Bottling the Summer Harvest

It's harvest season and our garden is in full swing and then some. I was calculating our expenses for August this evening and I noticed a distinct absence/shortage of purchases at our local grocery store, which is not a bad thing, in fact, it's awesome.

We've been more than knee deep – actually closer to hip deep in cauliflower, broccoli, red, yellow, orange and green peppers. We've finally finished the swiss chard but the kale and collard greens are still going strong, actually I'm not sure what to do with ALL THOSE GREENS!

Our neighbors have stopped taking our calls and barely make eye contact with us these days; I guess they are afraid I'll wander over with another load of tomatoes/cucumbers or whatever I need to get rid of - let's just say we're having an amazing garden year.

Camille is still insisting on spending her free time in the garden sleeping under the pepper and tomato plants. When she can convince us, she wanders into the far reaches of the back yard, sometimes sauntering, sometimes leaping (when the grass is wet) to the highest spot in the yard so she can survey her/lands. To be honest it's hard to deny her anything. She is old, frail and still a sweet, sweet girl – most of the time.

I started my morning around 5:45 am with Camille sitting on my head, meowing in her own special way because, well she was hungry and it is my job to crawl out of bed at whatever time she chooses to feed her (note – Dan was up and not more than 20 feet from her food bowl – obviously he has other duties).

Since I was up, awake and ready for the day I decided to make another batch of tomato sauce – so I chopped, pureed, sautéed tomatoes, onions, herbs, 2 thai chili peppers and an entire head of garlic and let it boil down into a rich, red, tomato sauce – I can't wait for chili, zoodles with tomato sauce and soups this winter –it will be awesome.

Tonight I also found myself with 10 nectarines all ripening at the same time, so I decided to make freezer jam. I first learned about freezer jam from my friend Shane. I like jam but the whole water bath thing seemed complicated. Enter freezer jam no boiling, no canning apparatus just dice the fruit and add the sugar and lemon juice and cook.

You're probably thinking wait she forgot the pectin – no, no I did not. No pectin in this recipe. The thing about pectin is that it adds a sour flavor, which then requires you to add more sugar and to be honest when you are done the jam tastes like sugar, not the fruit.

Most fruits naturally have pectin but it's added to jams and jellies to speed up the process. Truth is if  you boil the fruit longer, the natural pectin is released and you have the same result with less sugar and more fruit!

I started with about 2.5 pounds of nectarines, which I seeded and chopped. To that I added the zest and juice from ½ of a lemon and ¾ cup of sugar. The original recipe called for 2 ½ cups of sugar, which seemed like way to much and the fruit was sweet and juicy so I started with ¾ and tasted it first and it was to my taste so I left the rest out. 

As it was cooking I decided to add some spices to give it an extra kick so I included 2 tsp of nutmeg and ¾ tsp. of cinnamon. I cooked it (stirring often to prevent scorching) for about 40 minutes and then poured it into 3 jars, screwed on the lids and popped them into the freezer. 

I love the color and chunkiness of the jam and the addition of the spices will make it a perfect spread on whole grain toast on a cold winter morning. If you have any jam recipes to share, send them my way - it's like bottling summer.