Strawberry Rose Petal Preserves

The local Foodshed had an amazing sale on strawberries.  The recent heat wave caused the strawberry fields to smell like jam, which is heavenly but means it's the last of the strawberries.  So it's time to jam.

I wanted to add an additional flavor; looking at what was available in my yard, I thought roses would go beautifully with strawberries.  I picked a bunch of 'purple splash' rose petals and a Meyer lemon from the garden.  I use Pomona universal pectin, mostly because that's what's available at the co-op, but also because it allows me to use less sugar than some recipes.

flower rainbow for pride month;
that's a 'purple splash' rose on the upper left corner.

1.25-1.5 cups evaporate can sugar, organic, fair trade

3 teaspoons pectin

5 cups strawberries (1.5-2 pounds), sliced thick

2 tablespoons lemon juice

3 teaspoons calcium water (from the pectin packet)

2 cups rose petals, tightly packed

Place a small plate in the freezer. If canning, prep all your tools and equipment, and start boiling water for processing.  Make the calcium water.

In a small bowl, add sugar.  Sprinkle with pectin and stir well. Send aside.

Put a large cast iron enameled pot on high heat.  Add the sliced strawberries. lemon juice, and calcium water.  Bring to a boil, stirring.  Sprinkle in the sugar mix and stir vigorously to dissolve sugar while bringing it back to a boil.  Stir in the rose petals and boil for 5 minutes. Test to see if the jam is set by putting a teaspoonful of liquid jam onto the frozen plate.  Allow plate to cool for 2 minutes in the fridge.  If the jam gels, it's ready.  If not, test every 2 minutes.  When it's done, remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes.

If canning, fill jars leaving a half-inch head space and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes about 4.5 cups.  I made three batches, which made 13 cup jars—the perfect fit in my canning pot.

Crackers - plain, herbed, seedy, or peppery

Crackers are a pretty simple recipe to pull off, but I've never made them before!  The trick was getting the dough rolled out as thin as I could and baking until golden, not brown, on the edges.

1 c all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 t baking powder
1 t course sea salt
1 t evaporated cane sugar
3 T butter, melted, or olive oil
1/2 c water

Flavor options:

2 t fresh thyme or rosemary, chopped fine
1 t fresh ground black pepper or other spice

2 t seeds (poppy, sesame, flax, chia...)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Pulse the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and any herbs, seeds or spices in a food processor until well mixed. Add the butter or oil and pulse 6 times.  Add the water and pulse about 10 seconds, just until the dough starts to stick together.  Remove dough, press together to form a ball, and cut into four, and let rest for 10 minutes.

For each piece of dough, roll out on a lightly-floured surface as thin as you can.  Cut into whatever size and shape you want.  Place on the baking sheet.  Bake 4-5 minutes, then flip each cracker and bake another 4-5 minutes, making sure they don't get too brown.  Let cool to crisp.

Makes roughly 50 small crackers

Based on Carla Hall's and Alton Brown's recipes.

Lavender Mulberry Preserves

Looking at and smelling the lavender growing next to my mulberry tree made me think their delicate flavors might be nice together.

Lavender in foods can be tricky.  Too little and you can't detect it, too much and it tastes like soap.  To avoid overpowering flavors I always use fresh lavender.  It's quite subtle in this recipe:

6 pounds fresh mulberries

4 1/2 cups sugar
24 springs of fresh lavender, tied together in a bouquet garni
3/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons calcium water (comes with Pomona's universal pectin powder)
2 tablespoons pectin powder

Rinse mulberries and clip the little stem off (this part takes forever).

In a large enameled pot (or other high heat tolerant, non-reactive pot), mix the mulberries with sugar and lavender and let sit in the fridge for 8 hours.

Put mulberry mix on high heat.  Stir in the lemon juice and calcium water.  Slowly sprinkle in the pectin stirring it in as you goes so as to avoid lumps.  Boil, stirring constantly, to gel point (test a small amount of jelly on a plate you've kept in the freezer; return the plate to the freezer for 1 minute.  If the jelly wrinkles when you push it with your finger, it is done.)

If you're canning, fill jars leaving 1/2 inch head space and process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

Makes 12 cups.

Variations:
Try a different herb instead of lavender, such as sage, mint, lemon verbena, or rose geranium.
Instead of lemon juice, use 1/4 cup white or dark balsamic vinegar and eliminate the herb.

