Category Archives: preserving

Maple Bourbon Blackberries

4 September 2011 by local kitchen

Are blackberries still available in New York? I don’t know, but it seems doubtful, especially after Irene. What I do know is that nearly a week without internet access didn’t do much for the backlog of preserving recipes I’ve been meaning to share with you. I either need to post every day for a couple of weeks or save some of them for next year. Given the backlog of fruit & vegetables cluttering up my kitchen counters, waiting for their own spot in […]

Categories: berries, canning, preserves, preserving, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Irene’s Jam

2 September 2011 by local kitchen

Hands up who lost power during Irene? Yep, me too. In a way, we are lucky: given that the combination of NYSEG and Westchester County = power outages at least once a week during winter, we are well-prepared to lose our electricity. We have a gas stovetop, that just requires lighting with a match during a power outage; a propane fireplace to heat the house in cold weather; candles and flashlights a-plenty; and generally a few gallons of water in […]

Categories: berries, canning, citrus, cranberries, jams, preserving, rhubarb, year round • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, hurricane, irene, local, preserving, recipes

Wild Blueberry Jam with Mint

27 August 2011 by local kitchen

I know what you’re thinking: blueberries are long gone from these parts, right? Well, I’ll be willing to bet that there are still some out there (although they may well be completely done after this weekend’s Big Blow). And it is still wild blueberry season in Maine (in fact, I’m also willing to bet that there are enterprising Mainers out in the fields right now, raking for all they’re worth, in advance of the storm). The blueberries I used in […]

Categories: berries, canning, foraging, jams, mint, preserving, summer, wild foods • Tags: berries, blueberry, canning, cooking, food, jam, local, preserving, recipes

Chile Blackberry Syrup (+ Bonus Spicy Booze!)

22 August 2011 by local kitchen

I’ve wanted to try this chile blackberry syrup from Heidi for ages: last year’s blackberry harvest was a bust, so I filed the recipe away in my bookmarks and waited, longingly, for August to roll around once more. The blink of an eye (and a whole lotta blog posts) later, August is here once again, and I’ve been up to Greig Farm in Red Hook twice, with Miss Julia, picking and picking and picking, determined to squirrel away as much […]

Categories: berries, canning, hot chile peppers, preserving, sauces • Tags: berries, canning, chiles, condiments, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Blackberry Lemon Preserves

18 August 2011 by local kitchen

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve headed north to meet Julia, with munchkin in tow, at Greig Farm in Red Hook, NY to pick blackberries. It’s a large farm, spread out across rolling hills, and a beautiful one: acres and acres of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and apples, as far as the eye can see. We’ve been lucky enough to pick bright & sunny days, yet there is always a breeze on the blackberry hill: it’s really a pleasant place to […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, citrus, preserves, preserving, summer • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Marinated Green Bell Peppers

13 August 2011 by local kitchen

Yes, you read that correctly: marinated green bell peppers. Because you know what comes before red bell peppers? Green bell peppers. All peppers start out green: it takes time (and sunshine, love, devotion and a near-pathological desire to fend off every bug in creation) for the peppers to turn red. A lot of time. Like we are lucky if we see local red bell peppers before September. The one (1!) I managed to grow two years ago was still out […]

Categories: bell pepper, canning, condiments, preserving, summer • Tags: berries, canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Rhubarb Blueberry Pie Filling

4 August 2011 by local kitchen

Last week, when I was valiantly trying to Jenga yet another head of kale into the fridge, I reached the familiar summer breaking point: “something’s got to go.” Turns out the most likely culprit was a partially-snacked-on quart of blueberries from the farmer’s market and a couple of pounds of rhubarb, found, and pounced upon in joy, just a few days before at Holbrook Farm. Did you know that a well-managed rhubarb plot can keep growing right into August, and sometimes into […]

Categories: berries, canning, pie, preserving, summer • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes, rhubarb, summer

10-Minute Sour Cherry Bam!

