Let's revisit my summer with fruit

The weather is finally turning cold here in Arkansas, and a polar vortex is threatening later this week. The leaves are falling (and falling and falling. Turns out some oak trees are marcescent, which means they retain some of their dead leaves all winter, or as it plays out in our backyard, about half the leaves take two months to fall in October and November, and the other half stay on until March, when I have to rake all over again.) Anyway, as I was going to say, before I interrupted myself, it is getting cold, and while I am perfectly happy with that, it seems like a good time to revisit some of the lovely warm days of summer, and the food I never got around to showing you.

Oh, heavenly blueberries!

This year, for the first time since I left Washington 13 years ago, I found a farm offering u-pick blueberries. As I have mentioned before, my summers growing up were full of fresh berries, and one of the things I have missed dreadfully over the years is berry picking. It is one of the experiences of my childhood that I most wanted to be able to share with Malcolm, and I feared it would only happen on the occasional trip back to Washington.

Malcolm, with one of his favorite foods

 I have never been so happy to be wrong. Wye Mountain Flowers and Berries is about 45 minutes away from us, and they have blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. We went twice and picked all three. Malcolm caught on immediately, and while there was a certain amount of berry eating, a la Blueberries for Sal, he actually got some in the bucket too.

Blackberry jam

We had so many berries that we couldn't eat them all right away, so I did what any sensible person would do and made jam. Blackberry jam (above), blueberry jam, and even blueberry ginger jam (recipe from a fellow Whitman Alumna's great canning blog). Add these to the strawberry jam I made earlier in the year, and we might just make it to next summer.

Pickle coins!

I made pickles around the same time as well, although we still have some from last year. I can't help it - when cucumbers are so easily available and so easy to preserve, I sort of get carried away.

Mid-way through the process

After berry season ends in mid-to-late June, pesto season is not far away. I have always planted basil in my garden, and I usually have enough to make pesto. The last couple of years, I have had so much basil that not only do I make pesto by the quart, I have enough to dry and freeze for other cooking uses as well.

Mmm, pesto.

Last year, I decided to use pistachios instead of pine nuts, and this year I used cashews. Both are delicious alternatives if you are one of those people who have an allergic reaction to pine nuts. We usually freeze our pesto and use it all winter long, both on pasta and as a pizza sauce. So much better than the stuff you buy in jars at the super market!

The second box of the season, Golden Delicious

And of course, how could it be fall without a box of apples, or rather two, 40 pound boxes of apples, in my kitchen? I didn't manage to score enough peaches this year to preserve any - not sure if it just wasn't a good year for them, or if I just didn't try hard enough (probably the latter, since I do know an orchard that does u-pick), but I made up for it with the apples.

My apple processing workspace.

You'd think that after spending several days peeling, slicing and dehydrating apples, not to mention several pies, including a *real* double crust apple pie, I would have had enough of apples. You'd be wrong. I immediately bought a second box, and am only restraining myself with difficulty from getting a third of a different variety.

I was mightily proud of this pie. Usually I go for a more rustic (read, easier) sort of pie.

And that concludes my tour through my summer cooking. Now it is fall, and time to bake warm bread and cookies and pumpkin goodies. Wonder what I will make next?

Blueberries and cognitive dissonance

This picture creates cognitive dissonance for me. I love blueberries, and am wildly happy that our two bushes made it through the summer and winter and have many green berries on them. But, in my mind, blueberries don't show up until August, during Seafair, when the Blue Angels are flying overhead while we pick them. Here it is, only the first week of April (or it was when I took this picture), and there they are. Based on the patterns of my childhood, the summer goes something like this: June - strawberries (we picked about 60 pounds of strawberries the day before our wedding) and edible peapods, July - raspberries (as a small child, I once completely ruined an entire flat that my dad had spent an hour picking when I tromped through it by mistake, and I've never been allowed to forget it), August - blueberries, blackberries and tomatoes, September - peaches and apples. Not so in Arkansas, or Texas, where I first had to learn to live with a totally different growing season.

In Arkansas and Texas, strawberries show up in April, generally a little before or on my birthday. This makes it really hard to have fresh strawberries for strawberry shortcake on the Fourth of July! Not only are they early, they are delicate and short-lasting, since they prefer the cooler, damper warmth of the Pacific Northwest to the hot, dry spring and summer of the south. I doubt I could go anywhere around here and pick 60 pounds of strawberries without breaking the bank. On the plus side, I will be able to make strawberry jam this weekend for my birthday, thanks to the flat I have ordered from my on-line farmer's market.

Anyway, cognitive dissonance aside, the task for now is getting bird netting over the blueberries, so we don't lose them all to the thieving blue jays again this year.

More fruitiness

To continue the fruit theme for the week - Emily brought me some fresh blueberries, picked from the bushes in her yard. They are small blueberries, almost like huckleberries. When I saw their size, my first thought was "I have to bake something with these!" So, I did. Blueberry-lemon muffins from one of my Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks. Since Benjamin is still away and the camera is still with him, there aren't any pictures. You will just have to imagine them, and enjoy this picture of the 20 some pounds of raspberries my parents picked today. I'm jealous. Raspberries don't do so well down here. Ah well. Blueberries are pretty good too.