Peach Melon Conserve

This is a jar of peach-melon conserve, our all time favorite condiment.  Although my recipe calls this a "conserve," it doesn't have the consistency of a jam, and we just call it "ice cream sauce." It is the perfect gift for any occasion and I'll give you a step by step tutorial on how to make it.

The melons we grow are not strictly a cantaloupe, but are a "Butterscotch" melon called "Serenade."  We buy the seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine.  Johnny's is an employee owned company and is a member of the Safe Seed Initiative.  As such they pledge to never knowingly buy or sell genetically engineered or modified seeds or plants.

Serenade is a smooth skinned melon with pale orange flesh.

Here's how:

In an 8 - 10 quart kettle, combine three cups chopped peaches with the chopped rind of one orange and two tablespoons of orange juice.  Use slightly under-ripe peaches for their higher pectin content.  Add three cups chopped melon and bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly to prevent scorching.

 Add 1 1/2 cups sugar and bring again to a full rolling boil. Boil uncovered for ten minutes.

Note that I am wearing a thick rubber glove
to protect my hand from the heat given off
by the boiling fruit.

Add 1/2 t. ground nutmeg and 1/4 t. salt and boil another 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and quickly skim off any foam with a metal spoon.

Fill canning jars to within 1/2 inch of rim.

Use a clean damp cloth to clean the rim of the canning jar. 
Anything left on the rim could keep the jar from sealing during the canning process. 

Apply clean, brand new lids and tightly screw on the jar rings.

Use a jar lifter to place the jars into the basket of the water bath canner.
Process for ten minutes.

This recipe makes seven half pints of conserve.

Here we made a triple batch.  We filled twenty jars and processed three canner loads.  Nineteen of twenty jars sealed.  One did not and will need to be refrigerated until used. 

If you have never done water bath canning before, please refer to the "Ball Blue Book" guide to home canning and freezing.  Canning is not rocket science but neither is it foolproof. There is more to know than I can provide in this blog format so please don't risk spoilage or foodborne illness. 

You can also learn about water bath canning at http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_home.html. 



This recipe is also fantastic with traditional cantaloupe melon!



  

Best Raw Sauce

This is the month to enjoy fresh and easy pasta sauces! This one is a tad messy to make, but well worth the effort.  Make this sauce with fully ripe tomatoes and marinate for one to four hours at room temperature.  It is a wet but chunky sauce, best with angel hair or other thin pasta shapes.  The sauce here was made with big chunky paste tomatoes, but use whatever you have in the garden, or from the farmer's market.  If you do have to shop for your tomatoes, remember never to refrigerate them; their flavor vanishes in the cold.

Here's what you need to make the sauce:

3 - 4 Tbsp. olive oil
2 - 3 tsp. ume or balsamic vinegar
2 -3 lbs. ripe, fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
one small onion
one clove garlic
salt and freshly ground pepper
fresh basil for garnish

To peel and seed the tomatoes, parboil them for 45 seconds and then place them on a cutting board to cool.  (A cutting board with a trough for catching jiuces is really a necessity here.)

While the tomatoes are cooling, mince the onion and garlic and put them in a lovely ceramic dish with a cover that you have purchased from a local artisan.

Here's the fun part, especially if you were never allowed to get dirty or messy as a kid.  Locate yourself over or right next to your compost bucket.  Pick up a tomato and with a paring knife cut out the stem and green shoulder area.  You will find that the skin now slips off easily and can be discarded.

 Now cut the tomato into quarters, hold it over the compost bucket, and slide your finger down the length of the tomato to remove the seeds and liquid.  Return the tomato to the cutting board and chop into chunks.

Scoop up the chunks and add them to the lovely handmade dish.  Notice that most of the tomato liquid has been left behind, either in the compost bucket or on the cutting board.  (To minimize your mess, think this step through for the equipment you have available.)

Add oil and vinegar, salt and pepper.  Stir well to mix all ingredients.  Cover sauce and allow to marinate for one to four hours at room temperature.  This is a delicate sauce, so you will need more per pound of pasta than you would need of a thick, cooked down sauce.  About three cups per pound is fine.

This recipe adapted from Harrowsmith Country Life magazine.  

Dried Tomatoes

Sun dried tomatoes in just about anything are popular around here.  But let me tell you I am no fan of sun drying them.  Been there, tried that.  They do attract flies, and suffice it to say, the experience prompted us to purchase a food dehydrator.  It runs on electricity, and it takes up space, but it has earned its keep over the years.

In past years we have dried tomatoes to the point where they can be stored simply in a jar on a shelf.  But the texture of tomatoes at that stage of dryness is crispy, and not that appealing.  So we dry them to a state of chewiness, then pack them into the freezer.

The tomatoes we grow for drying are called "Principe Borgese." They are a small tomato, with a low water content and thick flesh.  We also grow two types of "cherry" tomatoes, and dry any extras of those we have on hand, once the dryer is going.  They turn out somewhat tougher, being mostly skin and seeds once the water is gone. 

The drying process is simple: cut the tomatoes in half, and line them up skin side down on the drier racks.  (If you put them on with the cut side down, they stick to the mesh and make it hard to clean up.)

Then they go into the dryer at the "fruit" setting, 135 degrees, for about two days.  We don't leave the dehydrator going overnight or when we leave home, so the timing varies.



The food dehydrator is a somewhat insulated box with a heating element and a fan to circulate the air. 
One convenient feature is that the door is attached magnetically, and comes right off for loading.



But, as I mentioned earlier, we bag up the dried tomatoes and put them in the freezer, so the degree of dryness is not really critical.  The ones you see here are still soft, but are dry enough that, when you go to use them, you can shake out just the amount you need. Their flavor is unbelievable!