I knew this label existed, but it is the first time I have ever gotten one on my medication.

After the Marmalade Incident of 2011, the idea of me making marmalade was not making any top 100 lists in my house, let alone top 10. I was only grudgingly allowed to order citrus with the strict promise I would not buy more than we could eat in two consecutive weeks in its delivered state. We went through a 15 pound box of Citra Navels and Page Oranges, followed by a box of Honey Bells and Grapefruit so another box of Citra Navels and Grapefruit was really a no brainer. Craving oranges, my boyfriend bought about a dozen navels at the grocery store that were vastly inferior to the quality of fruit we get shipped from Florida so we grudgingly ate a couple and looked at the rest sadly.

Then tragedy. I have chronic migraine and have been on daily medication my entire adult life, plus some, to prevent headaches. Even with daily medication, averaging one migraine a week is not unusual for me. My current medication is failing so I have been experiencing multiple migraine episodes a week. Due to a set of circumstances beyond my control, I had to find a new doctor that I finally got to see last week. I came home, on the same day our 15 pounds of Florida citrus arrived, with a prescription for new medication baring the tragic label above.

I knew there were issues with certain medications and grapefruit but never in the last 20+ years of daily medication has that label appeared on a single medication I took. I looked at the label dubiously. My boyfriend counseled that I should consult my doctor. I sat around all night looking like someone had just kicked my puppy. And stomped on all my grapefruits..

The doctor was firm- no grapefruit for at least 3 weeks. And, while we were on it, no citrus for good measure since it is a documented migraine trigger. It is never one I have had an issue with but she was firm. I walked around all day looking like someone had pelted my puppy with all my grapefruits and oranges before stomping on them for good measure.

Something, obviously, had to be done. My boyfriend could not demolish all 15 pounds on his own before the mold started to attack and they were not going to last until I got the citrus thumbs up. I was given a tentative OK over instant messaging to preserve half the fruit, even if that meant marmalade.

I began plotting and ended up with 3 different recipes. First, the grapefruit would become marmalade. They were red grapefruit but I opted to use the Yellow Grapefruit Marmalade recipe by Blue Chair Fruit Company since it is all about the grapefruit. I had to adjust the proportions a little for the amount of grapefruit I had and I still do not have a fancy copper pan so a long time was spent anxiously cooking it down but it appears to have worked out.

For the sad navel oranges we still had sitting around, I used a recipe from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving for Cointreau Oranges. It is oranges, simple syrup, Cointreau and white wine. Sounds like the beginning of a pitcher of sangria to me! I used Luxardo Triplesec instead of the Cointreau because it is just as good and not nearly as expensive. There will be a few summer pitchers of drinks happening with that around as a starter.

I used some of the Citra Navels for Pickled Oranges from The Joy of Pickling. Let me tell you something- if I could eat citrus right now I would tell you that this is an amazing pickle and I cannot believe how heavenly it is. But I cannot eat citrus right now so I cannot tell you that. I will tell you that I might need to order some more Honey Bells just to do that again though. Wow!

Not to be simply content with exposing myself to a large volume of citrus while feeling quite ill with migraine, I decided to tackle the 4.5 pounds of blueberries I still had in the freezer from the summer. I was going to make a conserve with some of the oranges until my boyfriend mentioned something about the “blueberry crack” with a long face. I determined he had become a bit addicted to the Spiced Blueberries, a blueberry based catsup, from The Joy of Pickling I had made and we were now out of. Since he handled the marmalade in stride, I used all of the blueberries to make that instead. It works amazingly in both Greek yogurt and cocktails.

I also found a bison tongue in the freezer and since we are coming up on that corned beef time of year, I used it as an excuse to throw it in a brine to pickle until around the 17th when I will take it to my Dad’s house and give it corned beef like treatment.

I have now managed to do some food preservation every month this year. How has your year started off?

Boozy Oranges, Grapefruit Marmalade and Pickled Honey Bells

Stewed pears with Greek yogurt.

