sugar shack

it started as a "what the heck-- why not give it a try?" sort of project.  after returning from a lovely afternoon workshop at hinkle farmstead with cosmo, learning how to tap maple trees and boil down

syrup, i began gazing at the giant maple tree in our front yard with renewed interest. 

turns out, she's a sugar maple! and, she is HUGE. so i picked up a food-grade, five-gallon bucket, plus a small (2.5 qt) metal bucket at a hardware store. i was relieved to find i had a drill bit big enough to make a hole in the metal bucket, large enough to fit over the tap i took home from the workshop (also called a spile). then we found a good spot to tap the tree (cosmo helped me select it) and we drilled our hole. cosmo and i hammered the tap into the hole, hung the bucket on the hook and waited for the sap to start dripping.

 

the ideal temperatures for sap flow are nights in the twenties, days in the forties. we started getting exactly that range, and the sap was flowing. for days, weeks, we emptied our little bucket into our big bucket 'til we had 5 gallons of sap. then we boiled that down to about 1.5 gallons. after we collected 5 more gallons, we boiled that bucket down to about a gallon. we stored the jars of concentrate in the root cellar portion of our basement until we were ready to finish it.

yesterday, we combined the two concentrates and finished the syrup. all day liquid simmered on the stove, steamed up our windows, moistened the walls and sweetened the air. after returning from our evening walk to dinner and back, we started the final stage. we transfered the reduced sap to a smaller pan, filtering it through some clean felted wool, then started boiling non stop, and taking the temperature every 5 minutes.

unless you have a hydrometer, which measures the sugar content of liquids, the only way you know your syrup is finished is the boiling temperature. as the water evaporates, the boiling temperature increases. you will have about a 66% sugar content when the syrup is boiling at 219F (7 degrees above the boiling temperature of water). after nearly days of uneventful boiling, this last phase moves rather quickly, and you have to be vigilant to prevent you syrup from scorching (can you imagine the devastation, after all that effort?!). the guy who taught our workshop suggested gluing your shoes to the floor in front of the stove. that is pretty much what carl and i did. i kept sticking my mitt-covered hand into the pot with the digital thermometer to check the temperature. we have a candy thermometer, but it is not precise enough. "somewhat over 200" is too vague for maple sugaring. when we finally hit 219, we quickly removed the syrup from the stove and poured it through the felt filter again, into clean jars.



we ended up with 1 quart plus 12oz from 10 gallons of raw sap. we only expected to get about a quart, so we were thrilled! the finished syrup is dark, rich and delicious, in fact, after trying some on a stack of pancakes this morning, cosmo declared it the "best syrup in the world." time to go hug a tree.

 

currantly

as mentioned before, we are in the throes of summer berry picking, which also means canning. so far we have done two batches of mulberry jam, a mixed batch of serviceberry jam and sour cherry preserves, and most recently, red currant jelly. last year, i was impressed with the sparkle of the crab apple jelly, but the currants take the cake when it comes to beauty.



my photography skills are not adequate to capture the crimson glow of these lovelies, as they drip from the branch in grape-like clusters. the red is so red, and the translucence makes them seem somehow magical.


cosmo preferred frisbee golf to currant picking, but it sure made him thirsty.

i love the taste of a red currant, and certainly prefer them to the black currant for flavor, but they are a bit tart for most people's tastes, and thus, should be treated with sugar. i am still learning about how to make jams and jellies that feature the unique flavor of the particular fruit, but often they just end up tasting like fruity sugar.


we used the jelly bag this time, instead of the the victorino strainer, because i didn't want to take a chance on the juice being cloudy.

