Tags
Concord, Cook, Fruit preserves, Grape, Herb, Home, Jams Jellies and Preserves, Sugar
And the food just keeps on coming. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful harvest this year!
First off, the tomatoes. I made our first batch of spaghetti sauce. We use this recipe with a few tweaks:
- Use fresh herbs from the garden instead of dried herbs. Use double the quantity of fresh herbs;
- Add any hot peppers we have been growing just to give it an extra kick;
- Cook it on the stove top instead of the slow cooker so that the liquid reduces more; otherwise, it’s too runny.
We have a crazy amount of cherry tomatoes this year. They’re so lovely – sweet and delicious. Almost like candy.
Second, grapes! Our grape vines suddenly decided to produce for the first time. We’re not sure if they’re Concord or Valiant (we got a vine cutting from a friend a few years ago), but I do know they make delicious grape juice and grape jelly. If you ever make homemade grape jelly, do yourself a favour and use it in a PB & J sandwich. Yum.
This was my first attempt at making jelly, and it worked! I always make jams because it really doesn’t matter if a jam doesn’t set – you just end up with a fruity spread or preserve. But if jelly doesn’t set, you’re kinda screwed, right? But it worked! Hurrah! I’ve been using a no-sugar pectin this year so that I don’t have to overload everything with white sugar, but I’m not so sure about the final result. It seems to add a flavour. I think I can taste the pectin. Has anyone else ever experienced this? Or am I just crazy?
Anyway, the food keeps on coming, and I keep on preserving. Back to the canning pot!