When looking for links for people to reference with this post, I was beginning to wonder if I was correct in having mentally categorized what I was doing as “Stewed Fruit.” Googling the terminology led to recipes containing predominantly dried fruit. A post from The Kitchn included applesauce so I felt like I was getting closer. Then I stumbled upon this recipe on Jamie Oliver’s site and felt that I could stick with Stewed Fruit since the recipe describes exactly what I am doing. Basically, much like applesauce, I cook seasonal fruit into a chunky “sauce,” maybe flavor it a bit, then throw it in the freezer.

I started doing this 2 years ago when I encountered some inexpensive rhubarb and had remembered a tasty recipe I had read in one of my Canal House cookbooks and later saw Orangette write about. The rhubarb was fabulous and made a perfect topping for the Greek yogurt my boyfriend and I eat for breakfast 5 days a week. I still make this recipe regularly every rhubarb season with some to eat then and some put in the freezer for later in the winter.

Last summer I started buying Italian Prune Plums from my favorite orchard at the farmers market and went a little overboard. I cannot remember if I had anything in particular in mind for them, but one day when the farmer gifted us a large amount that needed to be used immediately they became stewed fruit. Some vanilla, some spices, and a little sprinkle of sugar, cooked down in their own juices they went into the freezer. We, sadly, finished the last container two weeks ago.

Our orchard has access to good storage so I did not feel the need to do this with the pears we start to enjoy in the fall. We have been buying bosc pears every week this winter at the farmers market to use in our yogurt. They get chopped and mixed in with a dollop of stewed rhubarb, blueberry catsup, or a few chopped prunes. But this past Sunday we were implored to take as many as we could carry home. Emily had already marked them down and had no interest in hauling them all back on the truck at the end of the market just to take back to the orchard for composting. They were turning but they were still edible once you cut out the bruised spots and since we just chop them up anyway their condition was fine for us. They were further along than I like for canning, but I could certainly stew them so we could enjoy them in the spring and summer! Even though I had my bike trailer with us at the market, my boyfriend had grabbed the Teeco Pannier just in case so we filled it up with pears and thanked Emily profusely.

My boyfriend was put in charge of the chopping. I hauled out my 8 quart stock pot and had to add the fruit in 3 batches as it cooked down to get all the pears in the pot. I mixed the pears with juice from 2 lemons to inhibit oxidation (it is not harmful but it does lead to an unattractive discoloration), about 1 cup of water to prevent scorching on the bottom of the pan, and two whole vanilla beans, cut in half then split lengthwise. We did not peel the pears. I mashed some of them along the way but also left a fair number of chunks. After it cooked for an hour I tasted it and decided not to add any sugar. After another hour of cooking to thicken it up I declared it done.

I froze this and ended up with 9.5 pint containers. Since we prefer low/ no sugar preparations, I do like making stewed fruit more than other fruit based jams, jellies, marmalades or preserves.

An array of New Year canning.

Through the years, New Year celebrations have come and gone but I have only started to develop my own traditions that have taken hold over the past few years. There is one tradition I have retained from childhood- the firm belief that all Christmas decorations must be put away before dinner on January 1st. (This year I was early and completed this task on December 28th, discovering only one piece of tinsel left behind after the fact. Certainly a record on both accounts.)

It has now also become a tradition to clear some things out of the house. My boyfriend and I have developed a one-in-one-out rule since combining households a bit over two years ago. At New Year, we have taken the time to evaluate what we have not been using and get rid of some additional items. This year we tackled the storage area where we put all the duplicate items when we moved in together and sent two backseats full of boxes on their way to Good Will.

And, for the second year in a row, I have decided to kick off the New Year with some canning. Unfortunately, do to an injury I was unable to complete this on the 1st itself but I did get everything done with my day off from work on the 2nd. Last year I canned beets. This year I picked up a few small items and preserved the rest of our New Year Day dinner.

First up was water bath canning. I began with Pickled Cranberries. I substituted half of the sugar for honey. I am looking forward to enjoying this in cocktails and with soda water. I also picked up some kumquats and after poking around on the internet I decided to make candied kumquats. I infused my simple syrup with just cardamom. This will likely end up in yogurt, oatmeal, cocktails, and/ or soda water. When shopping for our New Year Eve dinner, I picked up extra pearl onions for cocktail onions. There are a variety of recipes out there to choose from. I used white vinegar, mustard seed and bay in mine.

