It has been a while since I last wrote a frugality post. So, hello! If you want to go back and read some of the ideas I had by looking at the list at the bottom of this post. I still haven't gone back to put the photos back in, but will get to those as I can.

One of the best ways to take advantage of the abundance of produce in the summer is to dry, freeze, or can it so you will have it in the fall and winter, when those fresh fruits and vegetables are not available. Even if you don't have a dedicated food dryer, you can use your oven with a little care. Early in our marriage, I used our biggest stock pot with a folded towel in the bottom of it to water bath our preserves.

One thing to remember is that only high acid or high sugar foods can be canned with a boiling water bath. There are plenty of resources online for safe canning procedure. One place where I disagree is the use of bottled lemon juice only for acidification. This is unnecessary, unless you are using Meyer lemon juice (which is not acidic enough). All standard lemons available in the US provide an acidity the same or higher than that of bottled lemon juice, and are far superior in flavor.

Most produce is easily prepared for freezing, and not all even need blanching. We regularly wash and slice bell peppers and just freeze them on a sheet, before bagging them up for the freezer, for instance. We have a vacuum sealer, thanks to my brother in law, but you can just as easily use freezer bags and press out as much air as possible and have them last quite a while. Tomatoes, also, can be washed, cored, and frozen whole on a sheet pan, then bagged and used in soups and stews and sauces all winter long. The skins slip off quite easily when they have thawed a little, and then off you go. Blueberries can be frozen whole in their baskets, and then put into bags. This presumes that you have the freezer space. However, if you do, it is a good and quick way to make sure you have summer produce, at its peak flavor and lowest cost, throughout the year.

Last year, our boys helped harvest at a farm for a farmer's market, and every week, they came home with crates and crates of peppers, hot peppers, onions, tomatoes, summer squash, eggplant, melons, winter squash, you name it. We put up almost a year's worth of frozen, sliced peppers from just a few weeks of their work, and it saved us almost $300 in peppers that we normally would have bought from Trader Joe's (which are still an excellent deal and product). It was only this summer that we started to have to buy any.

In the following recipes, you will note that I recommend using Pomona's Universal Pectin. I like this product, because you do not have to use nearly the amount of sugar that is required for the other pectin products on the market. This means that your fruit preserves taste more like the fruit than the sugar. It also cuts the cost a little, and reduces the amount of refined sugar in your diet. We order ours through Azure Standard, but if you cannot do so, you can order it online directly or find it locally, that would be even better.

Blueberry Orange Preserves*

I make this either with lemon juice and a little nutmeg, or with orange juice and zest. Either is delicious. If you don't have time to can in the summer, or if it is too hot in your kitchen to do so, you can easily use frozen berries that were gotten in the summer. This makes a good amount of preserves. I make this in pint jars, because we eat a lot of it at a time in our home. However, if you want to make this in half pint jars, the canning time is the same. It makes us about 5 pints of preserves, with a little dish of leftovers that we put in the fridge to eat immediately.

9 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
zest of the oranges you juiced
4 1/2 teaspoons calcium water (from the Pomona's pectin)

6 cups sugar
4 teaspoons Pomona's Universal pectin powder

Place blueberries, orange juice, orange zest, and calcium water in a large stock pot. Stir to combine and bring to a boil over medium to medium-high heat.

While the berries are coming to a boil, mix together the sugar and pectin powder in a bowl and set aside.

When the berries have come to a full, rolling boil, add the sugar and pectin mixture and stir to mix thoroughly. Return the mixture to a boil, then remove from heat, stir down a little, and pour into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe rims and cover with new lids. Screw on rings to finger tightness, not too tightly, just enough to keep the lids on before they are sealed.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Cool upright, remove rings and check seals, and store without the rings.

*If you wish to make this with lemon and nutmeg, simply replace the orange juice and zest with the juice of a large lemon and a teaspoon of nutmeg.

Canned Peach or Apricot Halves in Medium-Light Syrup

This same process can be used for apricots. It is a really simple process, and if you have another set of hands in the kitchen to help you scald, peel and stone your fruit, it will go even more quickly. This syrup recipe is sufficient for at least 15 quarts. I can usually fit about 2 - 3 pounds of peaches or apricots in each quart jar. If you like spiced peaches or apricots, you can add a broken stick of cinnamon or the little scrappy end of a grated nutmeg that is always so hard to grate completely into the bottom of the jar before you put the peaches or apriots in it. You can make less than this, quite easily, but we tend to get multiple, big boxes of peaches, and this is a good and fast way to put them up for the winter, while still leaving us enough to eat fresh, make into pies, cookies, and cakes, and add to oatmeal.

Syrup:
4 cups sugar
11 cups water

40 pounds of peaches or apricots, scored on the top and bottom to make peeling easier

Make syrup in a large stock pot by bringing the sugar and water to a boil and boiling for 2 minutes, then removing from the heat.

