A twofer and neither is a cucurbit.

July’s canning challenge is cucurbits (I didn’t know they were related either.) I stopped at fruit stands on the way back from Eastern Washington, and hit the Farmer’s Market yesterday, and due to our late, wet spring this year, they aren’t in season yet. So, I invoked this clause of the Can Jam challenge:

substitutes of food in focus is acceptable only if it really is not in season where you are and you would rather use a fruit or veggie that you can source locally. in this case, effort should be made, if possible, to choose a substitute that is closest to the focused food. and please, don't let this stop you! we're learning about canning here people! so can what you can!

When the cucumbers come into season, I am planning on pickling quite a few, and making more dill relish as I am almost out of last year’s batch. I also am collecting watermelon rinds to pickle this year (if you’d like to contribute, let me know and I’ll share the bounty)

As I mentioned earlier, I got local, organic raspberries earlier this week and canned raspberry jam at Dh’s request. I used the recipe from the pectin insert:


6 cups raspberries, crushed
8 ½ cups sugar
1 package pectin.

Crush raspberries and put into large saucepan. Bring raspberries and pectin to a boil. Once boiling, add sugar and return to a boil. Boil for four minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, skim foam, and ladle into hot jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Adjust two piece lids and process in a water bath canner. Makes 8 – ½ pint jars (mine made 9, actually)

Out of my Wednesday CSA box, I made Dilly Beans and Dilly Carrots.

I started with this dilly bean recipe from the Ball Blue Book:

2 lbs green beans
1/4 cup canning salt
2 1/2 cups vinegar* (I used apple cider vinegar)
2 1/2 cups water*
1 tsp cayenne pepper, divided
4 cloves garlic
4 heads dill

Trim ends off green beans. Combine salt, vinegar and water in large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Pack beans, lengthwise, into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 clove garlic, and 1 dill head to each pint jar (add two cloves and ½ tsp cayenne per jar if doing quarts) Ladle hot liquid over beans, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two piece caps. Process 10 minutes in boiling water canner.

Makes 4 pints or 2 quarts.

Since I don’t have a kitchen scale (something I’d like to rectify soon), I just used the green beans out of my share box this week (apparently about one pound), and then peeled and cut carrots from my share to make up the balance.

My yield was one jar of straight dilly beans, one jar of mostly dilly beans with a few carrots in there, and two jars of dilly carrots. My Dh greatly enjoyed last year’s dilly beans and is looking forward to these, we’ll wait about 6-8 weeks before breaking into them to allow the flavors to marinate.

Enjoy!

*I ended up doing an emergency 1 cup water 1 cup vinegar addition to get the brine for the last jar, so the next time I make these, I'll bump the amount of each to 3 cups.

A Woman’s Daybook  for  July 21, 2010

Outside my window...it was cool and cloudy this morning, but it has burned off and is a nice, warm summer’s day

I am thinking...Recently, I was driving to work, and came down a hill and around the corner, and the Bay caught my eye.  It reminded me of how blessed I am to live near the water – even if it is a bay and not the ocean proper, and how the smells of the water, the views and vistas, and the fauna that comes from being so near the water are a blessing. I highly recommend a beautiful post about this topic by the lovely Meadowlark

I am thankful for...living near the water, naturally ;)

From the learning rooms...the X-man has to read a book   over the summer and is greatly dreading it. I am half tempted to sit him down and read it out loud to him chapter by chapter, except it looks cheesy and I don’t want to read it either.

From the kitchen...the X-man’s All Star team went to State this past week, and was in Spokane.  While they lost and didn’t continue in the tournament, it was a great honor and experience to be there.  I stopped at a couple of the fruit stands on my way home, but the fruit I wanted to can wasn’t ripe yet (we’ve had such a dreary and wet spring.) The blessing is that our raspberries are just perfect, so once I got back to my neck of the woods, I picked up half a flat and made a batch of raspberry jam.

I am wearing...A favorite J Jill  shirt (and sadly, I looked to see if I could pick it up in different colors, and it doesn’t appear so)  in a light blue, and a skirt of brown with flowers in shades of blue embroidered on it, and a pair of brown Clarks sandals

I am creating...I get to scrapbook with a dear friend tonight for my monthly class. 

I am going...to begin a Read-Along on August 1st of The Wind in the Willows*. Hopefully we can sweet talk the Chocolate Teapot into posting a photo of Graeme's gravestone. 

I am reading...While in Spokane, I got three books read**, and started Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead. So far, it’s very good

I am hoping...that The Oldest is doing well with family in California where he is working on a summer job.

I am hearing...I’ve never really listened to Joni Mitchell, but I’ve been lately on a kick of listening to her You Tubes.  What album would you recommend as an essential Joni? 

Around the house...When we are down to one kid, there are far fewer dishes and laundry. But, alas, I still need to fold the laundry we have accrued. 

One of my favorite things...fresh fruit.

A few plans for the rest of the week...scrapbooking, reading, Hierarchical Liturgy, hopefully canning.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...the X-man at the State Tournament.

 *Grace recommends not buying the annotated version.

**Midwife of the Blue Ridge  by Christine Blevins; 1999 by Morgan Llywelyn, and Olive Kitteridge  by Elizabeth Stout.