Last year we built a fortress, created to deter deer, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, and wild pigs from our own little slice of edible possibility. Today we are in the middle of planting our spring garden in this enclosure, now just a blank, dark dirt slate of bumpy rows and discarded piles of weeds. Shaping the earth is like frosting a chocolate cake, at least to this baker’s mind, and has inspired my next birthday party creation. Right now, though, it is time to focus on what plants will grow. 

Dave spent at least the last month researching, sorting, and picking out seeds, some from his own collection and some from rare seed catalogues and websites. So far, we have some old standbys such as carrots, beets, lettuces, radishes, turnips and an unintended sugar-snap pea hybrid from saved seed; and some new editions like asparagus, fenugreek, cumin, and a cilantro from Oaxaca. Dave enjoys the excitement of the seed selection process in much the same way some of us might find joy in the finest Parisian patisserie (there I go again with the baked goods). To say the least, we now have a ridiculously large stock of potential food, awaiting the elements to bring life. No matter what we actually choose though, it is always a wild card what will actually grow, flourish, and become. Some winter squash seeds from a few years ago became a hybrid this last season, morphing from a basic butternut (or what we thought was basic) to an interesting and delicious mystery.

The newness of spring also brings new ideas of what we will soon eat, and projects of how to make these gems last as long as they can. Will we finally start our homemade grapefruit bitters for cocktails? How about more preserved Meyer lemons with some interesting herbs? Or maybe just classic pickled beets with a touch of clove? But right there lays the nexus of a problem I find myself grappling with time and again. After the harvest, the glean, the washing and prep, the brining and boiling and sealing and storing, I can’t bring myself to actually EAT what I have made. It is too special. I find myself saving it for the ultimate occasion and then before I know it, another season has arrived along with another cratefull of the very same produce that is caged within my mason jars. Some could compare this self-inflicted issue to saving a nice bottle of wine too long, year after year for that one perfect moment, instead of enjoying it at its recommended prime. Fellow Civil Eats contributor and environment editor Aaron French recently touched upon this issue, citing a Harvard Business Review article about “how people place an unreasonably high value on products they made or assembled themselves” via “The IKEA Effect”. The lesson for me is to start treating every day like it’s worthy of jam, no matter how rare or involved or alone or hurried things may be.

So here is a recipe for preserves that I am entitling “Jam for NOW”. Write that in thick black Sharpie on the top of your canning lids and follow the command. Use the finest fruit you can get your hands on, and even if you only get enough to make a couple of jars, listen to your deepest inner voice when it declares, “I want blackberry jam on my toast today!”

Jam for NOW

(Makes about 4 pints)

9 cups fresh blackberries (or any other berry or combination)
6 cups sugar
Juice of 2 lemons

Wash the berries, making sure to remove any with signs of mold, and place in a large, non-aluminum saucepan. Crush the berries (or blend with an immersion blender). Add sugar and lemon juice. Bring slowly to a boil, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved. Cook until desired thickness is achieved, stirring to prevent burning. Remove from heat and fill hot jam into hot, sterile jars, leaving ¼-inch space from the top. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean towel before securing each with a two-piece canning lid. Process the jars for about 10 minutes in boiling water to seal. Remove from water with tongs and let sit on a countertop to cool before storing.

Nothing could be simpler (or more affordable) than making apple butter for friends and family this holiday season.  I had thirty apples of varying sizes and types on hand from my CSA, and needed to make space in my crisper for Thanksgiving vegetables.  This led me to thinking about what I wanted to do with all of that fruit.  Indeed, making use of so much fruit for preserves means a lot of preserves, and a lot of preserves means having a great personalized gift. Many people are surprised when they taste homemade goods, and give the cook a lot of credit for her labors (little do they know, its not that hard!).

Give it a try, I promise, its difficult for even the most unskilled cook to mess up.  It takes a bit of time on the stove, but it will fill your home with alluring spice smells and make use of this season’s abundant orchard fruit.  For other versions, try making it with pears or quince.