In another pot, bring water to a rolling boil, and place a single layer of the fruit in the pot. Cook for 30 - 45 seconds after returning to a boil and immediately remove the fruit to a platter or ice water bath. The skins should come off rather easily on the peaches. Sometimes, it is not so easy on the apricots. Often, I simply wash and scald the apricots to make sure there is no dirt or bacteria on the outside, and can them with the peels on them. Slice the fruit in half and remove the pits.

Pack hot, sterilized quart jars tightly with the peach or apricot halves. Then add a few more than you thought would fit. They always seem to float a little, no matter how tightly we pack them. Ladle in the hot syrup, leaving 1/2" headspace in the jars. Using a thin knife, or skewer, poke down through the jars to release air bubbles. Wipe rims and cover with new lids. Screw on rings to finger tightness, not too tightly, just enough to keep the lids on before they are sealed.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Cool upright, remove rings and check seals, and store without the rings.

Method for Preparing Fruit for Jelly and Butter:

This jelly process is tied to the butter process and can be used with any stone fruit, like apricots, plums, nectarines, and so on. I learned it from a virtual friend on a food group online more than 23 years ago. It is a way to get two preserves from one batch of fruit, and is really lovely. It doesn't matter how much fruit you have, as you can make it work for any amount. However, I like to have at least two quarts of fruit to begin with, as it provides enough juice for this amount of jelly. This is one of the only reasons I ever use our microwave (tempering chocolate and heating milk for yogurt are the other two). You won't get as much juice from this as you would from steaming or boiling it, but it will be much more concentrated and flavorful. We have so many pitted cherries in our freezer that I think I will try this method with the cherries for making both jelly and butter as an experiment.

Peel and pit the fruit (for peaches/nectarines, for plums and apricots, I leave the peel on) - see how I scald peaches above for a method, and put it in a big glass, microwavable bowl, covered tightly with plastic wrap. I microwave it for about 20 - 25 minutes, check on it, and maybe microwave five minutes more, until the juice starts to release well. If your microwave is more powerful than ours, you may want to do your 25 minutes at 10 minute intervals. Then I put the fruit in a jelly strainer over a bowl, and collect all the juice. You won't get as much as if you were treating the fruit only to get juice, but it means you can get juice and pulp at the same time, and it starts the process for the butter, of eliminating some of the liquid, right off the bat.

Once all the juice is strained out, I make jelly with it as follows (the yield on this recipe is about 3 pints, or an equivalent amount of half-pint jars):

Peach Jelly

5 cups peach juice (extracted using the method above)
juice of 1 large lemon (about 1/4 cup), strained to remove seeds
5 teaspoons calcium water (from the Pomona's pectin)

1 1/4 cup sugar
5 teaspoons Pomona's Universal pectin powder

Bring peach juice, lemon juice and calcium water to a boil in a large pot, over medium-high heat.

While the juice coming to a boil, mix together the sugar and pectin powder in a bowl and set aside.

When the juice has come to a full, rolling boil, add the sugar and pectin mixture and stir to mix thoroughly. Return the mixture to a boil, then remove from heat and skim off any foam (we save that to eat ourselves when we are finished canning). Ladle into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe rims and cover with new lids. Screw on rings to finger tightness, not too tightly, just enough to keep the lids on before they are sealed.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Cool upright, remove rings and check seals, and store without the rings.

Peach Butter

This process is highly interruptible, but while it is cooking, you cannot leave it. However, you can turn it off and take it off the heat, and even put it in the fridge and get back to it again the next day. I can these in pints or quarts, again because of our family size. If you eat less than that in a few sittings, I would make this in half-pints and pints.

Prepare fruit acording to the method above.

For the butter, I purée or grind the fruit, and put it in a heavy bottomed pan, and heat it over the lowest heat possible. I add a third to half the volume of the fruit in sugar (depending on how sweet the fruit is), and the strained juice of 1 lemon for every 4 - 5 cups of fruit. You could use lime juice or vinegar, or whatever you like. It brightens it a bit. Cook down, stirring occasionally, and more frequently the closer to the consistency you want. I reduce the volume by about a third or so.

I like to add nutmeg to the peach and nectarine, I like to add cardamom to the plum, apricot can be left pretty plain. Of course, you can use whatever you like, but I use about a teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half of ground spice for about 5 cups of puree.

Ladle the hot butter into hot, sterilized quart or pint jars, leaving 1/2" headspace in the jars. Using a thin knife, or skewer, poke down through the jars to release air bubbles. Wipe rims and cover with new lids. Screw on rings to finger tightness, not too tightly, just enough to keep the lids on before they are sealed.

Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes for pints, 20 minutes for quarts. Cool upright, remove rings and check seals, and store without the rings.

