Hop Harvesting

It's easy... cut the vine, pick the hops.  Try not to get your arms and hands scratched to the point of bleeding.

Total take on 2 of 3 vines was 2 half full laundry baskets.  Not a good harvest according to Scott.  Last year was a total bust due to excessive wetness (ie flood), but the year before yeilded over 6 full baskets from the 3 vines.  He thinks they are still recovering from the drowning last year.  His wife gave me cutting to plant at my place early this spring, but only 1 of 6-7 plants survived, and the hops are only as big as my thumbnail.

A Little Local History

Spent Saturday afternoon in Marietta at a friends harvesting hops (another post).  Decided to head to the river for a few hours.  Next year is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.  A few days prior to the battle, Confederate troops were attempting to cross the Susquehanna River on route to Lancaster.  A small group of Union solders prevented the crossing by burning the Wrightsville-Columbia bridge.  It was at the time the longest wooden bridge in the world.  You can read about it here.

Columbia, Marietta, and Wrightsville across the river make up an area known as The River Towns.  Great place to spend a weekend.  Lots to do and see.

Here is an artists rendition of the fire, and an actual photograph of the bridge.  The photo is taken from the Wrightsville side of the river looking east.  The fire was started on this side.  The painting is from the Columbia side, looking west.  The smaller overhangs were for pedestrian and those on horseback.

 

The stone pillars still stand, overgrown with scrub grass and trees.  Every 5 years bonfires are lit on the top of each one to commemorate the burning.  Amazing the stonework, after 150 plus years.  It was completed in 1834 and is the second of 4 bridges that were to be constructed on these pillars.  You can read about them, and the other two bridges here. 

A new concrete bridge was built in the late 1920's, and you can see it in the background, and clearer in this view.  The pillars are on the other side in this pic.  Once a year, the bridge is shut down to traffic and vendors and artists line the mile long bridge.  It's called the Bridge Bust and is always the first Saturday in October.

It was a nice way to finish a hot afternoon.

Post Peaches

It's been a while since I posted.  So here's what happened the rest of the month.

More peaches.... bought another half bushel of peaches and made jam.... lots of jam... trying to perfect the recipe... which i think i did.... 4 cups of mashed peaches to 1 cup of honey.  Don't know why I don't have a picture, but I don't.  You can taste the honey, unlike using 1/2 cup.  It is a keeper.

Needed to clean out the freezer to be able to put more stuff in the freezer.  It was packed.  Strawberries, Blueberries, Black Raspberries, Sour Cherries, Rhubarb, and Chicken.  No, chicken is not a fruit.  Ended up making more jam

12 jars of strawberry jam back left with labels, 8 small jars of strawberry rhubarb, and front center is 9 small jars of black raspberry jelly.  The strawberry and raspberry jelly were using the 4 cups fruit/juice and 1 cup sugar.  It came out fantastic.  While I was cooking down the raspberries to get ready to strain it, the whole house smelled wonderful.  LG came up on the porch and could smell it from there.  The jelly tastes like nectar... totally delicious.  The strawberry rhubarb used 4 cups strawberry rhubarb 1:1 mixture and 1.5 cups of sugar.  Tart and excellent.

Ended up cleaning out the garden last week.  Pulled the beans and the brussel sprouts.  The sprouts never really developed.  The biggest ones were a little bigger than my thumb nail. 

The beans on the other hand rocked.  Several times a week when walking past i would pic a handful and munch.  I still had a bunch to freeze... now that i had a little room.  Unfortunately, the purple ones lose their pigment when blanched.  But, they look beautiful in a fresh salad.

Another project completed these last 2 weeks of August was the bottling of the strawberry wine.  It was absulutely clear and just dang purty in color.  Ended up with 18 bottles that will sit and age for a year, at least.  Came out dry and strong.  16% ABV.

The morning sun comes thru the window over the sink and hits the counter.  I put some bottles in the sun and this is the color on the counter top.  I just think it's cool.

Speaking of wine... Black Raspberry is in the primary fermenter.  Wine or Jelly, Wine or Jelly.... wine won out.  Started this on 8/29 and pitched the yeast yesterday.  SG was 1.084 which should end up approx 14% ABV and sweet.  Only making a gallon, but have access to 40lbs of frozen fruit if I wanna make a 5 gallon batch... which I probably will.  The fruit is in the white mash bag to keep all the setiment together.  I didn't use the bag when I made the strawberry, and wasted alot in the sediment.  Live and learn.

Tomatoes are the next topic.  Picked a half bushel and canned.  Peeled a bunch (scalding water trick) and canned them with clove of garlic, oregano, basil, and black pepper.  And did two types of sauce.  One had green pepper, onion, garlic, basil, oregano, and salt and pepper.  To the other, added an eggplant and red lentils.  That was LG's idea.  That's how she makes sauce.  The eggplant and lentils cook down and disappear in the sauce.  Ends up a very rich, thick sauce.... love it.  If you look close, you can see the garlic cloves in the quart jars.