Mulberry Preserves with Homemade Pectin

In the past, I have not been patient or experienced enough to get mulberries to the correct jam consistency.  Mulberries don't have enough pectin on their own to jam, I've always wanted to make my own pectin, and I had a couple pomelos hanging around.  So this year, I did a bit more research, used the turbo burner on my stove to get the temp up and voila!  Success!

4 pounds fresh mulberries
homemade citrus pectin from half a pound of pith
2 7/8 cups sugar
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar (or lemon juice or vinegar of your choice)

Rinse mulberries and clip the little stem off (this part takes forever).

In a large enameled pot (or other high heat tolerant, non-reactive pot), mix the mulberries with sugar and let sit in the fridge for 8 hours.

Put mulberry mix on high heat, add pectin and vinegar, and stir frequently to 220 degrees or to gel point (this part can take awhile - be patient to get to that gel point)

If you're canning, fill jars leaving 1/2 inch head space and process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

Mulberry Cordial

Mulberry season is in full force, but a month later than recent years after a long, cool, wet winter.  My tree is quite prolific; I have plenty to share with neighbors, friends, family, birds and squirrels.  I'm also looking for more recipes to try to use them up.  Of course, I always jam them.  I love them in a meyer marmalade.  I'll borrow my mom's dehydrator.  And here's a cordial/syrup:

3 cups mulberries
1 1/2 cups evaporated cane sugar

juice of a small lemon

In a quart jar, crush berries and sugar and add lemon juice. Let steep in fridge for 1-2 days, then strain out the fruit.

Keep refrigerated up to a week. This can also be canned to be shelf stable for up to a year.

Serve with sparkling water over ice or to sweeten iced tea or lemonade.

Variation: add 1 1//2 cups of vinegar (balsamic, red wine, or apple cider) after straining to make a shrub.

March in my garden

grey skies and golden poppies

I'm relishing the cold weather.

I can't remember if San Diego has ever had a winter like this one before.  With consistently cold temps and steady rain for the past few months, many wild flowers, weeds, and volunteers have grown tall and green.  Almost nothing is in bloom yet, except the native poppies.

That's not quite true: my lavender blooms year-round – much to the bees' delight – with aggressive dead-heading, the sour grass and arugula have both been flowering for weeks, and several plants are just starting to bloom: the purple splash climbing rose, nasturtiums, blackberries, and calla lilies.  After no citrus this winter, the tangerines, calamansi, orange, and lemons are in blossom – the smell of neroli is heavenly.

The mulberry just started leafing out and our always-late loquats are thankfully growing little green fruits.

Plan

I've bought my seeds and I've been collecting materials to build supports for my tomatoes.

I'm researching companion planting, especially for tomatoes (marigolds, calendula, green onion, chive, garlic, basil, carrots...) and chiles (basil, chives, carrots, leeks, oregano, parsley, marigolds...).

Prep

I'm prepping beds for tomatoes and corn.  I'm harvesting the mulch and bedding from the chicken coop and yard for mulching the garden beds.

Weed

Now is the time - don't wait!  The ground is soft and moist, making it easy to pull them and you probably want to pull them before they go to seed.  Do it! Do it now!

Plant

Started many tomato seeds last month from Baker's Creek but the seedlings are still too small to plant.  Not to worry, as Tomatomania is this month.  Not only did they have the Gardener's Delight cherry tomato that did so well for us a couple years ago, but I got a few other new varieties to try:

• Spoon currant (a teeny tiny tomato)
• San Marzano Lungo paste (cuz I like to make the sauce)
• Madame Marmande beefsteak (I generally only plant heirlooms but I overheard a few people waxing poetic about this hybrid)

I also got a few peppers: poblano, anaheim, and corno di toro.