I also had a small cabbage, just under a pound, that I started fermenting into sauerkraut. I seem to be the only one in my family that likes it so there does not seem to be the need to make 25 pounds of cabbage worth at a time. And since I am working with such a small batch, buying a crock did not seem warranted either so I am using a half gallon glass jar. More on this one it finishes.

I love turkey, as long as it is good turkey, so when I ordered my heritage bird from one of my favorite farmer’s market vendors, I got a second bird for later and New Year seemed like a fabulous occasion to roast it. I cooked the carcass into broth, ending up with 7 pints of soup I put in the freezer to have for lunches (turkey, carrot and rutabaga) and 4 quarts of additional broth I pressure canned with some meat that I will use for dinner soups.

If you are reading at my site, you will also see I did some minor updates here for the New Year as well. The side bar now contains a simple list of items I have canned so far in the year and a link to My Pantry page where you can see the details of amounts I canned, both for the current year and in the past.

Did you preserve anything for the New Year or make any plans for the upcoming year?

Home made and home canned apple sauce!

When last I posted it was regarding an appearance on a local show to discuss canning and preserving. Two weeks before the end of the year. Comments on the show’s facebook page had suggested there was some skepticism on this being an appropriate time of the year to discuss these topics and I responded that you could can all year. I gave some suggestions on the show (you can listen here if you missed them) but I am going to go one better with this post. I came across a Winter Seasonal Produce guide put out by a site called Taste of Home. I am going to use this post to link to at least one preservation recipe for every state that does not have a dormant growing season at this time of year. Please feel free to add more ideas in the comments! If you see the same item listed more than once, click through because each link will be a different recipe. Not all the recipes will be for canning because while that may be the most familiar form of food preservation it is not the only form. There will also be some fermentation and other techniques strewn through.

I have tried to use a variety of web sites and I believe I have managed to link at least once to the ones I turn to most often.  If you would like more resources, check my books or blogs pages. (Check back as I will be updating them over the next week too.) If you want to spend some time pouring through web pages, look at the recipe collection curated by Punk Domestics or the monthly Can Jam posts from 2010 compiled by Tigress at Tigress in a Jam and Tigress in a Pickle. (On both sites you will find links to the monthly round-ups on the main page in between the recipe and archive links.)

What if your state has a dormant growing season at this time of year? It is possible that you might have access to a year round farmers market. There are so many guides out there so google may be your best bet to finding one. And what if you do not but still want to try to buy as direct as possible? Try Local Harvest. They were the way I found the citrus grove in Florida I order from every winter. And if none of these food acquisition options work for you maybe this list will provide, at least, a starting point for preservation planning for the growing season where you live. I think I may have a brand new list of recipes to try myself.

“BWC” after a recipe indicates it is for canning in a boiling water bath canner. “PC” indicates the recipe is for pressure canning. Please note- a pressure canner is not the same as a pressure cooker. There are also devices sold as “pressure cooker/ canners.” These are not the same either. If you are in doubt, visit the National Center for Home Food Preservation. If you are still in doubt, you should probably skip pressure canning. “O” indicates a different method is used, such as fermentation

I will start my canning season off tomorrow with kumquats, cranberries and pearl onions. I started a small batch (~1 pound of cabbage) of sauerkraut fermenting today. Check back later in the week to see which recipes I used!

Ready? Here we go:

Alabama – Rutabaga (BWC)

Alaska – Dormant. However, and maybe someone from Alaska can help me out here, while Alaskan produce may be dormant in the winter there is still game for hunting I believe. Alaskans are a resourceful bunch and I know they still have community canneries around (one of the delicacies my family looks forward to receiving from our relatives in Alaska at this time of year is canned Salmon, which I believe gets canned in the summer, and is produced in metal cans, not jars, from the town cannery) so maybe we will get some good info in the comments. In the mean time, check out the information on Preserving Alaska’s Bounty from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Arizona – Pecans (BWC or PC)

Arkansas – Dormant

California – If you can put up with the threat of earthquakes, there is no doubt that California is the place to be in the winter for fresh produce. There are so many items to choose from so I will do more than one recipe for California.

