Preserving Hatch Green Chiles

For some reason driving past the hatch chile fields is one of the prominent memories from our original drive out here to Kansas from Arizona.  So when I saw the hatch chile peppers in the market display, I was inexplicably driven to buy some.

They sat for a few days in my fridge before I figured out what to do with them.  I just had to wrap my head around how to make them useful for our family.  I remembered (as a good southwestern girl) that we frequently use those little cans of diced green chiles in things like cornbread, my award-winning white chilli recipe, and our fall favorite–sweet potato and black bean enchiladas.  So I decided storing the chiles in the form for those recipes would be most useful for us.

I put the peppers under the broiler to blister the skins, transferred them to a paper bag to steam and settle for an hour, then slipped the skins right off and diced them into little 4-oz jars.  I’m just going to freeze these, though I could process them if I had a pressure canner–but I don’t, and we do have enough freezer space.

The whole process was pretty straightforward.  Now that I know what I’m doing I may go back for some more chiles and put up a handful more jars for the winter.  Of course, now a few hours later I’m realizing that maybe next time I should take precaution to protect my hands–the burning has set in.

Oh well.  I really do like those sweet potato black bean enchiladas.

Two Lugs

A friend and I went to the produce market on Friday to buy fresh peaches.  I got two lugs and she got three.  Then we were quickly off home to find every delicious way to use them up!

Like. . .

7  quarts canned peach halves

3-1/2 pints peach-vanilla syrup

2- 1/2 quarts dried peaches (though we’re already down by 1 quart)

1 peach pie

1 peach cobbler (eaten for breakfast–it is just fruit and biscuits after all!)

1 sheet peach fruit leather

countless slices of delicious juicy peaches eaten fresh out of hand

 

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How are you enjoying peach season?

Foraged Violet Jelly

Sometimes when I see or read an idea, I know instantly: I will do that.  I latch on to it and become determined to make it happen.  That’s how it was for me when I first heard of wildflower jelly.

Last year I made dandelion jelly first, but was sad to have missed the wild violet season. This year I was determined to make the violet jelly, so I did that first and next I’ll do some more dandelion jelly.

I got some blossoms from my backyard for my first batch.  But I didn’t have very many so later we went foraging through the neighborhood for more.  I knocked on a neibor’s door and she was surprised but more than happy to let me help myself to her patch of violets.

to make violet jelly you pour boiling water over the blossoms to steep them like tea.

I always strain it through a floursack towel to keep out all the dirt. (See what got left behind?)

The violet water is a deep blue color, but when you add lemon juice (the acidity is necessary to preserve the jelly) it turns a bright fuchsia color.

They really are beautiful.

Violet Jelly Recipe:

The basic recipe is all over the internet-

2 cups violet blossoms, stems removed.

2 cups boiling water

juice of one lemon

1 package pectin (I used sure-jel for these)

4 cups sugar

Steep blossoms in water overnight.  Strain.  Add water if needed to make 2 cups.  Add lemon juice.  Follow directions for your pectin–mine were: Add pectin to juice.  Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve.  Add sugar, return to rolling boil, and boil for one minute exactly.  Ladle into jars and process in water bath canner for 10 minutes.  (Makes 12 4oz jars)

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Violet Jelly with Honey variation:

I experimented with using honey instead of white sugar to make the jelly.  I use Pomona’s Pectin. I used one cup of the violet water and followed the directions in Pomona’s for a basic jelly.  It was 1T lemon juice; 1/4 cup honey; 1 tsp of the calcium water (that comes with the Pomona’s Pectin); and 1 tsp of pectin. (Makes 3 4oz jars)

Next time I will use a little bit more pectin because it was a pretty loose set, and I may add a bit more honey–it was a very mellow jelly.  It definitely has some floral hints to it and I could taste the honey.  Obviously the jelly was more cloudy from the honey, but all-natural instead.

All-in-all it was a very satisfying project.

Rainbow of Jars

I thought it would be fun to set out all the jars I had canned this summer.  Well, one of each at least.

They made a beautiful rainbow of preserves.  The only one I had to double up on was the plum preserves on the left (because I’m a sucker for symmetry).  Then comes the applesauce, canned peaches, peach vanilla syrup, dandelion jelly, pickles, refrigerator pickles, triple berry syrup, and blueberries.

I also canned elderberry syrup/jelly since then as well.  It would land on the purple end.  Usually I keep my jars tucked away  from sunlight in a cupboard, but it was fun to pull them all out to look at their colors together.

Real food is colorful!