Actually, I probably went a little nuts with the seeds I bought, which is why I didn't buy too much at Tomatomania.  Here's what I'm growing from seed:

• Chestnut Chocolate Tomato
• Lucid Gem Tomato
• Lucky Tiger Tomato
• Cour Di Bue Tomato
• Brad's Atomic Grape tomato
• Dark Galaxy tomato
• heirloom poblano
• heirloom anaheim
• purple jalapeño
• Paradicsom Alaku Sarga Szentes
• Chinese Pink Celery
• Hyssop - Korean

These I've started indoors and will transplant sometime this or next month.  The rest will be planted directly in the ground, mostly this month:

• Queen Sophia Marigold
• Cosmo - Black Magic
• Red Skin Mix Dahlia
• Zinnia - Scabiosa
• Goldfinger Mexican Sunflower
• Hopi Turquoise Corn
• Ojo De Tigre Bean
• Tommy Apple Melon
• Blacktail Mountain Watermelon
• Valerian
• Basil - Thai Sweet
• Basil - Lemon
• Basil - Blue Spice
• Hopi Red Dye Amaranth

I'm continuing to work on a circular series of beds of mostly perennial herbs, but I'll also plant the peppers and the 3 sisters (corn, beans, squash/melon + amaranth & cosmos).

Also good to plant this month: radish, beets, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, potatoes, greens, turnip, cucumber, squash, citrus, avocado, macadamia, dill, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, and the last chance this year for natives.

Feed

Fertilize citrus, avo, orchids, 3# on passionfruit, everything (except natives and drought tolerant) in the waning moon.

Water

I'm grateful for continued rain!
Water deep in the morning every 10-14 days if it doesn't rain, more often for new seedlings. I'm blasting my fruit trees (that aren't flowering) with water a couple times this month to help control ants, aphids, white fly & scale.

Prune

I'm pinching off new growth on the grape vines below the trellis to concentrate the energy into the growth to cover the top of the trellis.

Here's what I'm harvesting...

eggs, arugula, nasturtiums, parsley, cilantro, thyme, garlic chives, lavender, lemon grass, rose geranium, lemon verbena, passion fruit

Here's my post from March last year.

Elderflower cordial

There are lots of flowering umbels on my native elderberry bush and my lemon tree is bearing lots of fruit so it's the perfect time to make cordial/syrup. [Update: I've found I can rub the flowers off the umbels into my measuring cup so I don't need to cut the elder or snip each tiny flower from the umbel.]:

3 cups spring water
3 cups evaporated cane sugar

3/4 teaspoon citric acid (I found mine in the bulk section of the natural foods store, you could omit it if you will use up the syrup in the next few days)
2 cups fresh elderflowers, destemmed, remove any bugs or debris
juice and zest of 2 small lemons

Heat water, sugar, and citric acid, stirring, until just dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

In a quart jar, place flowers. juice and zest. Fill jar with syrup and let steep in fridge for 3 days, giving it a gentle shake to stir once a day, then strain out the flowers and zest.

Keep refrigerated. This can also be canned to be shelf stable for up to a year.

Serve with sparkling water over ice or to sweeten iced tea or lemonade.

Purple Jalapeño Hot Sauce

I've been meaning to pick these beautiful, dark purple jalapeños for a while but it's serendipitous that I didn't because now this hot sauce is flavorful with dissipating heat and a natural sweetness from purple jalapeños that ripened into red.

7 small-medium jalapeños, stemmed
2 scallions, rough chopped, also from the garden
1 huge garlic clove, peeled, from Schaner Farm
1/2 cup vinegar (I used champagne vinegar cuz that's what I had on hand)
juice of 1 small lime, from Good Taste Farm
1 teaspoon sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree a few minutes until smooth.

Marinated artichoke hearts from the garden

With more artichokes than I know what to do with...

I can make my own marinated artichoke hearts!

I love to eat them straight out of the jar but they can be a bit pricey and hard to find them organic. The hardest (well, time-consuming) part was prepping the artichokes down to the soft, completely edible part.  I would do well to pick them earlier and much smaller next time.

I was pretty unsatisfied with the recipes I found online so here's what I came up with:

artichokes (the younger the better)
juice if a lemon
water

Half fill a pot with water and add the lemon juice. Working with 1 artichoke at a time, snap off the outer leaves until you reach the tender inner leaves. Cut off tough or bottom sharp parts of leaves, trim and peel the stem, and trim any dark green or tough skin from the base. Cut the artichoke into quarters or eights (depending on size), cut away any visible choke and place in the lemon water.

Set over high heat, cover and bring to a boil. Lower heat to simmer for about 10 minutes, until the artichokes are barely tender.