Bell Pepper, Celery, Carrots, Carrots and Cauliflower (O- refrigerator); Horseradish (O, refrigerator); Persimmon (BWC); Lemon and Pink Grapefruit Marmalade (BWC)

Colorado – Dormant

Connecticut – Pears (BWC)

Delaware – Mushrooms (BWC)

Florida – not quite as plentiful as California, but still plenty of options. I started canning when I lived in Miami and always looked forward to u-pick tomatoes on Knaus Berry Farm, followed by one of their amazing strawberry shakes. Again, there is so much, and it is different enough from California, I will do multiple recipes.

Tomatoes (BWC); Eggplant (BWC); Tangerines (BWC); Sweet Corn (BWC); Passion Fruit (BWC)

Georgia – Beets (BWC)

Hawaii – Does anyone in Hawaii want me to move in and do some preserving?
Strawberries and Limes (BWC); Strawberries again (BWC); Get everything you can from those Strawberries! (O- shrub); Oranges (O- liquer)

Idaho – Potato (PC)

Illinois – Dormant

Indiana – Dormant

Iowa – Kohlrabi (O- Miso)

Kansas – Dormant

Kentucky – Dormant

Louisiana – I am starting to regret not being more acclimated to warm climates! Again, multiple recipes for you lucky people.
Kumquat (BWC); Okra (BWC); Satsumas- but are they the plums (BWC) or citrus (BWC)?; Snap Peas (O- refrigerator)

Maine – Cranberries (BWC)

Maryland – Sweet Potato (PC)

Massachusetts — Dormant

Michigan — Dormant

Minnesota — Dormant

Mississippi – Turnip (O- Fermentation)

Missouri – Pumpkin (BWC)

Montana — Dormant

Nebraska — Dormant

Nevada – Apples (BWC)

New Hampshire — Dormant

New Jersey — Dormant. This actually surprised me because I am from NJ and I know how much produce the little state everyone thinks of as stinky churns out on a regular basis.

New Mexico – Radishes (BWC)

New York – Carrots (BWC)

North Carolina – Peanuts (PC)

North Dakota – Cabbage (O- Fermentation)

Ohio – Cauliflower (BWC)

Oklahoma – Brussels Sprouts (BWC)

Oregon – Hazelnuts (O- spread) Admittedly, the listed shelf life is a bit shorter on this product than the others, but if you have access to fresh hazelnuts how can you not make it? And you can always can some hazelnuts (see pecans above) and make more later!

Pennsylvania – Turnip (O- Fermentation)

Rhode Island – Ginger (O- refrigerator pickle) Please note- even thought the ginger is pickled in vinegar in this recipe, rice wine vinegar is not of suitable strength for creating shelf stable canned pickles.

South Carolina – Apples

South Dakota — Dormant

Tennessee — Dormant

Texas – Another state with a strong winter growing season!
Celery (O- refrigerator); Oranges (BWC); Peppers (BWC)

Utah — Dormant

Vermont — Dormant

Virginia – Spinach (O- freezing)

Washington – Garlic (BWC)

West Virginia – Swiss Chard (O- refrigerator pickle)

Wisconsin — Dormant

Wyoming – Kale (O- dehydration)

First, I need to apologize for the picture. I needed something quick to throw in here so there you go.

Next I need to apologize for this really weird question I am going to ask- should I turn off the radio before leaving the house tomorrow so the cats do not get all freaked out when they hear me but cannot find me? (We are a radio always on kind of place and always tuned to our local NPR station.)

Now I will tell you why I am apologizing- tomorrow I get to be on The Kojo Nnamdi Show on our local NPR station to talk about pickling. This is really exciting because I listen to Kojo pretty much ever day. He is a big deal here in DC.

I will be on the show with The Slow Cook, Ed Bruske, and Chef Logan Cox from Ripple restaurant. If you do not read Ed’s Blog you should start. I first started following him years ago when I became more interested in food and food issues. Ed is also a Certified Master Gardener which is a sibling of the Certified Master Food Preserver program I completed in July 2010.