Blackberry Peach Jam*

This can be made with frozen berries, as well as fresh, so can be made at your convenience. It is super tasty and I also make a variation with blueberries. The recipe yields about 7 - 8 pints, or an equivalent of half-pints.

8 cups diced peaches
6 cups blackberries
2 tablepoons calcium water (from the Pomona's pectin)

7 cups sugar
3 tablepoons Pomona's Universal pectin powder

Place peaches, blackberries, and calcium water in a large stock pot. Stir to combine and bring to a boil over medium to medium-high heat.

While the fruit is coming to a boil, mix together the sugar and pectin powder in a bowl and set aside.

When the fruit has come to a full, rolling boil, add the sugar and pectin mixture and stir to mix thoroughly. Return the mixture to a boil, then remove from heat, stir down a little, and pour into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe rims and cover with new lids. Screw on rings to finger tightness, not too tightly, just enough to keep the lids on before they are sealed.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Cool upright, remove rings and check seals, and store without the rings.

*If you wish to make this with blueberries, use 9 cups of blueberries with the same amount of peaches tossed with the strained juice of 1 lemon, and 3 tablespoons of the calcium water. Mix 8 cups of sugar with the same amount of pectin powder. Follow the process as for this recipe.

Blackberry Lime Jam

I make a blackberry lime pie and figured it would make a tasty jam, and it does. I use more sugar in this than in other recipes, to compensate for the tartness of the lime. This recipe makes about 7 half pints. They make fabulous Christmas gifts.

4 limes, zested and sections scooped out, keeping any juice from scooping out the sections
6 cups blackberries, crushed
2 tablepoons calcium water (from the Pomona's pectin)

6 cups sugar
2 1/2 tablepoons Pomona's Universal pectin powder

Place blackberries, lime sections, juice and zest, and calcium water in a large stock pot. Stir to combine and bring to a boil over medium to medium-high heat.

While the berries are coming to a boil, mix together the sugar and pectin powder in a bowl and set aside.

When the berries have come to a full, rolling boil, add the sugar and pectin mixture and stir to mix thoroughly. Return the mixture to a boil, then remove from heat, stir down a little, and pour into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe rims and cover with new lids. Screw on rings to finger tightness, not too tightly, just enough to keep the lids on before they are sealed.

Process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes. Cool upright, remove rings and check seals, and store without the rings.

Crabapple Jelly

We used to be able to glean the most beautiful crabapples at a park where our midwife held her annual picnic. I have a great, out of print, cookbook of fancy preserving, and it had a recipe for crabapple jelly in it. We took her recipe and ran with it to match our tastes, and this is the result. The jelly in jars looks like stained glass, and it was one of my favorite items to include in Christmas gifts. There is so much pectin in crabapples that you do not need to add any. However, it does make the process faster, so you can look up a recipe for apple or crabapple jelly that includes it if you want to speed up this method. The recipe as written makes about 10 half pint jars of jelly. Again, I tend to make them in pints for our family and the half pints as gifts.

3 pounds red skinned crabapples
8 cups water
juice of 1 lemon, strained
6 1/2 cups sugar

Stem, wash and quarter the crabapples and place in a medium stock pot. Remove any bruised spots from the apples before placing them in the pot, but leave the cores. Add the water, just covering the fruit. Bring to a boil and cover, over medium heat, for about 45 to 60 minutes, until the apples are very soft. Stir and mash them up a bit occasionally.

Ladle the fruit and juice into a jelly bag over a large bowl and let the juice drip a few hours on the counter or overnight in the fridge, until the flow stops. It is alright to press a tiny bit on the bag, but you don't want to press too hard or you will get pulp and your jelly will be cloudy. Stir the juice of the lemon into the apple juice. Measure the juice for volume, you should have around 9 cups.

Pour the juice into a large, heavy bottomed pot, and mix in the sugar until it has all dissolved. Then turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Boil rapidly, about 10 - 15 minutes, or until it passes the jelly test or measures about 220˚ F with a candy thermometer (at standard altitude and pressure). Remove from heat and skim off any foam (we save that in a dish for us to eat immediately). Ladle into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe rims and cover with new lids. Screw on rings to finger tightness, not too tightly, just enough to keep the lids on before they are sealed.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Cool upright, remove rings and check seals, and store without the rings.

Previous Posts:
Make it at Home
Grocery Shopping
Waste Not, Want Not
Soup
The Celery Stalks at Midnight
Use What You Have
Combining Trips
Storing Bulk Purchases
Turn It Off
Grow Your Own
Buying in Bulk
Gleaning
Entertainment on the Down Low
Finding Fun Locally
Holiday Shopping
Reconsidering Convenience
More Bang for Your Grocery Buck

Labels: Family, Frugality, Homemaking, Homesteading, Preserving the Harvest, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen