Preparing Garden Herbs for Freezer Storage

Gardening is a very special hobby.  You get to experience the entire process of life, from planting a seed and watching it sprout, to harvesting the crop and putting it up for the winter.  This is a very special thing, and I love doing it.

Today I'm sharing about what I do with some of my herbs--namely, parsley and basil.  These two herbs really, really liked my garden this year.  I don't know if it was the soil, the water, the organic fertilizer, or the bright sunny days, but they loved being out in my back yard and just grew like weeds.  But they're not weeds!  Here's one very small harvest of parsley, from part of just one parsley plant (I planted three):

I figured with the busy-ness of my summer, I should work in small batches so I wouldn't have to spend hours picking leaves and chopping them.  As it was, my chopping hand got pretty tired after a while with all this parsley.

Feel free to harvest your herbs, then place them in a vase or Mason jar of water until you're ready to use it or freeze it.  I rinse mine really well in cool water, then place in a Mason jar for a day or two until they're dried off.  They're much easier to work with when they're dry.

Once I'm ready to process the herbs--parsley, in this case--I pick the leaves off and put them in a bowl from which I can grab handfuls and chop.  Joseph is such a dear son and helps me with this, especially when it comes to my basil.

Then, working in small batches, I hand-chop the parsley.  Chop it as fine as you like.  I've also used my stick blender with the chopper cup attachment, and that works fine (except I don't like to do that with basil since it oxidizes and turns dark).  You could also use a food processor.

Then I put the parsley in a freezer container.  Below, I had already frozen some parsley (in the front of the box), and added the fresh stuff to it.  I don't have a frost-free freezer, so you can see the ice crystals that have formed on the parsley in the front.  That's okay, and I've always been able to use it.  This isn't freezer burn!

You can also place a tablespoon of herbs into each cube of an ice cube tray, and pour olive oil to cover.  You would freeze this, then pop out the cubes and store in a bag until you're ready to use them.  I'd rather freeze it straight, since I add parsley to hamburger meat, soups, and stews, and would rather not have the added oil.  But it's a great way to store if that works for you!


Back to life,
Christine

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Maple Berry Smooch | Canning With Agar Instead of Pectin

A new blog post in my continuing saga of agar experimentation.  :)

Here's the little bottle of agar powder I purchased from Fruitful Yield:

I ran out of agar I purchased from Country Life Natural Foods, the bulk dry goods food purchasing co-op that Fernando and I coordinate.  So in desperation, I drove the 25 minutes to Fruitful Yield and purchased more from them, since no one else, not even Whole Foods, seemed to carry it.  It was more expensive than the co-op price, but I needed it.

As far as using agar instead of pectin, please read this blog post.  It'll tell you about why I'm doing this, and the advantages of using agar over pectin.

The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving contains this recipe, called Maple Strawberry Smooch.  A smooch is a quick kiss, and you'll get a quick kiss of maple flavor when you taste this jam.

On one visit to Costco this summer, I discovered organic strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries.  Perfect!  I would change this recipe to Maple Berry Smooch and try it out with agar.

I must tell you that since apple juice is involved in this recipe, and apples are a natural source of pectin, you'll use less agar than is typically used.  I found this out the hard way.  My smooch is pretty solid, though still spreadable.  The neat thing about agar, though, is that it softens and liquifies when heated.  So I put a dollop of smooch in my hot oatmeal in the morning, add some chopped toasted almonds or other nut, top it with a drizzle of pure maple syrup, and yum yum.

Enough said about all that.  Here we go...

Maple Berry Smooch -- The Agar Way
Yields about 6 half-pint (8-oz.) jars.

4 3/4 cups pureed berries (I used strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries)
1 1/2 cups pure maple syrup (don't substitute!)
1 cup unsweetened apple juice
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons agar (powder or flakes)

Prepare canning pot, jars, and lids.  Fill the pot with water, put it on the stove and get the burner started.  It takes a long time to bring to a boil!  I place my canning jars (thoroughly washed/rinsed) into a dishwashing tub and fill it with really hot water.  My seals go into a bowl with boiling water poured on top.  I replace the water if it cools off during the time I'm preparing the jam.

