Weeknight Pickling

Long time no post! January is hardly the best time for canning and preserving...and February isn't exactly a cornucopia either. Or is it? This week I'm making sunchoke pickles from the seemingly endless supply in the backyard. (It may only seem endless because a year's supply of sunchokes to me is...about three pounds.)

In homestead news, I've opened the last jar of pears in light syrup. I definitely should have made more, because I can happily eat cottage cheese with canned pears three or four times a week for breakfast or a snack. I LOVE it. And my canned pears are the best I've ever had, if I do say so myself.

The carrot pickles I made last fall were also delectable--with what I think of as my "Portland blend" of pickling spices: coriander seed, fennel seed, and celery (really, lovage) seed, plus a few peppercorns, garlic, and a dried chili pepper. Everything but the peppercorns came from within five blocks of my house. And this year's green tomato chutney is getting high ratings. Good, because we still have, like, 14 jars. Apple butter is also tasty and getting used.

But the winner of last summer's preserving, by far, is Dan's Blackberry Freezer Jam. Next summer I want to fill our entire freezer with it. Because it doesn't have a lot of sugar, it tastes good in yogurt, on ice cream, from a spoon, and piled in excessive mounds on toast. And each time I eat it, I think about Dan showing up on his bike with scratches up and down his arms and a gallon jug full of blackberries, pretty much every afternoon in August.

House Breakfast!

Hi, it's Gillian again. It's always a minor celebration when several of us are home in the morning to have breakfast together. Although I had already gotten up early and eaten this salad (yes, those are my very own tomatoes, although I had to pick them half ripe and let them ripen in the kitchen), I was still tempted when Alyssa offered me a freshly made decaf latte...


So for second breakfast I made waffles, at Alyssa's request. Our waffle iron makes heart-shaped waffles, so they're really cute. And I used freshly ground white wheat (from last year's Staple Crops CSA) so they had a great flavor and texture. And it didn't hurt that we had butter, apple butter, maple syrup, blackcurrant jam, and crabapple jelly to put on top! Those last two are specialties of Alyssa's dad, who is also famous for his pies. I hope we will have an opportunity to post pictures of one of his pies at Christmastime (also known as Alyssmas since Alyssa and the baby Jesus share a birthday).