i use pomona's pectin, so that i can use less sugar, and that helps. with the currants, they have enough of their own pectin, so no need to add any, but i was hesitant to deviate from the recipe for fear that it would taste too sour, or worse, not jell as it was supposed to. when i use the pomona pectin, i just follow the recipe on the box, which has very short cooking times, and requires no "jell test." it almost always turns out just right. but with the currant recipe, i had to do do a jell test to find out if it was ready. this involves dipping a cold spoon into the cooking jelly, and then watching the drip, to see if it forms two drops than run together, and then break off in a sheet. i find this process maddening. i had to do it over and over and over again, forever cleaning spoons, putting more in the freezer, testing, freezing, testing and all the while constantly stirring the bejeweled boiling liquid. finally i got something that sort of fit that description, and i turned off the heat and poured the stuff into the jars. all that boiling, and i was left with just less than four small jelly jars.



four small, glistening, gorgeous, jelly jars, that is. that taste mostly like fruity sugar. but have ya ever seen a red like that, with NO food coloring added? (okay, well, imagine it a deeper, richer, more vibrant red than what is showing up here. i promise you, it is an astonishing shade of red.)

we are fast approaching peak black raspberry season. there are more berries to be picked, and more jammin' in store for this household. what's ripe where you are?

is it summer yet?

peas are poppin' off the vine, and into happy little bellies.



sour cherries are red on the trees, and delicious in pies.



june berries turned purple, one day early (may 31).



mulberries stain the roads, and make a lovely jam.



cosmo and i dropped everything and ran four blocks to the park, as soon as we heard the jingle of the ice cream truck.

i think it might be summer now.

justin recently gave us this nikki mclure book: mama, is it summer yet? which so perfectly fit the moment--the season where spring glides into summer, and carl and i drag cosmo through the neighborhood to forage for fruit.



canning season is ON at our house. we processed 10 jars of mulberry jam, made simpler with the fabulous victorio strainer that carl's parents passed onto us this year (a product very similar to the one we have, was recently featured here, and since our happy homestead sponsored one of my favorite bloggers, i'd suggest going there first, IF you are in the market for one of these awesome, hand powered machines).

sour cherries are my absolute favorite fruit (until red raspberry season), there's nothing like the flavor, and they hang so perfectly on the branch, blemish free. sweet cherries may be better, for eating-out-of-hand, but the sweet varieties that grow around here seem to struggle with all sorts of diseases and molds, so that by the time they are ripe enough to pick, most are not fit to eat. plus, there is no better pie than a sour cherry pie, and you know how i love to make pie. i attempted a lattice top for the first time, and was pleased with the results. one pie went to a community orchard work party, for inspiration. the other, i brought to a cookout.
the june berries (also known as serviceberries, pictured below) will probably end up in jelly.



welcome summer fruits! welcome summer!



tips for local folks: the cherry tree can be found at walnut and dodds. june/serviceberry trees line the parking lot at the mall, behind macy's, and are also in the parking lot near von lee, on kirkwood and indiana, downtown. as for mulberries? well, find the stains in the road, and look up. they are everywhere!

mouth on fire

now i know what to do with fist-fulls of cilantro when it has over-wintered, and is huge and bolting, and there are no tomatoes or peppers available to make salsa. i made a cilantro and mint chutney from madhur jaffrey's world vegetarian cookbook, and WOW was it yummy.



i snuck into jack's garden across the street, and snagged a bit of his mint (which he has in abundance, trust me), and used one of the dried hot chiles we have hanging in our kitchen (which came, originally, from some other neighbors). this chutney was plenty hot, and worked really nicely against the spicy/sweet peach chutney i canned last fall. i made my favorite curried cauliflower dish, as a vehicle for the chutneys, and we had it on a nice jasmine rice with some not-so-great store-bought naan. that little dollop of greek yogurt did little to put out the fire in my mouth. a meal like that leaves me feeling slightly euphoric. thank you, capsicum.

here's the recipe:

Delhi-Style Cilantro and Mint Chutney
Hari Chutney

From World Vegetarian, by Madhur Jaffrey

Jaffrey's note: ...Generally, when we use cilantro, we use only the leaves. Here you may use the slender stems as well. The same applies to the mint. This chutney may be kept in the refrigerator for at least 2 days, but it is best the day it is made.