In a large, stainless steel saucepan/pot, combine pureed berries, maple syrup, apple juice and lemon juice.  Bring all this to a boil over medium heat, and make sure you stir frequently so it doesn't burn at the bottom.

Once it comes to a boil, sprinkle in the agar powder, a teaspoonful or so at a time, whisking until it's blended in, then sprinkle another teaspoonful and whisk, until all the agar is incorporated into the mixture.  Keep this mixture at a simmer, stirring pretty much constantly for about 20 minutes.  When you first start this, stick a small dish in the freezer (this will help you test the jam for thickness toward the end of the simmer/stir process).  If your agar ends up in blobs, use a stick blender and blend them away right in the saucepan.  This works well, and I speak from first-hand experience.  :)  (Note:  I perfected this sprinkling method on the third canning attempt.)

At about the 15-minute mark in your simmering and stirring, spoon a bit of jam out and onto the dish, then return the dish to the freezer.  Wait 2-3 minutes, then take the dish out and run your finger through the jam.  It shouldn't be liquid; there should be a little firmness to it.  It will continue to thicken as you can it, and as it cools back down to room temperature.  That's what agar does.  :)  So be careful not to add too much!

If you think you need to add more agar, add maybe 1/2 to one teaspoon, sprinkling and whisking like before.  Continue the simmer/stir process until the 20 minutes are done.  I went over that time trying to figure out the thickness thing, so it's okay to do that; you don't have to be exactly precise here.

Okay, now that that's all done, you're ready to can!  Hopefully your water is boiling (if it boiled too soon, turn it down but high enough to keep a good simmer); if not, crank that baby up on high.  Preparing the jars will take 5-10 minutes, so the canning pot has a little more time to come to a boil.

Ladle hot preserves into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  I use a ruler to measure this, since I'm terrible with distances and length.  Remove air bubbles (with something glass or plastic, not metal which will cool the liquid too much) and adjust headspace if necessary.  Wipe the rim of the jar, center the lid on the jar, and screw the band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.  Do not crank it closed!

For this process, I usually work with 2-3 jars at a time, filling, placing seals and rings, and placing in my canning rack.  You can do one at a time, or whatever you're comfortable with.  Just try to keep the jars hot for as long as possible.

Place jars (or place canning rack with jars) in canning pot, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring back to a boil (with the lid on the canning pot!) and process for ten minutes.  Make sure it stays at a good boil the entire time!  Remove canner lid and wait five minutes.  Remove jars to a cooling rack.  I remove my canning rack, pulling it up and out of my pot, and place it on a large cutting board.  From there, I use canning tongs to remove the individual jars to a cooling rack, where they sit for 24 hours.

After a day, I check the seals to make sure they've sealed, and refrigerate any unsealed jars.  I gently wash the outside of the jars with warm (not hot) soapy water (to remove any residue from the canning process), then dry them, label them, and store them in my Bomb Shelter (a.k.a. the basement pantry area).


I didn't take many pictures while making this recipe, so here's what I have: 

Adding pureed blueberries to the pureed strawberries.

No in-between pic's, just the final result - jars of sweet yumminess!

Back to life,
Christine

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Butternut Blog -- A Late Summer Update

Yeah, I like the alliteration of those B's.  :)

At the tippy-top very end of August, I picked six butternut squash.  They probably weren't ready to pick, not quite, but I let them cure in the sun for ten days as my research told me to do, and they're still here, keeping nicely.  One sits on my kitchen counter, begging me to use it since the stem broke off.

The color seemed nice, with very little green.  However, notice there's still a light green stripe from stem to about the middle of the squash?  That means it's not ready.

See the stem above?  Not quite brown or dry enough.  But I went ahead and had Thomas use the garden pruners to cut these seemingly ripe squashes off their vines.