Apple Butter

8-10 medium apples, peeled, quartered and cored
2-3 cups apple cider (enough almost to cover apples)
1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (more to taste)
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cloves

Place the apples and the cider in a pot and bring to a boil. Place a lid on the pot and simmer until apples are soft (about 20 minutes). Set aside to cool. Use a hand blender or regular blender to puree the cooked apples. Now, you have made apple sauce. Put the pot of apple sauce back on a medium flame, and add the sugar and spices (taste and adjust the flavor), stirring. The mixture should gradually darken as it cooks on low for 2-3 hours. Stir often. When finished, you should be able to place a dollop on a plate and it remain solid, without forming a ring of liquid around itself. Place in sterilized jars. It is delicious on bread, yogurt, ice cream, even sandwiches.

Pickling is one of the ancient arts of preservation. It is known in the United States largely for the eponymously named pickles, or pickled cucumbers. Pickling remains a high art in much of Asia, however, with many regional variations for every kind of pickled food you could imagine.

When I lived on the Big Island of Hawaii I learned to pickle from some Hawaiian families who had been pickling for generations, and who had originally learned the method from the early Japanese settlers to the Islands. We pickled a number of Hawaiian specialties like taro root, wild ginger and the stalks of the giant Hopu’u tree fern. But I also learned how to pickle “regular” foods – modulating the recipe for variations in the foods texture, water content, and thickness.

In the simplest terms, pickling is just preserving foods with vinegar and salt. The acid in the vinegar preserves the food by preventing the growth of common bacteria. There are many complicated pickle recipes out there, where you have to be concerned with the proper acid percentages and salt ratios, but for the beginner the basic “refrigerator pickles” are fun and easy.

Post Thanksgiving, pickling is a great way to preserve food you might have bought too much of – green beans, broccoli, cabbage, etc. Use the guidelines below more as a template for experimentation than as a recipe that is set in stone.

Easy Refrigerator Pickled Vegetables

What to pickle: Green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, pearl onions, carrots, etc. Use what you have.

For the broccoli and cauliflower, separate into small one-inch florets. Remove the ends of the green beans and cut into 3-4 inch pieces. For cabbage, slice in half and remove the stem, then cut into ¼ inch wedges. Make thin angled slices with the carrots.

Prepare a large pot of salted water (about 2 Tbs salt per quart) and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, create an ice bath, with ice cubes and cold water, in a bowl deep enough to hold all the vegetables.

Blanch the vegetables in the boiling water. Blanch the cabbage and pearl onions for 20 seconds, and all the other vegetables for about 40 seconds. Pour quickly into a strainer and dump into the ice water to cool.

Gather clean wide-mouth jars and fill losely with the cooled vegetables. In the beginning, you might want to keep each vegetable separate so you can learn their individual characteristics, but the brave at heart can mix them with little fear. Adjust to recipe below to make enough liquid to fill all your jars:

2 cups brown rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic
¼ cup raw sugar or brown sugar
1 Tbs salt

Bring the mixture to a simmer and pour into the jars, being careful to cover the vegetables completely. For more interesting flavors, incorporate one of the variations listed below as you heat the vinegar. Be sure to add all the addition ingredients evenly between the jars you are pickling.

Allow to cool on your counter, then cover and place in the refrigerator. The pickled vegetables should be ready in several days, but will stay good for at least two months.

Additions and Variations:

For each volume of vinegar above, add:

Hot Pepper Pickles

1 jalapeno – quartered lengthwise, seeds removed
1 Tbs peppercorns
1 tsp red chili flakes

Sweet Sesame Pickles

1 Tbs sesame oil
1 Tbs grated fresh ginger
2 Tbs additional sugar

Herb Pickles

1 sprig rosemary
2 sprigs thyme
1 Tbs mustard seeds
1 tsp dry crushed oregano leaves

Once you know the basics, the sky’s the limit with what you can do. In the spring, try pickling wild ramps and fidlehead ferns. In the summer, cucumbers and grapes, and in the early fall experiment with pickled sour plums.

Photo: rachel is coconut&lime