For each 1 1/2 cups of processed artichokes:

1/4 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil

3 large garlic cloves, sliced 

a pinch or 2 of red chile pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 sprig fresh thyme leaves
1 sprig fresh oregano
1/8 teaspoon peppercorns

a bay leaf

long curl of lemon zest

juice of a lemon

1/4 cup white wine or champagne vinegar

water

In a small saucepan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-low heat and add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the rest of the oil, along with the salt, herbs, zest and vinegar. Cook for about 10 minutes.

Remove all the herbs and spices and transfer them to a 12-ounce jar. Stuff jar with the artichoke pieces and pour on the rest of the oil & vinegar mixture. Add just enough water to cover. Top with a tightly fitting lid, let cool and refrigerate. Let them cure for at least a day, turning occasionally to mix the flavors. Remove from fridge and allow to come to room temp before serving.

DIY Pita Bread

I've tried making pita before - based on watching my siblings' Israeli other mother - with less success. This time, like my blended family, I blended in an actual recipe, which worked much better for me!

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 packet (or 1 cake) yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp sea salt

3 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour (or whole wheat or bread flour)
1 Tbsp olive oil

In a large mixing bowl, bloom yeast in warm water with sugar.

Stir in salt and mix in flour a little bit at a time until it comes together in a ball (about 5 minutes in the mixer with a bread hook), then knead until shiny and elastic. Return to a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise until springy and airy, about 1 1/2 hours.

Work small handfuls of dough by pushing dough up through bottom middle of dough, forming a ball. Let rest for 15 minutes.

Roll out a ball in a thin round, about 6 inches.

On medium heat, warm a skillet with a glass lid. When hot, add dough round and cook until bubbling with lid on (about a minute - in the meantime, roll out your next ball); flip and cook with lid on until (hopefully) the air pocket forms (about 1 minute).

Makes a dozen.

Delicious with hummus & salad

December in my garden

Still waiting for the rain this December, but it's cooled off (this week) after having a 90° Thanksgiving. A friend of a friend needed to rehome their chickens (all my chickens are rescues), so we just added 3 to our flock. Meet Nutmeg, Eggnog, and Anise!

Eggnog (a Leghorn), Nutmeg (a speckled Sussex), and Anise (an Autralorp)

They are young ladies, so hopefully that means we'll get some eggs soon. Most of our flock are somewhere around 8 years old so they are retired (or freeloaders).  And all of them have molted and stopped laying for the winter, so we'll see how they do in the Spring...

Plan

Start drooling over seed catalogs! Baker Creek heirloom rare seeds is my favorite (such beautiful varieties! I have a strong penchant for purple vegetables 😊) and San Diego Seed Company is local. But honestly, last year I did better with seedlings.
Other good resources for research and learning:

• Wild Willow Farm
• San Diego Sustainable Living Institute
• City Farmers Nursery
• The Water Conservation Garden

Prep

Amend hugelkultur beds with compost. Rake out chicken area for mulch. Let the chickens into more areas of the yard to eat grubs and dig up all the grasses that have grown back (after I spent so much time trying to remove that bermuda grass! 😠)

Plant
Broccoli seedlings from City Farmers interspersed with garlic cloves from Schaner Farm did so well for me last year, I'll do it again this month.
artichokes (mine's already a big healthy plant from last year's planting), asparagus (maybe next year), beets, broccoli, brussels, cabbage, carrots, celery, cilantro, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, peas, potatoes, radish, parsnips, garlic, wildflower seeds, natives (I need a cleveland sage - it's my favorite), cover crops (fava & peas)

Feed
Feed passion fruit 3 pounds of fruit tree fertilizer. I can't believe it's still flowering and fruiting.

Water

Water deep in the morning every 10-14 days if it doesn't rain. I'll continue to blast my fruit trees with water a couple times this month to help control ants, aphids, white fly & scale.

Prune

Prune grapes (I'm going to weave trimmed vines in the shade structure over the windows to create more summer shade) and blackberries. Deadhead the lavender and aroma sage. Trim back mulberry (one of the big branches will be repurposed for passionfruit vine support), guava and pepper tree by mid-December so as not to disturb the birdie nest building that will start soon. Chop up trimmings (if not used in other projects) for mulch.

Harvest

copious guavas, passion fruit, calamondins, the last of the tomatoes, winter squash, basil, parsley, thyme, chives, lavender, lemon grass, rose geranium leaves

November in my garden

In San Diego, November is really my month to transition the garden from summer to fall. My tomatoes and passion fruit are still flowering and fruiting.