They are beautiful, huh?  Since it's October now, and I picked these at the tail end of August, I can say that I'm honestly glad I picked them back then.  I've picked two more now, which are slightly beat up due to an animal gnawing at them.  The gnaw marks aren't that deep, shallow enough to preserve the squash intact; I'll be using those squash shortly, since I don't think they'll keep as long as the others.

I'll update soon about the rest of the squash in my garden--there are several more!  What a beautiful bounty, my first time with squash.  *happy girl*


Back to life,
Christine

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Cinnamon-Rhubarb Jam With Agar Instead of Pectin

I hadn't canned much jam before experimenting with using agar instead of pectin.  Actually, the only jam I did can was a few years back--some grape preserves, following the Ball (brand) canning book's directions for canning jams without added pectin.  It was grape jam, and it was very sweet.  That's because you have to add a lot of sugar if you're not using pectin, and boil it forever to boil it down and thicken it.  After my friend Lori posted on her blog about using agar instead of pectin as a thickener, I was intrigued, and ended up on a merry summer-long adventure experimenting as different fruits ripened into season.

My rhubarb plants yielded a small amount (they're still getting established in my garden), and I didn't really know what to do besides rhubarb muffins--which were really good, by the way.  I had already used my strawberries, so strawberry-rhubarb jam was no longer on the docket (although I could've used store-bought strawberries).  When a friend gifted me with a bag of rhubarb, I knew I had enough to try using agar and making jam, but what to make?

I eventually found a recipe online (can't find it now; I should've pinned it to my Pinterest canning board!) for cinnamon-rhubarb jam.  Working off that recipe, I made my own.  The jam was very spreadable, and the sweetness of the sugar was balanced with the tartness of the rhubarb.  I could probably get away with adding another teaspoon of agar to the recipe, but since this was my first attempt at using agar, I wanted to stick as closely as I could to the original recipe.

 Agar powder bought at Fruitful Yield.

With agar, you don't have to worry about adding all the sugar as with a traditional recipe.  For instance, Ball's canning book tells me to use 4 cups of strawberries/rhubarb and 5 1/2 cups of sugar.  Whoa.  Surely we can do better than that.  And yes--we can!

Cinnamon-rhubarb jam on toasted sourdough bread.

Here we go with the recipe.  I assume you've canned something before, so I won't go into the minutiae of preparing the canning pot and lids.  Just enough so you remember to do it before preparing the fruit!  Okay--here it is:


Cinnamon-Rhubarb Jam -- Using Agar Powder Instead of Pectin
Makes about six half-pint (8-oz.) jars.

6 cups rhubarb, rinsed and sliced
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon butter (helps retard foaming)
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups sugar (or to taste)
3 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons agar powder

Prepare canning pot, jars, and lids.  Fill the pot with water, put it on the stove and get the burner started.  It takes a long time to bring to a boil!  I place my canning jars (thoroughly washed/rinsed) into a dishwashing tub and fill it with really hot water.  My seals go into a bowl with boiling water poured on top.  I replace the water if it cools off during the time I'm preparing the jam.

Tip:  I use a large teakettle and boil water, leaving it on a simmer burner throughout the whole canning time.  I'll use the water to replace cooled-off water on the seals, or to add to the canning pot if there's not enough water in it, or if too much boils out during the boiling time.  Now it's on to the fruit part of the recipe.

Speaking of which, here's another tip:  Rhubarb does not need to be peeled.  Wash it, cut off the ends, and use a sharp knife to slice it up.  That will help eliminate the stringy edges.  Plus, when you boil the rhubarb, it softens, making it easier to blend.

Combine rhubarb and water in a saucepot; bring to a boil then simmer until soft.  Puree.  Bring to a boil again, stirring frequently, and add the rest of the ingredients except the agar.  Mix until all ingredients are well-blended.  Whisk in the agar, little by little, until it's all incorporated.

