll be prepared, ’cause I’ve been pining over these books.

Sun pods

Shaped like an oversized grape, tastes like a very sweet lemon that can be eaten whole, peel and all, even when plucked directly from the tree.

No wonder why I love these little buggers.

Sweet Preserved Kumquats

1 & 1/2 pound organic kumquats
juice of 4 lemons (about 2/3 of a cup)
4 tablespoons sea salt
1 tablespoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed
1 tablespoon black pepper, crushed
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, lightly crushed
1 & 3/4 cups maple sugar (or a natural brown sugar like turbinado or demerara)
1/2 gallon jar

Directions:

1. Wipe each fruit with a damp paper towel, then with a dry one. Make sure they are 100% free of water as this can cause mold during the preserving process. It is a good idea to let them sit out in a warm dry place for an hour or so after cleaning.

2. Warm the maple sugar and lemon juice slowly in a small saucepan until sugar melts. Turn up the heat and boil for 2-3 minutes, just until the mixture looks slightly syrupy. Leave to cool in pan.

3. When crushing the spices, make sure the fennel and cumin still retain some shape. You don’t want to crush them to a powder. The black pepper can be crushed as fine as you like. Combine the salt and spices.

4. Slice off the button ends of the kumquats, and then slice the entire fruit in half lengthwise. If you see blatant seeds take them out. But you don’t need to dig out the very small concealed ones. Slicing the kumquats completely in half allows you to easily add the spice mixture. Just toss the whole lot together in a bowl, then transfer to a 1/2 gallon jar and pour the syrup over top.

Additional Notes

You’ll want to keep them either on a sunny windowsill or outside in the sun if you are in a warm climate. If you put them outside, be sure to bring them in at night. When making pickles like these, the timing depends on the temperature and will vary. Give it a check at the 2 week mark, and then every couple of days after that. It’s really up to you how soft you would like to let the kumquats become. I like mine still a bit toothsome, but definitely soft enough to chew freely. As the citrus breaks down, the syrup will become thicker. Once they are to your liking, store them in the fridge for a year or more. At this point they will be broken down enough to fit in a quart container. Or better yet, distribute them into even smaller containers and go through one at a time.

You can eat this anywhere you would an Indian pickle or chutney – accompanying all manner of curry, flatbreads, or mixed rice dishes. I particularly like it simply atop warmed basmati rice with a spoonful of yogurt for a quick lunch.

These may look innocent enough to you

But that’s because your eyes aren’t watering from the heat. If you’re a chile head like me, or another person I know then you might like what I’m about to tell you. I like my chiles homegrown (or local farmer grown) and I like my chiles all year ’round.

Fermenting Chiles

1/2 pound of chiles (or mild peppers if you’re more of a sweet head)
1 pint of water
1 & 1/4 tablespoons of sea salt
1 quart container

Directions:

I was in a real pickle about where to post all these amazing asparagus recipes this month.

I think I made the right choice.

Pickles, Pickles & More Pickles!

asparagus pickles – post-industrial eating, they look gorgeous! And I am so happy you are back on your feet. I think you are going to enjoy these little lovelies when you pop them open!

bloody mary asparagus – locally preserved, some like it hot, and some like it hotter (me). Love the horseradish and hot sauce additions!

last minute pickled asparagus spears – put-a-lid-on-it you are a trooper you are. Your little one is gonna love pickles I tell ya!

pickled asparagus – café del manolo as a garnish for ceaser salad! sounds like a perfect pairing! Makes me want to pickle some spears right now!

pickled asparagus – flamingo musings but I love rhubarb & fennel!! Er, nevermind…we’re talkin’ about asparagus here and it’s one of your favorites (whew!). About that recipe…what? You don’t have 22 lbs. of asparagus laying around?

pickled asparagus – nutmeg, nutmeg…love the nutmeg! (Ahem, and please see below regarding local!) 🙂

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pickled asparagus – I think you are really going to like these…the lemon adds a nice twist!

pickled asparagus – mother’s kitchen tellin’ it like it is…thanks for that link! A can jammer can never be too informed!

pickled asparagus – hip girl’s guide to homemaking, I totally dig your resourcefulness! And it’s all about a kitchen eco-system. It’s very important when trying to eat seasonally, locally, & stretching all that year round.

pickled asparagus & fiddleheads – backyard farms I absolutely love the way you fiddled with this recipe!

pickled asparagus with curry & spices – prospect: the pantry ok, I love anything curried! I am really curry-ous (had to) to know how these turned out, let us know! …oh, and talk to Joel above about floaters. 😉

spicy pickled asparagus – café Libby ya need to pack ’em in, pack ’em in, and maybe give ’em a seat belt ala well preserved. But they’ll taste just as good, so no worries!

spicy pickled asparagus – sustainable pantry thank you so much for that tip on Chinese medicine – now I have an excuse to be a sour puss! 😉 …and don’t worry, June 1st is almost here. But I am sure you will enjoy this little jar!

spicy pickled asparagus – oh briggsy! I love how you peeps put two and two together…asparagus & booze. Why not? Works for me.

tarragon pickled asparagus – notes from a country girl living in the city oh how very French of you! Tarragon she adds…for sure you are gonna love these! Let us know when you pop them open!