Jamboree

Last Sunday was our first official day in Sacramento and what was the first thing we did?.....

Find a farmers market!

One of the things we missed about our life in Kitsap was going to the market every week and getting fresh produce and bread from Borrowed Kitchen Bakery. Farmer's Markets in Las Vegas were a joke. We did most of our shopping at Cardenas, a mexican market that had the best produce prices ever and I miss dearly. Here in Sac grocery prices are out of control! I have hit several stores over the last 10 days to see the prices of things we regularly eat and I am not impressed. Supermarkets populate the place as opposed to Vegas which was full of smaller regional markets like Sunflower Market and Fresh & Easy Market.

But the farmer's market, oh the farmers market.... It was heavenly. It's about 3 blocks of farm stands. And by farm stands I mean there aren't any crafts. Just stand after stand of produce, local honey, local artisan cheese, local ranchers, and flowers. It was as crowded as Pike Place on a weekend and the produce stands actually barter prices with you. We had a successful adventure there and we went back again this weekend.  A 1/2 flat of strawberries, 14 lbs of peaches ( $1/lb Lady Elberta Freestone Peaches) and more came back home with us. And then I got to canning.

Last week I used all my fresh basil and made a batch of fresh pesto. It turned out fantastic! It also made a ton, about 24 oz, so I canned it. Well you can't actually can pesto. So it's in the freezer in little 4 oz. containers.

I used Ina Garten's recipe for pesto. It's delicious. And while you can't can pesto it will freeze indefinitely. I saw a fantastic tip on another blog though where she freezes the pesto in muffin tins and then pops them out and stores them a container, where they are perfectly portioned. Genius. I also had a container of fresh mint in the fridge. Chris and I are addicted to drinking minted green tea but my $0.50 mint purchase was more then I could drink in a week. So I decided to make Mint Jelly.

I used the recipe included in the pectin box. I've never made Mint jelly before. I've never even ate Mint Jelly before. I guess I need to roast a lamb because I have 8 jars of Mint Jelly now. And my apartment smelled fantastic!

It was super simple to make. If you aren't canning or jamming you should try it. I started doing it as a little girl with my grandparents and my mother. Chris and I bought our own canning equipment this weekend and now I'm going to be on a canning spree! The initial cost is steep but not awful. It's mostly the cost of the jars and they are reusable. The cost of the fruit is a factor too but down here in California you can grow just about anything and there are lots of u-pick farms. We picked up another half flat of strawberries for $10 at the market and I made a batch of Strawberry Vanilla Bean Jam.

I washed and trimmed my berries. They are so sweet and delicioius and strait from the farm to my jar.

I used my food processor to pulse the berries. So much easier than hand mashing but you don't want to go too crazy. You want the berries to be chunky and give your jam texture. Also according to pickyourown.org if you totally puree them, it breaks down the acid required for the jam to set properly.

Strawberry Vanilla Bean Jam. My batch yielded 11 jars and they set perfectly. I saved a little to taste test and the vanilla bean mellows out the sugar sweetness. Also, my flavor profile was a little different since I used an unrefined cane sugar instead of refined white sugar. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

I had enough stawberries for a half batch so I added the white peaches (and a little almond extract) we picked up at the market to them. But peaches and strawberries require different amounts of sugar in order to jell properly. So I decided to split the difference and that didn't work. So I now have 13 jars of delicious dessert topping :)

And then I started on all those big beautiful Lady Elberta Peaches....





I poached and peeled them. They felt all cool and slimy in my hands so I just mashed and separated them with my hands. This left them very chunky...

... I had enough for four batches. I found a great recipe I wanted to try for Vanilla Bean Bourbon Peach Jam. I adapted from her recipe and wow! It's fantastic. I made two batches at first and poured some in a bowl for my fridge so I could sample it later. I had 20 jars already so I decide to make a different flavor, a Spiced Peach Jam with cinnnamon and cloves. Yummm... Well while they were processing I poured that warm Bourbon Peach Jam over some vanilla ice cream and blew my own mind. The jam uses lime juice so it's very tart at the front but then you get peachy bourbony goodness. I decided then and there that 20 jars wasn't enough and I made the fourth batch Vanilla Bean Bourbon Peach too.

72 jars of jam total! Chris came home and was stunned. And unfortunately, he doesn't like the peach jam as much as I do. More for me I guess. Or more for you as our Christmas shopping is basically done now. I think I will do some more canning next week though. I have ideas about Ginger Peach Jam, Strawberry Basil Jam, and Pear Butter or bruschetta topping, or salsa or chutney....

Well I found this great quote earlier that I want to share with you....

"When you cut that eggplant up and you roast it in the oven and you make the tomato sauce
and you put it on top, your soul is in that food, and there's something about that that can never
be made by a company that has three million employees." - Mario Batali

I find this to be very true and I am glad to be in a geographical location where I can try to grow some food. Today we picked up a basil plant as well as some rosemary, oregano, and thyme. I'm starting my herb garden while I research other gardening advice for this climate. I've never grown food before but I have a fairly large patio and I can grow a little urban garden. I'll keep you posted on how that goes as well as all the housewife-ing I plan on doing during my temporary (and hopfully short) period of unemployment.