Note on whisking in agar powder!
The agar powder will clump together in lovely (being sarcastic there) jam-covered blobs if you simply dump it into the pot.  Trust me (I say that a lot--it means I speak from experience).  The powder is very fine, so you'll want to sprinkle a bit, whisk it in, sprinkle a bit, whisk it in...  Until it's all incorporated.  Whew.  No worries, though--if you happen to get agar blobs, use a stick blender and attack the blobs.  They'll blend in nicely.  Trust me on this, too!  :)

Once the agar is whisked in, continue to simmer the mixture, stirring constantly (get a helper, have a book handy, switch stirring arms, etc.) for 20 minutes.  This helps the agar mix in and thicken (which it does at room temperature, so don't add extra agar thinking it's not thickening!).

At the 15-minute mark, you can test the thickness by spooning some jam into a small dish that you've placed in your freezer (do that when you start!).  Wait 2-4 minutes, then run your finger through the mixture.  Does it feel thick?  It's probably good.  My issue is that I think it's not thick enough, then add more agar, and once the canning is done, my jam is thick.  Too thick.  Still great for eating, though, in case you encounter this, too.  So, if it feels even a little thick, it's probably good.  You can add a little extra agar; maybe a teaspoon at most, sprinkling and whisking it into the mixture.  But I warned you, so be careful!  :)

Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  I use a plastic ruler because I just can't seem to eyeball the short lengths correctly!  Remove air bubbles (use plastic or glass knife or rod, not metal which will cool the mixture) and adjust headspace if necessary.  Wipe rim of jars, place seal on top, and screw band down over seal until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

Place jars in boiling water in canning pot (or place in canning pot insert, which is what I use, then lower the entire insert into the boiling water).  Bring to a full, rolling boil with lid on, and let boil (must stay at full boil!) for ten minutes.  Then, remove canning pot lid and wait five minutes.  Remove the jars to a cooling rack.  I simply carefully lift my canning pot insert straight up and out onto a large cutting board, then use my canning tongs to remove each jar to a cooling rack.  Let cool 24 hours.

After cooling, check jars to make sure they sealed, and refrigerate any unsealed jars for immediate use.  At this point, I gently wash each sealed jar in warm soapy water to remove residue left behind by the canning pot water (there is always some--even if it's lime from harder water).  Then I dry the jars, label them, and store them in our Bomb Shelter (the affectionate name of our basement food pantry).

Here's the photo documentary, so you can see how things are done.  Or, at least when I remembered to snap a photo of what I was doing!

Bring the rhubarb to a boil.

I use my stick blender to puree the rhubarb right in the pot.

I measure out all my ingredients so they're ready to go when I need to add them.

The blur of my helper's arm as he helps to stir the rhubarb/agar mixture for 20 minutes.

Just after removing the jars from the boiling process.

You can see the residue on the seals; I'll wash that off after they're cool.

Cinnamon-rhubarb jam.  Awesome on a PBJ!

I use both Ball and Kerr jars.

Next year I'll be making strawberry-rhubarb jam.  Oh, yeah.  :)


Back to life,
Christine

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A Lost Summer Frisbee Game

As I've blogged in fits and starts this year, I just now found these images.  I'm usually so particular to blog our life in chronological order, but I just have to go back and post this game. 

It was a rare game for us, one of the last ones we went to since Thomas started football in August and we missed every Frisbee game since.  Plus, it was rare because Jacob was able to attend.  He worked all summer long for a security firm, and ended up working most nights.  Needless to say, we almost never saw him, but he made a lot of money and got a lot of experience.  Now that he's back at school, this Frisbee game brings back good summer memories.

Thomas snags the Frisbee.

Thomas misses the catch.  :)

Nice catch, Jacob!

Joseph and Thomas are in there somewhere!

Of course I was drawn to this dad playing with his little guy on the sidelines.

 

Awesome catch, Joseph!

It was nice to end the game with storm clouds to the north and west, and to capture the sun's rays radiating from the clouds.

Back to life,
Christine

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A Thousand Reasons to Have a Salad!