Replanting the garden with fall crops.  Lettuce, spinach, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and an experiment with sugar snap peas.  I sprouted the peas to give them a head start.  Literally 2 days after putting them in the ground, they were starting to break the surface.  I was amazed.  Next year, presprouting all the beans... may even try the squashes too.

And finally, finishing up with some misc pics... , itty bitty tomatoes, lemon cukes, and sunflowers in the horseshoe pits (sorry stevo).

 

 

Peaches.... and the byproducts

I've been wanting to do some canning this year... something, anything.  Made some strawberry/rhubarb jam earlier.  It turned out great, but too much sweet, not enough rhubarb.  The recipe called for 8.5 cups of fruit (4.25 cups each), and 10 cups of sugar.  No way.  I cut it down to 8 cups, and it was still too sweet. 

This lead me to a search for low sugar recipes, and eventually lead me to Pomona's Universal Pectin, which reacts with calcium powder (included in the package) to cause the set, instead of sugar. Click the link.

I made my next batch of jam using Pomona's Pectin.  Blueberry jam using honey as the sweetener.  Blueberry nectar.  Delicious but it didn't set well, more like a syrup.  But it set loose after a few days, and set hard in the fridge. Looking back, I didn't let it cook down enough and hadn't learned the "Sheeting Test" or 220 degrees temp. Gonna make each of these again in the near future.

Anyway, this post is about Peaches.  

 

I did a bunch of stuff yesterday, and had all these peels and pits left over.  LG heard about Peach Pit and Peel jelly and went home to find a recipe, and came back unsuccessful.  She said, "You have the internet, look it up." which was a brilliant idea.  duh.

Pits Peels in a Pot

Strained and ready to go

Found one and adapted it.  This recipe is based off how much juice you get out of your pits and peels.  It produces a light, elegant peach flavor jelly.

Like I said, it uses Pomona’s Universal Pectin that uses calcium water to “set up”, and not sugar, so you are able to use Tablespoons of sugar, not Cups of sugar.  Taste the fruit, not the sugar (I just made that up... gonna sell it to Pomona's).

 

PEACH PIT PEEL JELLY

Save pits and peels and barely cover them with water in a large pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.  Let stand overnight.  Strain thru a wet cheesecloth. DO NOT SQUEEZE.  Squeezing produces cloudy juice and jelly... like mine.  :-(

Per cup of juice, you will need the following (able to double, triple, quadruple, etc)

1T Lemon Juice

1T Calcium Water

3T Sugar

1T Pomona’s Universal Pectin

Add Pit Peel Juice, Lemon Juice, and Calcium Water and bring to a boil.  Mix the Pomona’s Universal Pectin with the sugar so the pectin will not clump.  Add Pectin/Sugar mix to the boiling liquid and stir vigorously for 1-2 minutes while cooking to dissolve Pectin.  Keep boiling until it reached the “sheeting off” jelly test (around 220 degrees).  Skim off foam.  Pour into hot jelly jars and seal.  Process the jars in a boiling hot water bath for 10 minutes.  (Add 1 minute for every 1,000 feet above sea level)

(L to R)  Pit Peel Jelly, Peach Jam sweetened with honey, Spirited Peaches w/SoCo, and Honey Spiced Peaches with cinnamon stick, nutmeg, and cloves.

I started with 6 cups of juice, and ended up with 4.5 cups of jelly.  I boiled it down a bit until it reached “sheeting off”.  I’ve found with Pomona’s Pectin, that you need to get excess water out of the mix for it to set, which only concentrates the flavor.  Win Win.

The recipe I adapted the above from uses 1 package of powdered pectin and 3 cups of sugar for every 3 cups of pit peel juice.  That equates to 16T of sugar for every cup of juice, instead of 3T. 

This is the tally of yesterday morning... 5.5 jelly jars PitPeel Jelly, 9.75 jelly jars of Peach Jam, 8 pints of Honey Spiced Peaches, and 10 jelly jars Spirited Peaches.

Still have a small bowl of fruit left, out of half a bushel.

Edit: No fruit left, just made 4 jars of spirited peaches with DiSoronno,  :-)

Boiling Bee Boxes

Bought a bunch of bee stuff from a guy who tended bees with his dad years ago.  Got the stuff relatively cheap but it was in need of some serious attention.  It has been up in my barn for months, till this weekend.

4 deeps for raising brood, and 4 supers for honey storage.... and the frames to go with them. 

Decided to tackle the boxes first.  Wanted to boil them in a combo of wax and rosin instead of painting them, but had to scrape and sand them to get all the remaining paint off so the wax could penetrate the wood.  Ended up mostly sanding them with a palm sander using coarse paper.  One of the boxes was riddled with wax moth gouging.  The larvae will eat into the side of the box and form it's cocoon.  It was a neat pattern.... if you can call an infestation of wax moth "neat".  The box had to be empty, cuz the bees would never have allowed this to happen.

