Rosemary adds a dramatic aspect to the garden.
In The Garden - August 2010
Published on Fri, Jul 30, 2010 by By Peg KeenleysideRead More In The Garden
As summer memories on the Point go, I’d say this year is definitely shaping up to be a bumper crop. What with the new community/ farmer’s market kicking off, the return of the Garden Tour and the Oscar-worthy Fourth of July parade – to mention just a few – all under July’s gloriously sunny blue skies, is it possible that August has yet more in store? If you’re not too busy lying on the beach or taking in more fantastic community events this month, take time to capture the pleasures of the garden by “putting up” a few jars of the best of the season and stocking the freezer for the winter months when you long for that memory of the “best-summer-ever” summer.
Tomatoes and tomato-fruit salsas are, in our experience at The Cottage Pantry, some of the best choices for canning. The imported winter tomato is a sad, anemic thing, to be shunned from the plate if at all possible. If you haven’t grown your own, this month and on into September local field grown and organic tomatoes will be abundantly available at farmer’s markets; look for heritage varieties in colors of orange, yellow, green and burgundy. For a good source of organic heritage-seed tomatoes from West Coast Seeds, visit the Earthwise Farm Store in Boundary Bay.
When peaches arrive from the interior this month, snap up a few extra pounds for making a tomato-peach salsa. Apart from the must-have tomato sauce for winter soups and pasta dishes, I like to have canned tomatoes and especially tomato-fruit salsas on hand for chicken and white fish.
There are all kinds of easy tomato canning recipes to be sourced on the Internet or at your local library. Some call for just getting the tomatoes into the jar for later sauce-making elaboration, while others will have several immediate steps. As a cardinal food safety rule, always use a recipe designed specifically for canning. The National Center for Home Food Preservation website is a highly recommended starting point for food safety and recipe reference. My favorite tomato-peach salsa recipe can be sourced at the Bernadin.ca website.
One of the Point’s copious edible offerings in August/ early September (and one hopefully not actually found in your garden) is the ubiquitous blackberry. Being sure to wear protective clothing, harvest blackberries when they are plump, glistening and sweet in the mouth.
Promises of a blackberry pie as a reward for picking has encouraged many a kid at the farm here to help with “putting by” our blackberries. My own childhood memories of cottage time involve bunches of kids dodging blackberry thorns early in the morning in the quest for the biggest pie berries while our parents “slept in” – only to realize in later years that “sleeping in” was no doubt more aptly, “sleeping it off.”
In addition to freezing for winter eating and pie making, you can get that “summer-in-jar” pleasure and vitamin C of blackberries in winter by low-sugar jamming. I like to use the low-sugar commercial pectin called Ponoma for my jam making; available by mail order or ask for it at select whole food markets. Throw a couple of blackberries in your martini and make a whole case of blackberry jam for gift giving at the winter holidays.
Blackberries and local plums – the richer red the better – is a marriage made in jam heaven, so when your neighbor’s plum tree comes into its own this month, be sure to offer to pick some for the jam pot and offer them a couple of jars in return. Blackberry-plum jam with walnuts is a recipe you can find in the inspired and inspiring Clearly Delicious by Elizabeth Ortiz; a guide to all manner of preserving that we use a lot at The Cottage Pantry.
My winter freezer wouldn’t be complete without homemade pesto that I freeze in ice cube trays and then freezer bag, popping a couple out at a time for soups and sauces through the winter. The best pesto recipe starts with bunches of fresh basil – at its height in August – garlic and fresh grated parmesan cheese. To these you’ll also need a good quality olive oil and, traditionally, pine nuts. Pine nut prices being somewhat on par with the price of gold bullion these days, consider locally grown hazelnuts as an alternative. Look for them at local farmer’s markets.
So whether you’re inspired to eat as locally or as frugally as possible this coming winter, or you simply want to pack away a few edible summer memories in your pantry for a dark and dreary winter day meal, this is the time to look to the garden and meadow for inspiration and do some old-fashioned “putting by.”
Esther Rosenthal, with giant hollyhock.
Photo by CJ Kelly
Tomatoes and tomato-fruit salsas are, in our experience at The Cottage Pantry, some of the best choices for canning. The imported winter tomato is a sad, anemic thing, to be shunned from the plate if at all possible. If you haven’t grown your own, this month and on into September local field grown and organic tomatoes will be abundantly available at farmer’s markets; look for heritage varieties in colors of orange, yellow, green and burgundy. For a good source of organic heritage-seed tomatoes from West Coast Seeds, visit the Earthwise Farm Store in Boundary Bay.
When peaches arrive from the interior this month, snap up a few extra pounds for making a tomato-peach salsa. Apart from the must-have tomato sauce for winter soups and pasta dishes, I like to have canned tomatoes and especially tomato-fruit salsas on hand for chicken and white fish.
There are all kinds of easy tomato canning recipes to be sourced on the Internet or at your local library. Some call for just getting the tomatoes into the jar for later sauce-making elaboration, while others will have several immediate steps. As a cardinal food safety rule, always use a recipe designed specifically for canning. The National Center for Home Food Preservation website is a highly recommended starting point for food safety and recipe reference. My favorite tomato-peach salsa recipe can be sourced at the Bernadin.ca website.
One of the Point’s copious edible offerings in August/ early September (and one hopefully not actually found in your garden) is the ubiquitous blackberry. Being sure to wear protective clothing, harvest blackberries when they are plump, glistening and sweet in the mouth.
Promises of a blackberry pie as a reward for picking has encouraged many a kid at the farm here to help with “putting by” our blackberries. My own childhood memories of cottage time involve bunches of kids dodging blackberry thorns early in the morning in the quest for the biggest pie berries while our parents “slept in” – only to realize in later years that “sleeping in” was no doubt more aptly, “sleeping it off.”
In addition to freezing for winter eating and pie making, you can get that “summer-in-jar” pleasure and vitamin C of blackberries in winter by low-sugar jamming. I like to use the low-sugar commercial pectin called Ponoma for my jam making; available by mail order or ask for it at select whole food markets. Throw a couple of blackberries in your martini and make a whole case of blackberry jam for gift giving at the winter holidays.
Blackberries and local plums – the richer red the better – is a marriage made in jam heaven, so when your neighbor’s plum tree comes into its own this month, be sure to offer to pick some for the jam pot and offer them a couple of jars in return. Blackberry-plum jam with walnuts is a recipe you can find in the inspired and inspiring Clearly Delicious by Elizabeth Ortiz; a guide to all manner of preserving that we use a lot at The Cottage Pantry.
My winter freezer wouldn’t be complete without homemade pesto that I freeze in ice cube trays and then freezer bag, popping a couple out at a time for soups and sauces through the winter. The best pesto recipe starts with bunches of fresh basil – at its height in August – garlic and fresh grated parmesan cheese. To these you’ll also need a good quality olive oil and, traditionally, pine nuts. Pine nut prices being somewhat on par with the price of gold bullion these days, consider locally grown hazelnuts as an alternative. Look for them at local farmer’s markets.
So whether you’re inspired to eat as locally or as frugally as possible this coming winter, or you simply want to pack away a few edible summer memories in your pantry for a dark and dreary winter day meal, this is the time to look to the garden and meadow for inspiration and do some old-fashioned “putting by.”
Esther Rosenthal, with giant hollyhock.
Photo by CJ Kelly
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