Someone gave me two half-bushel baskets of sugar plums the other day. They made 6 cases of delicious plum jam. I’ve never used them before.
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Six cases!!! That’s a lot of work. I know it’s worth it
Although there are no plums in this recipe, that makes me think of this.
Turns out I got there just before the birds. Several fruit were pecked this morning!
THEY’RE watching ME!
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It was hands down our favorite pickle last year, blowing cukes out of the water. We did a sweet and spicy version, and we used raw green beans. Poured a hot pickling liquid over them after we stuffed the jars, and then did a hot water bath. Shelf stable. So good. My green bean crop totally busted this year, but I’m planning on buying a bunch at my farm stand, just so I can pickle them again.
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So jealous! I adore pluots, and think they are better than either of their parents. I love them just how you seem to - sweet, tart, and crunchy! I live near-ish to Lambchop, and we do not have the climate to grow them at all. Also, regarding your pestilent word - a little anecdote. I was back and forthing several years ago over email with some family on their, ehem, vote for President. And I was spitting mad and so were they. And I wrote a restrained-ish (could have been worse) email including “vitriol” in it. A year or so later, when we were talking again, they were all like, we hated your email but that word is awesome. We had to look it up. We love it. Which was kind of funny, in an otherwise sad and pathetic exchange.
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Yes! Husband especially, is about the texture.
I’m putting using the word vitriol on my list. I have a mask people vs no mask people email going with some family. Argh.
Yes! So glad your pickled beans turned out well; I’d take them anyday over cucumber pickles, also love pickled asparagus and okra.
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Omg, we planted asparagus crowns in the wettest and shadiest part of our garden, which didn’t work so well. But that’s where they are now, and we’ll only collect maybe 20-30 spears per season to eat. Not enough to pickle. I tried to grow okra this year - first time. All the plants died. Apparently they don’t like to be rained on every day from May through mid June.
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Think our okra was a big fail too, this year probably 1st time we planted it. There’s a reason they eat it in the south a lot…it grows there!
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This was a very wet spring and summer in our (collective) parts though. I’ll try again next year.
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Yes, it’s part of the gardeners creed. Never thought we’d be able to grow decent tomatoes here, but we’ve prevailed!! 
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Just getting my very first tomatoes out this week. Stupice. Not sure they taste so great. A little watery, which is weird because it’s been dry lately. I planted a variety of green cherry tomato, and usually the cherries are always ripe first, but not these. I also noticed my tomatoes are doing either quite nicely or not well at all depending on the bed I put them in. The not so great are in a bed where I grew tomatoes the last 2 years also, so I’m wondering if they’ve depleted the soil. Despite us adding a mound of compost every spring.
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Put your coffee grounds & eggshells in your tomato beds. They love the acid & the calcium makes them extra sweet.
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Funny, I did both this year. So I have to guess that 3 yrs in a row is too many to plant the same plant in the same place.
Although I did it for different reasons - coffee to keep away the slugs and eggshells to prevent blossom end rot.
I bet that would make an awesome granita.
Here’s a recipe from a restaurant, which I loved.
1 gallon rice wine vinegar
1.25 gallons water
6 oz salt
3 oz sugar
about 2 tbsp spices wrapped in cheesecloth (cardamom, black pepper,
cloves, allspice, star anise, mustard seed, chile flakes)
1/2 cup peeled garlic cloves
Bring rice wine and water to a boil, add salt & sugar till dissolved.
Add spice package and garlic cloves and boil 25 minutes. Pour over trimmed veggies (this amount of vinegar makes about 12 quarts of veggies). Use a plate and a can of tomatoes to keep veggies in liquid.
Let sit at room temperature until it cools to room temperature. Cover.
Put in refrigerator and let sit for a week. Holds for a total of 30 days.
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Might have to color it up a bit with a natural food coloring, but thanks for the idea; in fact, I could probably reduce the juice a bit to get more punch out of it! Now you’ve got me thinking…@ChristinaM.
I’m about to make some plot jam. I usually use this Cooks Illustrated idea, but it is not suitable for canning.
I also usually cut up the fruit and macerate the first day, and then finish the next.
When I preserve figs, I use an Edna Lewis method that includes macerating fruit, and I especially like it because I can stretch it out over days.
Less overwhelming and less of a whole day project, but it keeps a very long time in my fridge.
I’m wondering if there is a method that includes macerating, but produces something that keeps a long time. Fresh fruit taste and less sugar would be nice too.
Does anyone know a method for does the same with stone fruit?
Freezer jam might work, but I don’t really understand what makes something suit for freezing.
Maybe this one.
I’m also going to check my Ball book.
From one of the links;
" * HOME
Canning 101: Can I Reduce the Sugar?
February 19, 2015 / 49 Comments
Like so many of these Canning 101 posts, I’m writing this one to address one of the questions I am frequently asked. I’ve covered this topic as part of larger blog posts before, so if you’re a long-time reader, some of this may be familiar. But it felt like time to pull out this question specifically in the hopes of helping people find the information more easily.
So often, people look at one of my recipes and see the volume of sugar it calls for and have something of a heart attack thinking about all those cups. And so, they write in to ask, “can I safely reduce the amount of sugar in this recipe?”
The answer is that you can always safely reduce the amount of sugar in a recipe, because sugar doesn’t make things safe. The only thing that makes a jam, jelly or other sweet preserve safe for canning in a boiling water bath canner is the acid content, because that’s what prevents any potential botulism growth.
However, when you reduce the amount of sugar in a recipe, you can compromise that preserve’s shelf life, yield, and ability to set up.
Sugar is a powerful preservative, because once you have a certain concentration of sugar in a recipe, the sugar sucks up all the available water. Mold and bacteria need water in order to develop, and if there’s no water available, they cannot grow.
This is why preserves with higher amounts of sugar hold their quality longer than lower sugar preserves. As long as you’re okay with a somewhat decreased shelf life and a relatively short lifespan once the jar has been opened, then go ahead and reduce the sugar."
Is there more I should know about this?
I have probably posted this before, but it bears repeating. Botulism is quite rare. The reason it comes up so often in discussions of food preservation is that the bacteria is rather hard to kill. If you follow procedures that are adequate to protect you from botulism you are also protected from all the other bacteria that contribute to food poisoning. Botulism is the extreme case if you will. Don’t lower your guard, but don’t let botulism keep you up at night either.
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