The chickens are molting and haven't been laying for weeks. Fire season is over (hopefully) and so far it's getting cooler. Will this month be hot or will it start raining? While we don't know yet, here are my gardening plans for this month:

Plan

Visit botanical gardens for ideas and research before planting.

Prep

Sharpen & oil tools.

Compost fallen fruit (or better yet, preserve it before it feeds the rats).
Rake out old mulch & dead leaves around non-native bushes and shrubs. Spread compost, keeping it away from the trunks.

Plant (as long as it's cooled down)
My hugelkultur beds are spent from tomatoes so I'll be sure to rotate in some nitrogen fixers and leafy crops:

artichokes (already came back from last year's plant), asparagus (maybe next year), beets, broccoli (definitely - I had broccoli for 6 months last year), brussels, cabbage, carrots, celery, cilantro, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, peas, potatoes, radish, parsnips, garlic, wildflower seeds, natives, perennial herbs

Fertilize
Feed roses low-nitrogen fertilizer. (I've got a climber here I've been trying to rehab since roses are edible)

Water

Make sure garden receives an inch of rain (or make up the difference – water in morning). I'll also blast my fruit trees with water a couple times this month to help control ants, aphids, white fly & scale.

Prune

Lightly prune rose. Cut back blackberries. Trim back mulberry, guava and pepper tree. Now is the time before the birdies start to build their nests.

Harvest

guavas, passion fruit, pomegranates, calamondins, tomatoes, winter squash, basil, parsley, thyme, chives, lavender, lemon grass, rose geranium leaves

Organic Almond Sauce

Looking for uses for leftover almond meal from making almond milk, I did a little research into recreating a certain farmers market sauce with organic ingredients:

2/3 cup spring water
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2  cup leftover almond meal (real raw almonds from Terra Bella Farm)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, from my tree
3 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2 cloves garlic, from Schaner Farm
2 teaspoons bragg liquid aminos
1/2 dried new mexican chile
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Place all ingredients in a quality blender. Slowly blend for one minute, then blend on high for another minute for a smooth and creamy consistency. Store in the refrigerator.

Makes about 2 cups

Great for dippin' raw veggies and tortilla chips, or use 3/4 cup water for a thiner salad dressing.

Herbed Chevre Spread

Now that I've got my hands on a goodly quantity of local goat milk, I can try my hand at cheese!  I've made mozzarella from cow's milk a few time before, which is a little more involved than this recipe. Chevre is surprisingly simple to make. I justed heated the milk to 86 degrees, sprinkled in the chevre culture, stirred it a bit, let it sit over night and then drained the curds in cheese cloth for a few hours, then mixed in 2 tsp sea salt.

Now I have a ton of goat cheese to play with!

1 cup chevre
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp fresh grated lemon zest (from my tree)
1 clove fresh garlic, minced (from Schaner Farms)
a handful of fresh herbs from my garden, minced: parsley, thyme, chives

Mix ingredients together.

Serve with Prager Brothers bread, olives, and almonds from Terra Bella Farm.

Pumpkin + Fungi + Goat Milk = Puppy

Recipe for a stuck puppy:

• Take a front yard that doesn't get much sun
• Spread a dash of low-temp compost
• Wait a few weeks until several volunteer pumpkin vines appear (note: do not add water because these are volunteers and you don't know if they're edible and you just want to see how they do)
• Let grow for several weeks until powdery mildew appears (which is why you don't grow squash on purpose in the first place)
• Remove all mildewed leaves
• After doing some online reseach about natural remedies, take 2 cups old goat milk that you traded your backyard chicken eggs for but didn't use up fast enough and spray it all over the pumkin vines
• Stir briefly, in your mind, wondering about what new pests or problems the fragrant goat milk will bring.  Wait 30 seconds...

...and the neighbor's puppy wiggles under the wood fence and get stuck between that and a chain link to lick the leaves and cry.

Next, break into the neighbors yard and try to cajole the puppy back into it's yard.

...and that was my morning.

Spiced Cranberry Pear Compote

This version of cranberry sauce was inspired by a wonderfully fragrant pear from Smit Farms at the Little Italy farmers market.

