Have I mentioned that Farmer Bill is a stickler for waiting until his apples are perfectly ripe before he picks them?
Here's what we use to help us make that decision -- along with taste tests of course!
The apple season is nearly upon us. When Will & Aimee were here on Sunday we went into the orchard to look things over. The Zestar! have gained a lot of size and are starting to turn red. The Honeycrisp were not thinned enough -- so there will be a lot of them. But it remains to be seen what that lack of thinning does to the size and flavor of the apples. It's time to turn the apple sorter on and make sure all the parts are working.
It looks like we'll have about as many apples this year as we did 2 years ago -- when we sold apples well into November. Having enough Honeycrisp to sell at markets through the month of October is very important because it is our most popular apple & draws people in. If they want to make pies, freeze, or can we can sell them apples for that at the same time, but Honeycrisp is the apple of choice for fresh eating. We'll be short on the Sweet Sixteen, which didn't set well at all, and short on the Ginger Gold, which is our 2nd best early apple and very popular with people who have tried it. We'll only have enough of our newest apple, SweeTango, to make a tasting for us and a few lucky friends, family, and customers. But considering that the trees were planted only last year (2010), it's pretty incredible to have any at all.
But first we have to get through August -- which means sweet corn and cantaloupe -- grown to fill the gap between strawberry season and apple season. And, of course, tomatoes. Farmer Bill loves tomatoes, but is still working out the logistics of growing them. If he ever nails it, they'll be another good interim crop because Minnesotans crave tomatoes all winter and go crazy for the first on the markets. He found a very good tasting variety this year -- we really like the flavor. But the extreme heat caused growth problems for them in the hoop house, and the extreme amounts of rain caused problems in the field. While we can't adjust the weather, we can adjust how we react to it, and next year Farmer Bill will have a little more knowledge to help him out.
Jam is possibly the easiest thing to preserve. I've made enough jam now that I can do it almost without thinking about it. So it was fun to invite my daughter-in-law over to participate in making a batch of blueberry jam on Sunday afternoon. She had asked about learning to can this summer, we both turned up free on the same day, and I had some blueberries that needed to be put up, so it worked out perfectly.
I'm working this summer with a new pectin product that allows one to make jams using lots less sugar than traditional pectin, and to double or triple recipes. So we made 11 cups of blueberry jam using only 2 1/4 cups of sugar. A traditional low sugar pectin would have needed 5-6 cups of sugar for the same batch of jam. I'm excited to try using this pectin on the peaches that are coming in next week. Last year I made peach jam that was very good but very sweet even though I used a low sugar recipe. This year I'm hoping to be able to make a peach jam that lets the peach flavor really shine through.
What does a family of two do with all of this jam you ask? Homemade jam is a gift to many neighbors, friends, and family over the course of the year. I love to give it away, but always make sure to keep enough for Farmer Bill (and me) to eat, especially our personal favorite, raspberry. If there is ever a little farm stand on the farm I will consider making extra jam to sell. Homemade jams at farmers' markets bring pretty good prices, and I expect we could get a good price at a farm store, too. And if I can double or triple my recipes -- and use much less sugar -- my costs are lower in both time and materials.
Huh, I just looked out the window to see that there is a gorgeous sunset happening. I think I'll go watch it...
Okay, I really should be working right now and not writing, but here I am.
The first field of Jubilee sweet corn came in, so I have 3-4 dozen ears that I made Farmer Bill leave behind for me to freeze. Freezing corn is pretty easy, but messy and sticky. Fortunately we haven't mopped the kitchen floor for several weeks, so I can get the whole mess in one go after I'm done with the corn.
There's also a box of blueberries in the downstairs refrigerator that need to be dealt with. I have made Farmer Bill his favorite Blueberry Buckle a few times, and he's had blueberry pancakes many mornings. But they won't keep forever. Jam or syrup is in their future... and one more big Buckle.
The week after next the peaches come from Colorado -- that's been a treat the past few years & this year we're getting 3 boxes. There's nothing like eating a really tasty peach in the middle of the winter to make you forget the cold outside.
Soon we'll have enough tomatoes that Farmer Bill will let me can some. The market has been so good for tomatoes that he's wanted to sell everything that ripens. The late spring and wet summer has made it a poor year overall for tomatoes, and they look pretty ugly. But we ate all of our canned tomatoes from last year, and the last jars of salsa from 2 years ago, so I really have to make more this year. Fortunately, tomatoes keep going until frost, so I don't have to worry about them quite yet.
I enjoy filling up the freezer and the storeroom shelves with good things to eat. I enjoy it even more because we have air conditioning! The amount of heat and steam created to preserve food is unbelievable. I have huge admiration for people who are able to work in extreme heat. Mostly I just get crabby. And for some reason it's always hot when it's time to put up food. Sort of like making hay. Do you know the phrase "Make hay while the sun shines"? Farmers always make hay when the sun shines -- rain on your cut hay makes it mold and decreases the nutrients. So it's generally sunny and hot when you cut the hay, rake it (turn it over so it dries evenly), and bale. And the hayloft of a barn (or the top of our machine shed addition) is always hotter than outside. Stacking bales is an art. Farmer Bill grew up stacking bales every summer. I did not. I have learned a lot & am pretty good, but I don't have the upper body strength to throw bales effectively -- and we just stack straw bales, which weigh about half of what a hay bale weighs! I have stacked straw in heat over 100 degrees -- and lived to tell the tale. But I much prefer to put up food in a relatively cool, clean kitchen. Fortunately for me, Farmer Bill loves to eat, so he's happy to have me putter about canning.
That's enough for now, going to get started on the corn.