2 well-packed cups fresh cilantro
3/4 well-packed cup fresh mint
3 to 4 fresh hot green chiles (or 1 good, hot dried chile)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Generous pinch of ground asafetida
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Combine all the ingredients as well as 1/2 cup of water in a blender (or small food processor). Blend, stopping and pushing down with a rubber spatula whenever necessary, until you have a smooth paste.
Makes about 1 cup.

[i missed that part about the 1/2 cup of water, which may be why mine didn't get as smooth as i would have liked. but no matter. it tasted great.]

tastes like summer

fresh, local summer fruits are months away. good thing we stocked up last summer. lately, i have been digging into the pantry and the freezer, and throwing together the most delicious fruit galettes (basically, a rustic pie).



this one is made with frozen blueberries that cosmo and i picked last june, plus some peach jam we made from local peaches, at the peak of the season. i have also been known to sneak in some gleaned pears that we have preserved in a fancy liqueur called eau de vie.

as far as i'm concerned, anytime is pie time.

blog action day: climate change*

i'll be frank: i think it's a lost cause. fighting climate change. too late. we've known about the greenhouse effect since i was a little kid--AT LEAST! the situation was dire THEN. drastic action had to be taken immediately to even hope to begin to reverse the trends. instead, it has only gotten worse. and will clearly continue to do so. a new study shows that much of the arctic ice cap will be melted in summer months-- within TEN YEARS, and that the arctic will be an open sea in the next 20-30 years!



so...? that is just the way it is. we are humans, we belong to this earth, we are creatures of this planet, and this is what we do. this is what we have done. if, as creatures of this planet, we take elements of the earth, and manipulate and use them in such a way that they make the earth unlivable for most of the beings that currently in habit it-- if we humans take actions that lead to the destruction of the environment, such that humans can no longer live on earth, so be it. the earth will go on without us, and the adapted ecosystem that evolves will be something else. something we don't get to know about.

it seems arrogant to me, to believe that it is all about us. or, all about our perspective. or, that we think we can control global climate change, or that we think the worst thing in the world would be the extinction of human beings. if we make our planet uninhabitable, then we cease to exist. and i hate to admit it, but i am kind-of okay with that. well, what choice do i have? this is reality. it is simply too late to stop global warming.

i am not at all happy about any of this. i accept it, but it is, nonetheless, still heartbreaking. i dread the loss of the polar bear, the flooding of cities, and i know that the people in the lowest economic classes will suffer first, and suffer the most. it is not fair, it is not just, but it is what we have done, and it seems absurd to think that sticking a piece of newspaper in a recycling bin is going to change this global truth.

but... i still recycle everything that can be recycled, re-use packaging of various sorts, shop almost exclusively at thrift stores and yard sales for clothes and other household items. i buy and glean local food when i can, and preserve much of it for the winter months, in order to eat locally all year. i garden organically, and i compost. i ride my bike for in-town transportation--often (not always), and i bring my own bags to the grocery store.



i figure, as long as humans are still living on this earth, might as well enjoy what we still have.






*i bet i'll never be asked to write about climate change again).

autumnal clichés

there's nothing like living in houston texas, for nearly a decade, to make one appreciate the splendor of the 4 seasons. when we were living in houston, carl's friend michael (of mike & patty's fame) once sent him an email in october that facetiously suggested he must be enjoying all the wonders of fall: bulky sweaters, apple picking, the rosy-cheeks of the school children...
it's still hot and sticky down there, well into october, but now that we live in the mid-west, we actually do get to experience these seasonal markers. for instance, on sunday, we went apple picking.



the trees were low, and easy for little ones to reach, but since the coveted jonathan variety was almost gone, we still got to do a little bit of searching, to find those precious few that remained. then we filled our bag with golden delicious, and red delicious, and topped it all off with a caramel apple from the quaint little country store.



