Jammin' on Sunday
Farmer Jeff and I have been accused of not knowing how to relax. I think it all depends on how you look at it. When you have a farm with animals and crops that depend on constant attention, you need to give it. A plain and simple fact.
Yesterday Farmer Jeff and I were food participants in the Sonoma Showcase at McMurray Ranch on Westside Road. We were told to provide between 700 and 800 tastes for the anticipated crowd of 1,000. Slightly mind-boggling. Farmer/Chef Jeff prepared Falls Mill, Tennessee stone ground creamy corn grits topped with a warm cherry tomato and house-cured and smoked bacon with a basil vinaigrette. DANG...it was SO GOOD!!! The folks at the showcase loved it too! We served over 900 servings!!! Yikes!!! We have done this event before and have fun every year! The only hard part is that it is usually somewhere around 95-100 degrees every year and it really gets to you after a while!!!
Today we decided to abandon our plans to work on the chicken coop and just have fun. What is fun for us? Making Jam!!! Yesterday we picked 12 pounds of our Santa Rosa plums off the tree. They were all ripe or darned close and we couldn't wait for either the birds or the dogs to get to them before us! We coralled all of our canning jars and jar tongs and lids in preparation. Farmer Jeff was so excited by the thought of making the plum jam that he went out and picked 6 pounds of blackberries, all from our backyard! Is this the best thing about summer or what???
We have been approached about making jams and preserves, so we are getting serious about testing recipes. We are dreaming of other flavors based upon what we are already growing. Our fruits are: figs, plums, peaches, nectarines, pears, zinfandel grapes (enough for jam, not enough for wine!), apples, raspberries and LOTS of blackberries! Oh...I forgot watermelon, cantelope, honeydew, and casaba melon! Our veggies are: 5 varieties of zucchini-like squash, 23 varieties of tomato, peppers, green beans, corn, pickling cucumbers, collard greens, swiss chard and tons of mint and basil. We ought to be able to come up with some other fun combinations of sauces to can with all of those choices!
This is my kinda fun!
Yesterday Farmer Jeff and I were food participants in the Sonoma Showcase at McMurray Ranch on Westside Road. We were told to provide between 700 and 800 tastes for the anticipated crowd of 1,000. Slightly mind-boggling. Farmer/Chef Jeff prepared Falls Mill, Tennessee stone ground creamy corn grits topped with a warm cherry tomato and house-cured and smoked bacon with a basil vinaigrette. DANG...it was SO GOOD!!! The folks at the showcase loved it too! We served over 900 servings!!! Yikes!!! We have done this event before and have fun every year! The only hard part is that it is usually somewhere around 95-100 degrees every year and it really gets to you after a while!!!
Today we decided to abandon our plans to work on the chicken coop and just have fun. What is fun for us? Making Jam!!! Yesterday we picked 12 pounds of our Santa Rosa plums off the tree. They were all ripe or darned close and we couldn't wait for either the birds or the dogs to get to them before us! We coralled all of our canning jars and jar tongs and lids in preparation. Farmer Jeff was so excited by the thought of making the plum jam that he went out and picked 6 pounds of blackberries, all from our backyard! Is this the best thing about summer or what???
We have been approached about making jams and preserves, so we are getting serious about testing recipes. We are dreaming of other flavors based upon what we are already growing. Our fruits are: figs, plums, peaches, nectarines, pears, zinfandel grapes (enough for jam, not enough for wine!), apples, raspberries and LOTS of blackberries! Oh...I forgot watermelon, cantelope, honeydew, and casaba melon! Our veggies are: 5 varieties of zucchini-like squash, 23 varieties of tomato, peppers, green beans, corn, pickling cucumbers, collard greens, swiss chard and tons of mint and basil. We ought to be able to come up with some other fun combinations of sauces to can with all of those choices!
This is my kinda fun!
posted by Chicken Mama at 1:38 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Susan. John and Keith here. You really should contact our friend Gina about jams. We love her beyond reason and she is the queen of jam making. She has a very enjoyable and well written blog at www.LindseysLucious.blogspot.com is in the midst of her summer jam-making marathon. She's got great ideas for combining flavors and she's going to be selling some of her jams at her local farmer's market. Cheers. XOXOXOJohn and Keith
Post a Comment
<< Home