31 July 2011 by local kitchen

You would think I would learn. (You would be wrong.) After my last run-in with shriveled fingertip sour cherries, I decided to make another attempt at cherry jam, this time just a straight-up sour cherry (a little bit of lemon, a little bit of sugar) and a minimal maceration, overnight, banking on the fact that it was the week-long maceration that caused the color-leach in my last sour cherry preserving attempt. Well, don’t take that piece of preserving wisdom to […]

Categories: 100% local, cherries, jams, preserves, preserving, quick & easy, summer • Tags: cherries, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Blueberry Vodka

22 July 2011 by local kitchen

Another beat-the-heat recipe, this one in the fruit + booze category (always a winner): blueberry vodka. Ice, ice (baby) cold blueberry vodka. This one couldn’t be easier and is a perfect way to preserve those blueberries you picked last weekend but haven’t been able to bear turning on the stove to jam. Easy-peasy: dump them in some vodka and call it a day. Some of the quickest, and tastiest, preserving you’ll ever do. My “recipe” was inspired by Sean of Punk […]

Categories: berries, drink, preserving, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: berries, booze, food, infusions, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Sour Cherry, Balsamic and Vanilla: Syrup & Leather

18 July 2011 by local kitchen

The all-too-short cherry season was even shorter in the Hudson Valley this year: many farms lost most, if not all, of their entire crop due to a rainy Spring preventing pollination (bees do not buzz about doing their pollinating duties in the rain), and causing fruit to drop and split. I managed to squeeze some cherry picking into a busy 4th of July weekend but I traveled far afield to do so, to Belltown Hill Orchards in Glastonbury, CT (thanks to @fixmeasnack on […]

Categories: cherries, drying, preserving, snack, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes, summer

Strawberry Jam with Mint, Basil & Habanero

10 July 2011 by local kitchen

It’s cruel to do this to you, I know, since strawberries are long gone in most parts of America. But I still have some fresh, local strawberries in the fridge (albeit they are starting to look a little peaky), and they are just coming into full season for our friends in the North. If you are one of the lucky ones that still has fresh strawberries in your neighborhood, or one of the industrious ones who put-up a few pounds in […]

Categories: basil, berries, canning, hot chile peppers, jams, mint, preserving • Tags: berries, canning, chiles, food, local, preserving, recipes, strawberries

Strawberry: Whole Berry Preserves

4 July 2011 by local kitchen

I know that most of you are beyond strawberry season and are thinking about blueberries, raspberries and even peaches; however, life got in the way of my strawberry ambitions this year and I just managed to squeak some picking into the tail end of the New York season. Because we were at the very end of the season, we ended up picking a lot of teeny, tiny strawberries: larger ones were already picked, or had rotted on the ground, but […]

Categories: berries, canning, preserves, preserving, spring, summer • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, local, pasta, preserving, recipes, strawberries

Rhubarb & Black Currant Jam

30 May 2011 by local kitchen

I feel like some tout in a seedy doorway, at once bored and alert, tossing out my banter with practiced skill, repetitious yet intriguing, tacky yet titillating. Except, instead of GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!, the neon sign over my head blinks RHUBARB! RHUBARB! RHUBARB! “Come on and get your rhubarb heAH, just one taste my lovlies, just one taste, it’s sweet, it’s sour, it’s tangy and tingly, step right up now, step right up!” Maybe I should just throw in the towel on […]

Categories: canning, currants, jams, preserving, rhubarb, spring, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, currants, food, jam, local, preserving, quince, recipes, rhubarb

Rhubarbaritas

27 May 2011 by local kitchen

From me to you: an easy-peasy preserving recipe, a fancy cocktail for holiday-weekend fun, and a way to enjoy rhubarb long after it has disappeared from the market and the garden. It’s been a busy, busy time here in the last few weeks. Tai has been working overtime, trying to make up for all the lost outdoor time during our incredibly rainy April, and I’ve been drowning in a particularly knotty data analysis with a deadline of earlier this week. Yesterday, […]

Categories: canning, condiments, preserving, rhubarb, spring, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cocktails, cooking, drinks, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb

Strawberry Pinot Noir Preserves

16 May 2011 by local kitchen

The Great Freezer Clean-Out 2011 continues: this time with a Ferber-esque strawberry preserve, made with Pennsylvania pinot noir from Sand Castle Winery. I unearthed a giant bag full of strawberries from last June in my freezer assessment of last week. Half the bag went to one of my favorite strawberry recipes, strawberry rhubarb & caramelized onion jam; for the remaining 2 pounds, I wanted to do something new. I poked through Mes Confitures to see what she may have in […]

Categories: berries, canning, preserves, preserving, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: canning, cooking, dessert, food, jam, local, preserving, recipes, spring, strawberries