Millions of peaches (and tomatoes) for me!

We had such a great day on Sunday with all the making of peach salsa with heirloom tomatoes and tomato ketchup with Okanagan sweet tomatoes! I had to share our results!

The ketchup recipe is from the book Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It and Other Cooking Projects from Karen Solomon. We used the Okanagan sweet tomatoes, Walla Walla sweet onions, and a whole ton of spices, like cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, and Raymond's favourite, cumin. I think we reduced it too long as we have ended up with about 2 1/4 cups instead of 3, but it tastes amazing! I'm not a fan of ketchup or mustard, but I love this! I want to try making mayonnaise next weeked so we can have a chip party (sweet potato and regular) and try dipping into various condiments!

The peach salsa (click here for pictures) is from a book called Put 'Em Up!, which is my favourite of our four preserving books! We didn't use anything spicy in our version - I'm a spice wuss, and anything stronger than mayo tastes like burning - and it is amazing stuff. If you have peaches nearby, get some and make something like this!!!

As a note, it looks like we've accidentally joined the Can-A-Rama, a week (August 14th to 20th) where people are encouraged to hold canning parties. (Click here for the blog and some great recipes!) We've been doing this all summer, although we call them jamming parties and Raymond puts together a great music mix so we can dance and sing as we create awesome things in jars!

Next week, pickles and finishing up some sewing! Later this week, I need to get into the workshop. I organized it on the weekend, so now there's some space in which I can move around! And we're introduced our craft groups to making freezer jam, refrigerator pickles, and Kool-ickles on the 25th!

As a note, I find that making things in a group is a great way to overcome your fears. You'll help each other out, make constructive comments, and push each other to try something new! It's hard to wuss out when you know five other people are counting on you! So if jamming or pickling isn't your thing, invite some friends over for a body wash or lotion or hair care party and learn together!

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Sunday is all about the peaches!

The Presidents of the United States had it right when they sang about peaches - there are indeed million of peaches, peaches for me and Raymond and Wanda and my mom and everyone else I know! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click here for the video, which is a good representation of a jamming party at my house, although we do tend to experience fewer ninja attacks in this part of Canada.)

We had hoped this week would be about the pickles, but cucumber and dill supplies aren't as reliable as we had hoped and by Saturday, they were all gone! Fingers crossed for next week! Instead, we're making more peach salsa with heirloom tomatoes (unbelievably delicious! and I generally don't like tomatoes) and canning some of the freestone peaches!

Yes, I'm obsessed with canning, jamming, and pickling this year (click here or click here for other posts on the topic). We enjoyed strawberries in June, raspberries and blueberries in July, now peaches, cherries, and tomatoes in August. (To your left, you'll see our cherry walnut relish!) We have made enough for our own enjoyment, and I only hope we have enough of everything to make baskets for our friends and family at Christmas! It seems like we're eating it all now!

As an aside...don't these tomatoes look amazing? Those on the left are Okanagan tomatoes - my mom says they're very sweet - and those on the right are local heirloom tomatoes. Yes, the orange thing in the middle is a tomato and not the Great Pumpkin come early!

If all goes well today, we'll have more peach salsa, some canned peaches, and homemade tomato ketchup! Yum!

Join me tomorrow for more fun crafting!

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If you've never made jam...try it!

I'm addicted to making jam this year! We made strawberry jam in July, and raspberry and blueberry last week. Today was supposed pickling day, but the cucumbers aren't ready yet, so it's peach and cherry jamming day! We're going to make a salsa, a chutney, a spread, and a few jams! I thought it was quite awesome that we currently own 30% of a bushel of peaches (a bushel is 50 pounds, and we have 15, so it's 0.30 of a bushel!)

Every year I think about making jams and pickles, but most years I make a small batch and call it a day. (We did make strawberry and blueberry jam last year, but not pickles! We missed the season!) But this year, we've made it a point of picking up the ripe fruit of the week and making something fun with it. (We still have apple and pear season, as well as garlic and asparagus season, to enjoy yet!)

I think it's because we have so many wonderful local markets offering wonderful local produce, and there is such a taste difference between a cob of corn picked last week and one picked this morning! I can't believe how fantastic the peaches taste this week compared to last week, all because they had a little longer on the tree. We are so fortunate to live in the Valley where the food is plentiful! I get my eggs from my massage therapist (the chickens are so free range, they can end up wandering around her back garden), my veggies and fruits from the side of the road or from my local market, and my bread from my talented husband, who gets his flour from a local mill. I've always liked the idea of eating local, but if you read the book or watch the TV series, it seems like a lot of hard and annoying work! When friends drop by with a salmon they caught that morning or some corn picked that morning, that's not work - that's yummy!

We always invite our friends over for a jamming day, and for dinner, we have some kind of communal meal, like a crab boil (last week) or fajitas (tonight). It's a wonderful way to end a great day!

If you're looking for some recipes, we've been using two books - Put It Up and Well Preserved - as well as the B.C. (fruit name here) council. Bernardin, the makers of the jars, has some great recipes, and there are tons of ideas on line.

As an aside, Gina (a lovely reader of this blog) made me the most wonderful apron out of green gingham with a towel hanging from it so I can wipe my hands. I've been using it for formulating in the workshop, but it's been spending time in the kitchen with the jams, jellies, and other preserves. It's getting well used and well loved, and I can't thank you enough, Gina, for the kindness. I'll have to take a picture of it so you can see how well loved it is! 

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My bloody big (not really) ice cream

Being lactose intolerant is hardest in the summer - ice cream - and the winter - egg nog - and those lactase tablets do nothing for me (and yes, I've tried the Ultra Lactaid with no success). So Raymond went on a quest to find an iced treat I could enjoy without the agony and embarrassment that can arise when Susan and milk meet!

Behold the beauty that is my bloody big ice cream, a tradition my father started. I like soy ice cream, but it's usually too hard for a cone, but Raymond created a strawberry yogurt treat that doesn't cause me agony. He made up a lovely strawberry sorbet last week, but it went so fast, I couldn't get pictures!

We've made a lot of iced treats this year since purchasing the ice cream maker for the Kitchenaid at Christmas time. We've found the best recipes come from this book, The Perfect Scoop, and there are lots of non-dairy recipes for my fellow lactards. We've tried the custard ice cream - awesome because my massage therapist has lots of eggs and it's less milk based for me - as well as the cheesecake ice cream, and they have all been amazing! I can't say enough about this book!

I'm actually okay with not having ice cream or cheesecake or things like that because it's a category of food I've never really enjoyed because of the digestive problems they cause, and there are so many lactose free yogurts out now so I can enjoy my probiotics like everyone else. So it's not normally a big deal, but homemade ice cream...well, that's just awesome! 

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