1 pear, peeled, diced
zest of an orange or tangerine
1 1/2 cups apple cider
3 cups fresh cranberries
1/3 cup golden raisins

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup rapadura sugar

1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground

1/4 teaspoon clove, ground

a pinch of allspice, ground

1/8 teaspoon cayenne, ground

Stir all ingredients in large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 5 minutes, until all cranberries burst. Uncover, reduce heat to simmer until the pear is soft and the raisins are plumped, 15-20 minutes. Cool to serve at room temp. Can be kept frozen for several weeks or canned to be shelf stable.

Makes about 3 cups.

Simple (dairy-free) Pineapple Coconut Ice Cream

I don't eat tropical fruit often because of issues with sustainability.  I never buy bananas, but I do pick up bruised ones from the co-op free bin (perks of working at an organic grocery store) and if I get really lucky, I trade with a neighbor for lovely locally grown ones!

2 ripe bananas, frozen
1 can coconut milk
1/4-1/3 cup agave or local honey, to taste
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups pineapple, finely diced

Peel bananas, chop into several pieces, and blend in a food processor for a couple minutes, until creamy.  Add the coconut milk, honey and vanilla; blend until smooth.  Pour into an ice cream maker add the pineapple and let it do it's thing until the consistency of soft serve.  Transfer to a container to freeze.  Enjoy when it's firm enough for you.

Chipotle Pickled Veggies

This week, I'll spend a few days in the California central coast wine country for my brother-in-law's momentous birthday.  It's going to be a stellar bash with many friends and family staying together in a huge estate on a 64-acre ranch.  There are several events planned for this occasion and a few I'll help with in the kitchen.  My sis asked me to pickle some veggies intended for bloody marys (make mine a virgin):

1/2 head of whole garlic cloves from Schaner Farm, peeled

a handful of small pearl-type onion bulbs from Sage Mountain Farm, peeled

1 cup red okra from JR Organics Farm

6 small carrots, cut in half

1 cup fresh green beans from Suzie's Farm

a dried chipotle chili

4 sprigs fresh parsley

a bay leaf

1/8 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

1 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup spring water

1/4 cup evaporated cane sugar

1 tablespoon sea salt

Stuff the herbs, veggies & spices in a quart-sized jar.  In a small sauce pan, bring the vinegar, water, sugar & salt to a boil.  Pour into jar to cover vegetables, leaving a bit head space.  Screw the lid on tight and allow to cool.  Store in the refrigerator for at least a few days before eating.

LOL! Marmalade

In San Diego, loquats are ubiquitous and largely ignored, even when heavy with their delectable, unique fruits.  I grew up eating them off my English immigrant grandma's and my Mexican-American great-grandma's trees.  Each spring I was treated to their yellow appearance on the branches and would wait with joy for them to turn slightly more orange so I could seek out the perfectly ripe specimen.  I have trees of my own now but while every where else in SD the fruits are abundant, this is the second year that mine haven't beared at all!  I'll spend some time trying to remedy this for next year but in the meantime, I have friends with a plethora of extra fruit.  So this marmalade is courtesy of the Coopers:

Loquat Orange Lime Marmalade
I like making marmalade because it produces it's own pectin; I don't have to add extra, non-organic ingredients.  That an organic pectin is not available is shocking to me. And I like cutting the marmalade with another fruit (I've also made a strawberry- and a mulberry-meyer lemon variety!) because that helps temper the sweetness of all the added sugar and the stiffness of the pectin.

4 cups loquat (after being peeled, seeded, membranes removed) from the Coopers
2 pounds (about 8 small) cara cara oranges from Smit Farms at the Little Italy farmers market
2 pounds (about 3 large) navel oranges from Solidarity Farm
4 limes from the Coopers
5 1/3 cups local spring water
4 cups sugar (I like organic evaporated cane)

Prep the loquats: I had a ton of fruit so I peeled them after blanching using this method.  Then I removed the seeds and the stringy membranes around the seeds by hand.  (You could also freeze the fruit at this point to use in other future recipes.)

Scrub the citrus fruit clean. I do not use soap (yuck); just rubbing and water.

Cut oranges in half and juice (you need 2 2/3 cups of juice), saving all the seeds & membranes in a muslin bag or cheesecloth (cuz we're making our own pectin!).  Scrape the white pith (and save in the bag) from the oranges (this is the the most time consuming active part of this recipe).  Julienne the peels.