A teaser of a headline to introduce my recipe for Thousand Island Dressing.  ;)

His and Hers Salads, waiting for dressing.

I'm posting this recipe only because I really need to get all my backlogged photos into this blog.  It's like a ticking time bomb.  Really.  :)

Here's the recipe (why waste words?).


Thousand Island Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped pickles (Bubbies pickles are as awesome as they are expensive!)

Combine all ingredients except chopped pickles in a container; blend well.  Add chopped pickles and you're done.  Really.  Go put it on a salad.

One note:  By "blend well," what I do is use my stick blender to really blend in that onion.  Yum.  Then I add the chopped pickles.  If you don't care about bits of onion, simply mix all those ingredients together and you're all set.  Enjoy!

Enough of bare salads--here's the shot with the dressing on it!

Yum!  I love salad!!

Here's another salad for this dressing--note the extra chopped pickles on top!  (I love pickles!)

Back to life,
Christine

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Preserves Without Pectin -- Gaga For Grapes!

For some reason this year, as our home life became crazy-busy and hectic (to say the least), I got bit by the Canning Bug.  This wasn't an annoying little mosquito bite that disappears after a few days, without any itching or redness.  This was full-blown, monster-sized Canning Disease.  It seemed that each week's visit to my local farmer's market turned up a different fruit for me to turn into preserves.

Concord grapes, stemmed and rinsed.

In addition to simply canning, I was intrigued by using agar (comes in powder or flakes) instead of pectin.  I relied on my friend Lori's research that turned up the fact that commercial pectin is produced via a chemical process, and is not very healthy.  Plus, using agar--derived from sea veggies and vegetarian--enables you to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe a lot.  This also intrigued me.  Oh--and the lady at Fruitful Yield pronounced it aa (as in cat)-gahr.  Someone else pronounced it ay-gahr.  Or ah-gur.  Or even agar-agar with your pick of aa-ah sounds.  So who knows?  :)

If you want all the details about agar/pectin, plus how to make Lori's blueberry-peach jam with agar instead of pectin, visit her blog post here.  I made peach preserves using her exact recipe (except I used agar powder instead of flakes), and they turned out fine.  Yes, it's important to follow her recipe exactly.  You can experiment a bit once you're comfortable with the method and with using agar.

Okay, back to my canning adventures using agar instead of commercial pectin...

Since my grape preserves turned out perfectly, and since grapes are currently in season, like right now, I'm going to share that recipe first.  I used Concord grapes, which I bought at our farmers market, and which are seeded.  Therefore, these grapes require more work than the seedless kind.  Plan to spend an entire afternoon working on this, so go ahead and prepare a big batch.  Or get someone to help you, like I did!

Grape Preserves with Agar
Makes 6 to 8 half-pint jars

Not quite four pounds of Concord grapes
1/2 cup water (I use filtered)
1 1/4 cup sugar (I use organic cane juice crystals)
2 tablespoons plus one generous teaspoon agar powder

Prepare grapes:
Using your fingers, pinch individual grapes, separating skins and pulp into two saucepans.  (A helper is extremely, well, helpful.)  Bring grape pulp to a boil over medium heat and boil, stirring frequently, until soft, maybe ten minutes or so.  Press pulp through a fine sieve (I use a food mill), discarding the seeds.  Note:  I use the food mill, and when I've gotten as much pulp through that as I can--the seeds are rather bulky for the blade--I dump the seeds into a sieve and press the rest of the pulp out.  Set this pulp mixture aside.

To the saucepan containing the skins, add enough water to prevent sticking.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat, cover and boil gently until skins have softened and liquid is nearly evaporated, about ten minutes.  Combine skins and pulp in a large, deep stainless steel saucepan.  Since I have an issue with food texture, I puree the whole batch.  Although a stick blender works well, I found that at the end of canning, there were a lot of skins on the bottom of the pot which I ended up discarding.  Next time, I will puree everything in batches in my heavy-duty blender.