we used most of the bag for applesauce, which we canned last night. cosmo went through so much of that last winter, i think we'll need to do another batch.



it is so simple: just cut apples in quarters, stick 'em in the biggest pot you can find, with a little bit of water. cook until soft enough to mash with a potato masher (stirring to prevent scorching), then run them through your handy-dandy food mill, to remove the skins and seeds. after that, you just ladle the sauce into the sterilized jars, add a little lemon juice on top (to prevent discoloration), seal the jars, and put into the boiling-water canning bath for 20 minutes. that's it. pure, homemade, nothin-but-apples-applesauce. yum.



we have also been gleaning the fallen pears from a lovely neighborhood tree. one night, we made a crisp, from the pears, plus some black raspberries we had from earlier in the season. it was heavenly. we'll probably try some pear chutney, or perhaps pear butter? any other pear ideas out there?

a place for everything (and everyone)

i may have mentioned that cosmo likes to put things where they belong. i wouldn't say he is obsessive about it (yet) but he seems to find great satisfaction in knowing where an item lives, and returning it to its home. i like that too. every time i move into a new place (which i have done a LOT of in my 40+ years) i have a renewed fantasy of finally having a place for everything. i know i could manage all the stuff i drag around, if i could just get it organized. and, i must say, over the years, and moves, i have made great strides. my art supplies, for instance, are compartmentalized. i have a bin labeled "glue and glue guns" one called "small paints and ink" a bin dedicated to "tape," i have a drawer with only small boxes, to be decorated, or otherwise crafted into something wonderful. so, it is not all fantasy.



recently, i have found an activity for cosmo and i that puts these "everything in its place" skills to use. we have been going to mother hubbard's cupboard one afternoon each week, to help stock the pantry shelves. MHC's food pantry is a wonderful place. the premise is to offer food to people in need, in a grocery store-like environment, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. the criteria for shopping there is simple: you can shop if you don't have enough money to eat, and it operates mostly on an honor system. they serve an average of 1,878 people per week.



they also offer workshops on nutrition, gardening, and food preservation, and host an in-store lending library and resource shelf. many customers are also volunteers, and the result is an inclusive, close-knit, supportive community.



i wasn't sure, at first, if cosmo would enjoy it or not. i should have guessed that he would quickly get into the groove of taking items out of boxes, and placing them neatly on the shelves, in perfect rows, with the labels facing out. sometimes he likes to create elaborate systems of handing things up to me (if the shelf is too high) which may not be as "helpful," but it is cooperative, and engaging for both of us. he also likes to sort the recycling, and help tidy up before the shoppers arrive.



i thought he might get distracted by the food, and only want to taste things. this is often what happens when he "helps" me cook. but he understood early on, that we are just organizing the food, for other people, and he's fine with that. i also worried his interest would wane after a half hour or so, but he really likes being there, never wants to leave early, and cries if we can't make it to our shift. i am not sure if he gets the concept of "helping people," i think he just likes the idea of working, and of being needed, in a setting that is not his home. the staff are so welcoming, we both felt like part of the family right away.

it has been great for me too. i'm forming new friendships, and i had the chance to share my passion for local food preservation, by co-teaching their canning and jamming workshops last week. we've also passed on some of our excess produce from the garden, as part of the plant a row for the hungry program. i am grateful to live in such a vibrant community, and to have the opportunity to contribute.

mash

Homemade Baby Food Making Workshop
Presented by cake



Saturday, September 12, 2009 @1:00
at Barefoot Herbs
$8.00 per adult
615 W. Kirkwood Ave. Bloomington
Phone: 812.339.5090

New parents often don’t believe they have the time or energy to make food for their baby. But homemade baby food is easier than you think. It costs less than store-bought, and is certainly more nutritious. We will discuss the benefits of making your own baby food, demonstrate techniques for preparing, preserving and storing your homemade baby food, share simple recipes and more.

Lap Babies Welcome! Must register and prepay in advance.