Cut the limes in 8ths, lengthwise.  Remove seeds and membranes and add them to the bag.  Slice the lime sections into thin triangles.

Put the juice, peels, lime triangles, water & muslin bag (closed tight, let the string hang over the edge but don't let it catch on fire) in a medium/large-ish, heavy bottomed pot.  Bring to a boil and boil on medium heat, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally so the fruit and bag doesn't stick to the bottom and burn.

Remove from heat.  Transfer bag to a bowl and allow to cool.  Measure the marmalade mixture and for every cup, add a cup of sugar.  When the bag is cool enough to handle, squeeze the pectin juices into the marmalade mix (and then compost the bag contents).

Heat the marmalade back up to a rapid boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.  Secure a candy thermometer in your mixture, making sure it does not touch the pot.  You want to get the temp up to 220-222 degrees so it will jell (this step also takes awhile).  Then stir in your loquats, return to a boil, and remove from heat.

Fill sterilized jars (that you've been keeping in hot water) leaving 1/2 inch head room, scrape down side to remove any air bubbles, clean head space & outer threads with a clean, damp cloth, add lids & rings (that you've been keeping in hot water), not super tight, and process in water bath covering the topd of the cans by an inch of water just below a simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the water bath and let sit, undisturbed overnight.  Next morning, check to make sure they've sealed and tighten the rings.

Makes about 10 1/2 cups.

There are many resources for more complete instructions on jamming and canning.  Check out your local library, co-op, or homesteading groups.

Raid Your Healthy Pantry for DIY Beauty

I've stopped buying beauty products kind of in general, and especially those with long lists of ingredients that may or may not be pronounceable and probably not good for my skin anyway. More and more, I use simple, natural, whole products of one ingredient or make my own. I'm so grateful to have access to wholesome products from my co-op to make artisan, all organic, custom beauty products!

A Few Uses for Coconut Oil 
(Please always use fair trade; let's not support slavery.  My fav is Dr. Bronner's whole kernal virgin)
Hair conditioner or styling
Lip balm
Shaving cream
Deodorant
SPF 7 sunscreen
Deep face and body moisturizer
Toothpaste
Make-up remover
Sooth burns, rashes, dry skin, and bug bites
(and here's many more)

A Few Uses for Apple Cider Vinegar
(I make my own by naturally fermenting fresh, raw cider from Smit Farms from the farmers market or I buy Bragg's organic)
Dilute a tablespoon in a cup of water and:
- use as a hair rinse for soft, shiny locks or to control dandruff, itchiness, greasiness, or irritation)
- use on your face as an astringent, as an overnight spot treatment for blemishes, or as after shave
- soak a washcloth and apply to sooth a sunburn
Wipe it on your feet to control foot odor
Dilute with 2 parts water and use as a mouthwash for better breath and whiter teeth
(and here's some more)

My Face Moisturizer & Hipster Beard Oil

DIY Hair Pomade

Gentle Foaming Cleanser
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp water
¼ tsp lemon juice, apple cider vinegar (oilier skin), or plain yogurt (drier skin)

Combine ingredients and use as any cleanser. Rinse with water.

Detoxifying Facial Mask
1 tsp bentonite clay
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp honey

Smooth onto skin, let dry to 10-15 minutes, then rinse with warm water.

Smoothie Facial Masks
¼ cup plain yogurt
¼ cup chopped fresh fruit/veggies
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp dry milk powder (optional)

Combine in a blender or food processor until smooth. Apply to face and leave on for five minutes, then rinse with cool water. Stays fresh in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Choose your favorite mask blend…
for most skin types: cucumber (soothes blotchiness and irritation), banana, watermelon, persimmon
for oily skin: peach, apricot, tomato, grape (not concord)
for dry skin: carrot, cantaloupe, avocado, honeydew
for acne: an egg white

Astringent or Toner
apple cider vinegar or lemon juice diluted with green or chamomile tea

Body Scrubs
3 Tbsp course salt, sugar, or oats
2 Tbsp oil and/or honey
¼ tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Combine & scrub in the shower or bath to exfoliate & cleanse. Makes skin super soft and leaves an awesome scent!
If using oats, first pulverize them in a food processor until powdery.
If using oil, careful in the tub: it’s slippery!

Skin Moisturizer
avocado oil, olive oil, almond oil, jojoba oil, coconut oil, or shea butter

DIY Toothpaste