At this point in the recipe, I have my canning pot filled with water, put on the stove, and set to high.  I also have my jars in super-hot water in a dish tub in the sink (they've already been soapy-washed and rinsed).  Aaaand, I have my seals in a small bowl, with boiling water poured over them.  I'll add more boiling water if it cools off too much.  I'm assuming here that you've canned before!  If you haven't, get a good basic canning book and read how to do all this, before you ever start trying this recipe.  Ball (which makes the canning jars) has an excellent book, from which I adapt my recipes:  Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.  ISBN for the paperback version:  0-7788-0131-4.  ISBN for the bound book:  0-7788-0139-X.  Back to our recipe.

To the pot of grape mixture, add in sugar and stir; bring to a boil, then turn to simmer.  As far as sugar goes, you can add more or less to your taste.  I've found that I can adjust the sugar in these recipes pretty easily to allow for my individual taste, without affecting the overall process or the quality of the finished product.

Then, little by little, sprinkle the agar into the mixture, whisking with each sprinkle to mix it in thoroughly.  I dumped mine in, and ended up having to use the stick blender because it clumped up into globs, lots and lots of grape-covered agar globs.  Now I know to sprinkle the agar and whisk, little by little, until it's all mixed in.  (If you use flakes you shouldn't have this problem.)

Now you must simmer at a nice simmer for 15 minutes or so, whisking or stirring pretty much the whole time.  (Here's where your helper--or a book--comes in handy.)  It won't thicken much, since it thickens at room temperature.  Trust me on this.

At the 15-minute mark, you can take a spoonful of preserves and put it in a small dish that you've placed in your freezer at the beginning of this process.  (This is an example of why you need to read through the entire recipe before you begin...)  Wait 3-4 minutes then run your finger through it.  It will thicken a little further than this, so if it has thickened at all, it's probably good to go.  If you feel you need to add some more agar, add only a little.  It thickens pretty quickly.  Trust me on this, too.  Please.  :)

When you've reached the 20-minute mark of simmering and stirring, you're ready for the canning process.  Ladle hot preserves into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  I use a ruler to measure this, since I'm terrible with distances and length.  Remove air bubbles (with something glass or plastic, not metal which will cool the liquid too much) and adjust headspace if necessary.  Wipe the rim of the jar, center the lid on the jar, and screw the band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.  Do not crank it closed!

For this process, I usually work with 2-3 jars at a time, filling, placing seals and rings, and placing in my canning rack.  You can do one at a time, or whatever you're comfortable with.  Just try to keep the jars hot for as long as possible.

Place jars (or place canning rack with jars) in canning pot, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring back to a boil (with the lid on the canning pot!) and process for ten minutes.  Make sure it stays at a good boil the entire time!  Remove canner lid and wait five minutes.  Remove jars to a cooling rack.  I remove my canning rack, pulling it up and out of my pot, and place it on a large cutting board.  From there, I use canning tongs to remove the individual jars to a cooling rack, where they sit for 24 hours.

After a day, I check the seals to make sure they've sealed, and refrigerate any unsealed jars.  I gently wash the outside of the jars with warm (not hot) soapy water (to remove any residue from the canning process), then dry them, label them, and store them in my basement food storage area (affectionately called the Bomb Shelter).

Some pictures, just in case you're like me and want to see what things look like along the way.  I put these at the end, so the recipe isn't interrupted and you have to keep scrolling to find out what next.  Here they are:

Pinch the innards from the skins through the hole from the stem.

Innards go in one saucepan; skins go in another.

Pots on the stove, coming to a boil.

The innards, simmering for about ten minutes or so.

My food mill, a garage sale find and a must-have for my canning adventures.

After using the food mill, I press the remaining pulp from the seeds using a sieve and a scraper.

The stick blender--usually a favorite in my kitchen--works okay, but next time,

I'll use my Bosch blender to puree my preserves.

Feel free to leave your preserves chunky if that's what you love!

The finished product!

Back to life,
Christine

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