I did this over at BeeBoys restaurant while he was doing the deposits for the week.  Melting the wax with a chunk of rosin.  Kept it at a constant temp of 300 degrees.

Boxes in the brew... with a closeup.

Each side was immersed for 10m and I was able to do a deep and a shallow at one time.  They smelled like pine, and had a smooth feel to them when done.  BeeBoy took a series of pics when i pulled one out and we watched the wax just absorb into the wood.  The boiling draws out the moisture (although these were pretty dry) and as it cools, the wax is sucked into the grain, replacing the moisture.  There are plenty of videos on youtube showing the process.

Notice how a drop of water just beads up.

And the completed pile... very pleased with how they look... but alot of work to do on the frames.

Very antique and folk looking.  Just like me... an antique and folk looking.  :-)

Garden Update

All the old stuff is pulled and awaiting the fall crops... starting late July, so it's around the corner.  In this the only thing left is carrots, soy beans, string beans, lima's, onions, and the brussel sprouts.

The eggplants are starting to produce.  Tomatoes are still recovering from my overzealous watering earlier.  Some have flowers, some green tomatoes, and i've eaten some.  Jury is still out on the tomato crop as a whole.

And the burial mound is full of beans in the foreground, zuchini, acorn and butternut squash, a few tomatoes, and cukes.  Bamboo stakes are to get the cukes to go vertical... we'll see how that turns out.

Would like to see more asparagus pop up, have 10 out of 18 so far... but they seem grouped together with large empty spaces in between the 2 groups.  Might replant some next year.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

First time ever making and canning jam by myself.  Did it hundreds of times with my mom, but never myself.  Actually, the last few years she did can, I usually did it while she watched.  Last thing we canned was whole plum tomatoes with garlic cloves, oregano, and basil.  Gonna do that again this year... as a tribute to her.  Gone 5 year last week.

Had the berries and the rhubarb in the freezer already measured out according to this recipe.  Used 8 instead of 10 cups of sugar, but used the regular pectin.  They make a reduced sugar pectin, which i'll use next time.  This is the recipe, got it somewhere on the web...

Ingredients

• 4 1/4 cups diced rhubarb
• 4 1/4 cups sliced fresh strawberries
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 (1.75 ounce) packages powdered fruit pectin
• 1/2 teaspoon butter (optional)
• 10 cups white sugar
• 12 half-pint canning jars with lids and rings

Directions

1. Place rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, fruit pectin, and butter into a large kettle over medium heat. (Butter is optional but helps keep jam from getting too foamy). Stir the fruit mixture to help the juice start to form, and add sugar, about 1 cup at a time, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved and the juice is starting to simmer. Turn up heat to medium-high, bring the mixture to a full rolling boil, and cook and stir for 1 minute. Skim off any foam that forms.
2. Sterilize the jars and lids in boiling water for at least 5 minutes. With a jelly funnel and a soup ladle, pack the jam into the hot, sterilized jars, filling the jars to within 1/4 inch of the top. Run a knife or a thin spatula around the insides of the jars after they have been filled to remove any air bubbles. Wipe the rims of the jars with a moist paper towel to remove any food residue. Top with lids, and screw on rings.
3. Place a rack in the bottom of a large stockpot and fill halfway with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then carefully lower the jars into the pot using a holder. Leave a 2 inch space between the jars. Pour in more boiling water if necessary until the water level is at least 1 inch above the tops of the jars. Bring the water to a full boil, cover the pot, and process for 5 minutes.

Remove the jars from the stockpot and place onto a cloth-covered or wood surface, several inches apart, until cool. To help the jam set, don't move or touch the jars until cooled. Once cool, press the top of each lid with a finger, ensuring that the seal is tight (lid does not move up or down at all). Store in a cool, dark area. 

Started with this... Frozen berries and rhubarb.  I ended up pulling out the rhubarb and put it in a food processer and pulsed it smaller.... next time i won't do that and just let it break down as it cooks.  I took the back of a slotted spoon and mashed the bigger berries that were still whole.  I won't do that either next time.
 

 

Jam finishing it's rolling boil, lids hot, jars clean and hot off to the right, hot water bath boiling and ready to receive jars.

Here's a closeup of the boil. Beautiful deep red color, but the lens steamed up.  Should have stepped back and taken another.

Half way thru... (no, i didn't use any pepper, it's a constant on my counter)

Ready to be lowered in the bath.  Cleaned up while these were processing.  Jam was still a little too sweet, but you can definitely taste the rhubarb.  Good Stuff.

Done, and cooling on the counter.  Pop Pop Pop. as the lids seal.

The neighbor is making homemade ice cream this week.  Gonna try some out on top of that.

Losing weight and getting in shape... over rated <not>