I know people are going to ask why we are talking about pickling now instead of at the height of the summer. Well, why not? The only season I find difficult to do a lot of canning in is the spring. Just because the summer ends does not mean food stops growing. I am determined that this will be the winter I finally pickle Brussels Sprouts. Beets seem to have a farmers market resurgence in DC when the weather gets cold and when I just pulled a jar of my special recipe pickled beets to bring to the show I noticed we are on the last 2 jars dated “1/1/11.” I have access to great apples and pears from Black Rock Orchard all through the winter so I can preserve them later in the year and not have to worry about properly root cellar-ing these items because they will do it for me. I would love to have a root cellar but it is not always practical in the city. I also love pickled tongue and that is something I tend not to want to eat in the summer (yes, tongue as in that thing in your mouth). Quince and cranberries are not available in the summer when people are in the canning mindset. The prime citrus growing season is starting now and even though you cannot go to the local farmers market for it in DC, getting a few people together to buy a few cases can make it economical and fast work. (Unless you are slightly insane and compulsive, then you can go for 24 pints in 5 days.) Really, I can go on about this so call in tomorrow, the show airs at 1pm eastern time and there is a button on the page for the show to listen live, and let me!

Did you know you can do canning in a small kitchen? Did you know that you can produce small batches of items? You can also make small batches of pickles to keep in the fridge and eat in a short period of time? What else do you want to know about? What else do you want to try to can or pickle now that you know it is not only a summer activity? What has stopped you from pickling and preserving?

You can take Manhattan, I will be curled up over here with my sweet, sweet, tequila and cherries.

There is a sour cherry season in the DC area during the late spring/ early summer that lasts about 2 weeks. Every year, I stalk the web page of my preferred orchard and compulsively dial their number, listening to the pre-recorded message each morning, to figure out when I will make the 150 mile round trip to bring home buckets of cherries.

I do not include the cherries on my pantry tally on the side of my site because my preservation techniques for cherries are not approved by the USDA or The National Center for Home Food Preservation. Apparently, preserving in alcohol has not been tested. However, based on my background and experience with canning I have made a decision based on what I am comfortable with and have decided to keep this item in my canning repertoire.

I preserve the cherries in a variety of alcohols- maraschino, bourbon, rye and brandy. I do the least amount in bourbon and rye since they are not flavors I am fond of, as evidenced below in my bastardization of the classic Manhattan. If you like boozy cherries, my recommendation is to experiment with flavors you like, sweeten to taste, store in the refrigerator and use with in a month.

I cannot claim credit for this cocktail. The manager of one of my favorite restaurants served it to me one day and this is the variation I make at home.

You Can Have Manhattan

A variation on the Manhattan

4 oz good aged Tequila (Anejo or Repasado)
1.5 oz Dolin Rouge
Fee Brothers Old Fashioned Aromatic Bitters
Brandied Cherries

Stir the Tequila and Vermouth in a cocktail shaker with a dash or two of bitters. Serve over ice and garnish with 3 brandied cherries.

Sometimes I eat them faster than I can take pictures.

Each season I like to try at least one new canning recipe. There are just so many things to try! Last year it was Pickled Eggplant and it was a complete keeper- I just made 4.5 pints today. I love using it in lieu of salad dressing on whatever salad greens I can get from the farmers market during the winter. I also imagine it would make a wonderful addition to an antipasto plate. Last year I made it with the 7% acidity white wine vinegar I love to use for pickled green tomatoes. While everyone loved the eggplant, there were many comments regarding the acidity. I credit my love of all things pickled to my high tolerance/ immunity to acidity. This year I took it down a notch with the eggplant and tried a 6% white balsamic vinegar. We’ll see if people like it better or not.

This year my new pickle was Linda Ziedrich’s New Pickles. I love this type of pickle. It is usually crisp and briny with a hint of garlic. It still has a fairly fresh cucumber taste to it as well. I like them best very cold. It seems to make them quite refreshing.

I made two batches this summer and ate the first very quickly. I remembered to grab a photo of the lone survivor of batch one just prior to gulping it down over the sink on a hot day. It has been a force of will to let batch two sit in the fridge longer. I want to see if/ how the texture changes as they sit. One of the biggest disappointments I have had playing around with fermented sour pickles is the quality deteriorates, even when you cut the blossom edges. Nothing is more disappointing than a limp pickle.

