Rants

Jam / Preserving+canning / Rants — 7 Comments
22
Jul 10

Blueberry therapy

jam1

First: an aside. I noticed this week that my fingers are taking on a subtle but certain look of age and overuse. Kind of bending and twisting a bit when they’re at rest. The cumulative effect, probably, of spending half my life before a glowing screen, arms propped awkwardly on a desk, fingers rapidly firing T-O-I-L, basically, over and over again.

Some nights we come home from our day jobs and our commutes and the thought of preparing a meal with all the raw, local ingredients in our kitchen feels like another hour or two wrangling only more T-O-I-L. But lately, even in the heat, or maybe because of it, we have been coming home to this reality with a sense of a relief. Respite. Therapy for my twisted fingers. The silent, methodical rhythms of transforming all of this beautiful produce into simple, delicious stuff. We’re using our hands and ourselves in a more natural way. We’re making a mess, nourishing ourselves and tidying up in a terribly satisfying way. And probably hitting dozens of important acupressure points on our palms in the process.

And now, to the point: We’re already putting things by with a bit of a fury in preparation for the winter, should it ever get cold again. Little bits here and there, when something is suddenly abundant. A couple nights ago we made a giant bowl of pesto and our first batch of blueberry jam. The jam turned out rather miraculously to be our most successful batch yet. Per usual, we winged the recipe.

We’ve learned two important things about jam recently through the Collective Conscience of our Facebook page, a small bit of web research and the contents of this book called Putting Food By. They are: 1) That pectin does nothing for the preserving of fruit. It only affects the texture of a jam, making the “jelliness” of it, in some cases, possible. and 2) sugar changes the acid of a jam. Which is to say, sugar does something for the preserving of fruit. If you remove the sugar entirely, like we have done, you’re at risk unless you put your jam in the fridge or freezer.

Because we think 12 cups of sugar in anything (a standard quantity for jam recipes) is an obscenity, we reduced the amount most sources told us to use. And have opted to refrigerate and/or freeze.

Here’s how we did our blueberries:

2 1/2 pints of blueberries (or 7 1/2 cups)
3 cups of sugar
1/2 t of cinnamon*
1/4 t of ground cloves*

*optional, for spicing

yield: 3 1/2 pints

The morning after, when all was cooled, the jam was surprisingly viscous — jelly-like, really. And delicious. It’s now in our freezer until a dreary day in February, so we can’t be sure the consistency or flavor will stay the same. Here’s hoping.

…Now step away from the computer and go work your hands.

Corn / Rants / Tomatoes — 3 Comments
6
Jul 10

Why is there corn now?

We spent the holiday weekend camping with some pals in the western part of the state. It was a swell time. Last week, as we were exchanging frantic emails with each other to make sure we collectively had our gear and, most importantly our food organized, one of our friends suggested someone grab corn at a farmers’  market, for grilling purposes.

We local eaters smugly replied: it’s a little early for corn.

But as we local eaters drove out Route 2 to Route 112 and on the winding roads to our rural destination, we passed several farms and their farmstands offering, yup, corn!

Now, corn, at least as I conceive of it, is a treat reserved for high summer. I have very fond memories of living in the Pioneer Valley, pedaling through the rocking corn fields of Hadley, Mass. in the stiff and slow heat of August. *August.* I mean, I can’t be sure it was August, but it definitely was not the Fourth of July.

But this scenario is, I think — I am going to say it — may be, a casualty of the popularity of the local foods movement. What I mean to say is, local farmers are growing stuff earlier than they used to (and perhaps earlier than they should be) to accommodate a consumer demand for Those Most Precious and Adored local crops. That is what the “local foods movement” is asking them to do.

A couple weeks back we were having a conversation with a farmer at the Cambridgeport market. (She is young and awesome and well-known in the community.) We got to talking about how, thanks to the swell of local eaters and the demand for a steady, nearly year-round supply of local food, what used to feel like a healthy lull in winter now feels like not much of a break at all. She’s got to work harder, in part because the bureaucracy is bigger, in part because her customer base has grown and also, in part, because she’s got to get stuff to seed … earlier than ever before.

Hmph.

Remember the first or second week of the Copley Square market and how a bunch of different growers had hothouse or greenhouse tomatoes? There’s another treat that, at least as I conceive of it, is reserved for high summer. I don’t even think that last year I saw them so early.

Now obviously there are some incentives for the local farmer if local customers will pay a premium for a local tomato on June 1. And hey, it was great for us to have corn on the cob over a fire this July 4th. Maybe there’s nothing at all to complain about here, but perhaps there is something curious worth noting. But a lot of do this local food thing with integrity and a commitment to eating things when we’re supposed to eat them.

Also, this is a position we take often: The movement has got to be about feeding people. I mean everybody, including the people who think they are too poor (and actually are) to shop at farmers markets and the farmer working her butt off all year to actually enable a transformation of our food system. To make that possible — that = sustainability = I am wondering do we need tomatoes in June?