A Harvest Of Love
Harvest time has begun. Every year my internal clock tells me when it’s time to make jam, salsa, and other products from area farms. My love of simple canning grew out of the childhood seasonal activity of transforming the Concord grapes that grew in our family’s backyard into grape jelly.
Each of my siblings had a role in the production of the 100 or so jars of grape jelly we created that became our annual supply. While many jars were later given as gifts, our family of 15 ate lots of jelly–deliciously amazing on buttered toast or on the peanut butter or cream cheese and jelly sandwiches we would take to school. While my mother had us make the jam to save money, that homemade grape jelly is just about the best flavor any child could hope for at breakfast or lunch, and the child in me agrees.
On a recent last summer day, I picked seven pounds of blueberries at CT Valley Orchards in Deep River. The owner, Winston Scott, is a longtime friend of my husband Paul and mine. Like other Connecticut farms, it’s a family farm, and I could feel the storied history of the place as I picked my berries. It was late in the day, and I was all alone in the orchard. The quiet and peacefulness comforted me. While I had hoped to pick more berries for my planned activities, I cherished what I had, and carefully cleaned, de-stemmed, and portioned out the results of my labor.
Starting With The End In Mind
A day later, today, as I write this, I made blueberry jam. My prep started with boiling the jars and sterilizing the lids and rings. Just as I had done as a child, I cut brown grocery bags into usable flat sheets to protect the counter and make cleanup easier. I loosely chopped the fruit and measured out the sugar and lemon juice into a heavy pot. I decided to add some lemon zest to the recipe this year. Today, as I did with my mother 60 years ago, I made my jam using Certo, a liquid pectin that helps the jam to gel.
Pectin is found naturally in fruits and vegetables, particularly in citrus fruits, tomatoes, carrots, and potatoes. Pectin is a natural and commercially produced essential ingredient in preserves like jellies and jams. Without pectin, jellies and jams won’t gel. Pectin is a type of starch that occurs naturally in the cell walls of fruits and vegetables and gives them structure.
Certo liquid fruit pectin is made with pectin from real fruit and is used to make traditional cooked or quick-and-easy freezer jam and jelly recipes. An insert with recipes of all types is inside the box. Certo and other brands of liquid and powdered pectin are available at supermarkets and other stores where canning supplies are sold.
In the grape jelly days, we layered melted paraffin over the top to seal the jars, making them shelf stable for the year. Today I used an inversion canning method with self-sealing lids and rings that accompanied my purchased mason jars, inverting the jars after they were filled to create the airtight seal needed. I leave them inverted on the counter overnight before washing the jars again and adding the special label I designed. I completed two batches, or 18 half-pint jars of deliciousness, with the leftover from each batch in a personal-use jar in my fridge.
Gifts For The Holidays
Soon I will pick peaches and make some peach jam and salsa as I start my ‘gifts for the holidays’ production. Peach jam has an amazing flavor, and homemade peach salsa is out of this world. With field-grown tomatoes and peaches available at the same time of year, making and canning peach salsa is a natural. Peach salsa is easy to make because instead of needing a specific chemistry to make it successful, a good salsa is based on personal tastes. I ran across a recipe more than 20 years ago online. I’ve made and modified it frequently, experimenting with different types of onions, chilies, and vinegars to get the desired flavor.
If you want to have fresh salsa later this winter, pour the salsa into clean pint canning jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove any air bubbles, wipe the rim, and cap each jar as it is filled. You will need to process the jars for 40 minutes in a boiling water bath. The lids will’ pop’ when an airtight seal is formed. Or you can skip the canning, bring the salsa to a party or enjoy it for the next ten days (if it lasts that long) from your fridge.
While making jam and other homemade can feel like a lot of work for something you can readily purchase at the supermarket, saving time or effort is not the measure of my quality of life today. The feeling of well-being at this moment because I picked blueberries and made jam no amount of monetary savings can provide. The memories I made with my mother and siblings are deeply felt by me even after these many years. The gift of these homemade edibles to family and friends is highly anticipated and cherished because they come from my heart.
If you are contemplating an activity to do with your child or friends this weekend, consider picking fruit and making jam, salsa, a fruit salad, or baked goods. The lessons learned as you highlight the path from farm to table are invaluable. The support that you give local farmers connects you to the wholeness of the community. The special time you spend together will nourish your body and soul, feeding memories that will last a lifetime.
Peach Tomato Salsa
Ingredients:
- 2 cups diced ripe tomatoes
- ½ cup yellow bell pepper
- 1 cup diced ripe peaches
- 3 tablespoons seeded and minced jalapenos (or alternate to taste)
- ¼ cup diced onions
- 3 tablespoons minced cilantro
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate, covered, for an hour. Allow to come back to room temperature when serving. (Be careful when handling chilies, taking care not to touch eyes or face and washing thoroughly when done.)