It is useful to have minions to do your blueberry picking bidding.

Summer has passed by faster than I realized. Life has been fairly hectic. I have managed some canning (see the sidebar of the main blog page if you are reading via RSS) but probably not as much as I typically do in the summer. I canned blueberries this year for the first time. There is also the usual haul of sour cherries preserved in alcohol which needs to be added to the tally.

It was a rough year for tomatoes. On two occasions when I thought I would have what I consider enough for canning (at least 30 pounds) I ended up with barely 10. I slow roasted the first batch in the oven then froze them. The second batch I roasted and did a pressure canned soup. On my third try I managed to get enough to do whole canned tomatoes.

Since making my own cucumber pickles, I have developed a preference for fermented ones. I use Linda Ziedrich’s recipes from The Joy of Pickling, particularly Hungarian Summer Pickles, which I didn’t make this year, and Full Sour Pickles. This year I am also trying her new recipe for East Coast New Pickles.

I also did some of my favorite refrigerator pickles this summer- carrots and snap peas. I forgot to keep track of how many quarts… we go through them pretty quickly here.

The subtle changes are starting that indicate fall is on its way. And so are the green tomato pickles.

It will probably hurt almost as much as Tony Montana’s little friend.

A few years ago I became obsessed with finding the perfect mortar and pestle. I spent months scouring kitchen stores, thrift stores and web sites but nothing seemed deep enough or wide enough for my goal- the perfect vessel for hand grinding spices. I had given up all hope of ever finding the mortar and pestle for me. Then one day, while on a day trip to meet my parents for lunch, I saw something on a high shelf in one of those “antique” markets you find in touristy towns (part consignment store and only a few steps up from a flea market). I called my boyfriend over to retrieve it for me and as soon as I saw how the heft of it caught him off guard as he pulled it down my eyes widened like a 5 year old at an all you can eat cupcake buffet. I grabbed it from him and hugged it to my chest with two arms as I marched to the register, never looking at the price tag. My boyfriend thought I was probably paying too much for it and it does spend more time propping up some cookbooks than it does in regular use. But I have never once regretted it since I find it one of the most enjoyable items in the kitchen to use.

The first time I used it, the mortar held tightly between my knees as I sat on the floor with my back propped against the couch for support, I full understood the wonder of this ancient tool. Nothing I have found in modern kitchen stores compares. The weight of the pestle (this one weighs in at 1.3 pounds) does so much of the work once you get a consistent rhythm. The mortar is 5.5 inches high with a diameter of 10 inches and weighs so much it overloads my 10 pound capacity kitchen scale. The texture of the first batch of garam masala I produced with it was a revelation. It actually had some substance instead of turning into the overground fine powder that seems unavoidable with one speed electric spice grinders. And the act of creating the blend was much more satisfying and soothing.

As if that was not all amazing enough, I was actually able to create a substantial quantity at one time without having to pay any attention to spices flying over the edge when I gained speed as was always the case when using the stingily proportioned mortar in modern sets. Pictured above on the right is a 16 ounce jar of pickling spice mix that I just replenished for my class today (we will be pickling asparagus as an introduction to water bath canning). The batch of mix I make at one time occupies about two-thirds the volume of the jar, but near the end I threw the contents that had been in the jar into the mortar as well and had no spillage issues.

We are really lucky in DC. By my count, we have 22 23 24(!) 25 Farmers Markets operating 6 days a week once the season gets into full swing. And that does not include the easily accessible ones just over the city lines! We also have a mobile farmers market set to hit the streets soon and a farmers market that runs year round.

Usually in the spring someone (I thought it was one of the newspapers) would put together an interactive map with the markets on it. I was not able to find that this year so decided to do it myself!

View Larger Map

This is my first attempt at a Google Map, so I would appreciate any suggestions and feedback. The place markers are color coded by day of the week the market occurs on. I have included a link to a site for the market (where available), it’s operating season, day and time, and the location. What additional information would you find useful?

If you know of any additional markets or find incorrect information on the map, please let me know. I intend to keep this updated. As a canning junking, it is important to know all your produce options at any given moment!