Fall Fruits

Well it's been a quiet fall for me in terms of foraging and jam making. I've been on the road for work and pleasure more than ever before and sadly missed many a forage opportunity in my usual fall haunts. (I've currently got my eye out for olives, if anyone has a good spot!) It's a rather belated thought to offer up some fall harvest in a jar to all of you--but I do currently have some yummy persimmon, apple, pear and cherry offerings (see current flavors). These little jars would love a cozy stocking stuff, gift offering, or other excuse to relocate to your house and out of my cupboards. I'm hoping to do more forage and jam making (and less travel) in the spring, so keep your eyes out for new fabulous flavors coming soon. Happy End of 2011 and Welcome 2012!

Rhubarb Apple Sauce and the Sweetness of the Friendship Web

I love the way the friendship web spreads, and the way a house full of jars of sweet fruit-ness can spark the spreading web. I think that is reason enough for canning and jam making. A friend of mine who was staying with me took a jar of pears to a friend of hers. The friend of the friend turned out to have an abundance of apples and shared a big bag of apples back with me. An hour of clean up in the yard this morning led to a pile of rhubarb ready to cook, and voila---rhubarb applesauce is born. Now I have half a dozen jars of rhubarb applesauce (with ginger and lemon) and half a dozen jars of regular apple sauce to share back out with the friendship web. The endless multiplication potential of forage, fruit, and sharing. Thanks Chewy, Terri Lynn, and Alicia (for the rhubarb inspiration).

Olives

So I'm not sure if Olives are a fruit, I think they are, but either way they are seriously in season right now, and this weekend I spent some time with friends picking and processing. I've been seeing ripe olive trees on sidewalks all over town, so it is forager heaven. Olives are really, really, really easy to cure too. You basically just slit them and brine in salt water for a month, changing the water every week.

We had 4 trees, 1 hour of picking, 6 hands for processing (well, 2 of them belonged to a 2 and a half year old, so they maybe count as 50%--thanks for the help Simon Lev!) and we stuffed more than 6 half gallon jars with olives.

They'll take about a month to cure, and then another week or two to marinate. Here is the recipe I used last year. They were the best olives I've ever had!

Marinade: 1.5 C white wine vinegar, 1T salt dissolved in 2 C water, 1.5 t dried oregano, 3 lemon wedges, 2 cloves garlic, olive oil. (This is from about.com at http://homecooking.about.com/od/fruitrecipes/r/blfruit35.htm)

Check in in mid January if you'd like some!

Tis the Season to Give Jam

The Holidays are fast upon us. If you are thinking of gifting jam this year, you may want to place your orders soon. The sticky, yummy, foraged, local sweetness in a jar will definitely sell out.

Pears, Pears, and More Pears

For the second year in a row, my generous neighbors on Fulton Street have shared the bounty of their gianormous pear tree with me. This year I harvested not just from the ground with the trusty fruit picking pole, but also from their roof with the trusty fruit picking pole. It was the end of the season, the tree had been well harvested, I picked 4 HUGE grocery bags full (with the help of their 6 year old and 8 year old), and the tree was STILL full of fruit. Voluminous masses of pears! Even the compost bucket full of pear peelings as I canned and jammed was voluminous!

Poached pears, dried pears, pear jam, pearsauce (like applesauce but better), pear butter, what else can one do with pears? This year's yield: over 80 jars of various pear yummy-ness.

Geographic Neighborhoods and Virtual Neighborhoods

I have always loved about fruit, forage, and jam-making the way it brings me into closer contact with my geographic neighborhoods and neighbors--meeting people through the acts of sharing bounty and harvest. The last month has also taught me the sweetness of virtual neighborhoods and the ways they interconnect with these geographic ones.

Over the past month 510Fruits has been Facebook shared, list-serve posted, and written about in several online media sources and blogs. In addition to the sweet emails I have received from folks expressing appreciation for the remembrance of forage and neighborhood and home-made jam, the virtual neighborhood has actually brought me lots of contact with my geographic neighborhood as well. Neighbors I had not yet met have been emailing with offers of fruit, and Sunday I shared favorite jam recipes with one of these new neighbors as we harvested 15 pounds of plums (3 different varieties!) from his backyard trees. Now I will add plum butter, plum jam, and whole stewed plums to the 510Fruits offerings. Thanks Hans!

Here are a few of the recent articles about 510Fruits.

http://oaklandlocal.com/article/hold-jamming-510

http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/08/510-jams-churn-goodness-from-foraged-fruit/


Thanks for sharing in the bounty both virtually and more proximally!

510 Fruits is back up and running

After a few quiet months, jam-making has once again become a weekly event at my house and as the jars are starting to take over both kitchen and dining room, it is time for a shout out to jam lovers everywhere to come and get some!

I've currently got about 10 different variations on stone fruit and berries. See the complete list on the right. I'll keep it updated as I add new flavors and/or sell out. (Hopefully I won't sell out in a week like last time!)