Transitions

The transition to Fall is a beautiful one.    Here are some pics of our woods. 

First signs of Autumn

Maple and goldenrod

Evening

We're on TV tonight!

Remember when the crew from The Weekly Special came to the studio to interview me?  Well, tonight they're re-running the show.   In just a few short hours, you can see me in my studio doing what I do best - getting color all over everything.

Here's the link to the Weekly Special's episode on the fiber arts.   The program airs again tonight, Thursday, Sept 29, 2011 at 8 pm Eastern Daylight time.   PBS, Bloomington, Indiana - Channel 5 or 30 depending on your hookup.

If you missed it, the Youtube clip of my part of the program is on the right side of the blog.   You can at least watch my part of it. 

Book: The Joy of Pickling

photo:  Amazon.com. 

I like pickles.

I like making pickles.  I like eating them.   I like looking at them.

This year I was braver and tried a bunch of new pickles.  Then I found this book and tried even more.

These are not your grandma's pickles.

But....wait a minute.....some of them ARE your grandma's pickles.    This is a great collection of new and traditional pickles from all over the world.

I've made three kinds of lemon pickles, ginger pickles, sauerkraut, etc, etc, etc.    It's a pickle jackpot.

The book is divided into two main parts:  pickling with fermentation and pickling with vinegar.

Fermentation pickling happens when you let natural bacteria make your pickles for you.   The old pickle barrels were fermentation vats.   Sauerkraut is made by natural fermentation.  It's fun and easy and delicious and very very good for you.    Try it.

Vinegar pickling is what happens when you pour a vinegar solution over the veggies and let them sit in it.   The vinegar solution usually has salt and other spices in it to make things interesting.   This type of pickling is also very easy and delicious.

Lest you think that this is 250 recipes for dill and sweet cucumber pickles, let me assure you that there are recipes to pickle all kinds of fruit [yes, fruit!] and veggies in all kinds of ways, with all kinds of flavors.  

If you're at all interested in making pickles, get your hands on this book and read it.   Even if you don't go near the stove or touch a veggie, you'll still learn a lot about a type of food that has been around for milennia.  

Plums and Star Anise

So I was totally inspired by  Food In Jars'  post on making plum preserves with star anise.

Be still my heart. These were amazing.

Totally, totally wonderful.

Fabulous, even.

Make sure you use a couple of pink plums so you can get that great color.   It tastes better when it's that color. 

Go there.  Make some.  You won't be sorry.

Early Autumn

Our creek this week.  

It takes my breath away.

Eupatorium - Part 3

Boneset

There are two white eupatoria that bloom this time of year.    One is Eupatorium album - White Thoroughwort and the other is Eupatorium perfoliatum - Boneset.

They are very similar from a distance but there are easy ways to tell them apart.

Eupatorium perfoliatum - boneset- is generally a rougher looking plant, but you can really only tell that if you're very familiar with the two varieties or if they happen to be close to each other.    

Boneset leaves

They're not going to be close to each other because their habitats are significantly different.   Boneset likes open places and plenty of sun; White Thoroughwort likes shade.

Boneset is a taller plant.   It gets about 36 inches tall if it's happy.   The ones around here are typically 30 - 36 inches.  

Tradition has it that boneset is called that because it was actually used to help bones heal. 

Here are pics of boneset.    White flowers.   Look closely at how the leaves grow around the stem in the pic on the right.   It looks like the stem is growing right through the leaves.   Remember the Latin name - perfoliatum?     That means 'through the leaves'.   'Per' = through.  'Foliatum' = leaves.

Eupatorium album

Now, here is the pic of White Thoroughwort.   It's much daintier plant.   They are shorter, from 18-24 inches around here.  

Notice that the leaves are heart shaped.   They are opposite [the pairs are opposite each other on the stem] but the leaves have stems and the main stem of the plant does not look like it's growing through the leaves at all. 


Here's some more plant Latin for you.   Album [or alba] = white. 

And here's some plant Old English for you.   Wort = plant.    You'll see a lot of the common names for wildflowers have 'wort' in them.   It's the Old English word, originally 'wyrt',  for 'plant'.   The theory is that it came from an even older Indo European word - wra:d.

Now you know.

Ring Neck Snake

We come across these little snakes regularly along the road.   Especially lately, as the weather is cooling, they like to hang out on the asphalt.  

They are tiny snakes - the size of a very long worm - but they are polite and charming and I love seeing them. 

The Latin is Diadophis punctatus.      They can have yellow or red rings.  The ones I see along the road have yellow rings, but I've seen some much bigger ones in the barn with red rings.   

What you can't see in my pics is the spectacular color of the belly - bright red or yellow.  Go here for more great pics of the ring neck.


They can get to be as big as 2 feet long and I've seen a few here that big, but mostly we see the tiny ones along the road.  

If threatened, they show their bellies and eventually will bite.    Be polite to them. 

My favorite September Wildflowers

These are my very favorite fall flowers.  Eupatorium coeruleum [Blue Mist Flower], Vernonia altissima [Tall Ironweed] and Impatiens capensis [Jewelweed].

Photo: K1

Pear Ginger Perfection

It's pear season.    

I heart pears.  

Mostly, I heart pears in Pear Ginger Jam.

I heart Pear Ginger Jam. 

This year, I got some pears right off of my mom's tree.   I've never picked pears before.  We usually get them from generous friends.

When we saw them ripening on the tree, my first question was:  How do you know when they're ripe?    None of us knew, so I looked it up.

I heart Google.

Turns out that pears ripen from the inside out.    That means that by the time they're soft on the tree, they're way too ripe in the middle.     You have to pick them before they get soft.

But when?

When they've gone from rock hard to just a bit of give when you push your thumb on it.    Hold it in your hand and put your thumb on it.   Push.   If there's a bit of give, it's OK to pick. 

Also,  pears hang down on their stems.   If you hold the pear and lift it up horizontally, the stem should separate from the tree easily.    If the pear doesn't come off easily, then leave it.  

It's true.   Want to read more?  Go here or here.  Note:  Bosc and Asian pears behave differently.  If you're picking those, then do more research.

Because I have No Patience when it comes to ripening fruit in boxes all over my house [remind me someday to tell you about the year we had a box of pears rot on the floor because we forgot about them.   The wood floor is permanently stained.   It's an attractive stain, but it would have been nicer if it were that color all over the floor and not just where the box was.]  I cook my pears right away now.

Yes, I cut them when they're too hard to cut.   I risk life and limb and digit trying to carve out the core.  Then I put them in a big pot with some water and cook the living daylights out of them until they're really really soft. 

Then I make Pear Ginger Jam.   Because I heart Pear Ginger Jam.

Really.   Just look at that picture.   Do you blame me?    It's perfection in a jar.

Pear Ginger Jam

• 5 or 6 cups of cooked pears.   Cooked until they're soft. 
• 3 T Ball pectin [1 pkg]
• 5 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup candied ginger, chopped as fine as you want.

Combine the pears and pectin.   Bring to hard boil.  Boil one minute.   Add sugar and candied ginger.  Return to hard boil.  Boil one minute.    Ladle into jars and process for canning.

Troubleshooting:   First a confession.   Often, I have too much fruit for a recipe.   I try to add as much fruit and as little pectin as I can get away with.    This time was no exception.   And whoops! my jam didn't set.  It got sort of thickened, but not jam like.   I figured that it just didn't get hot enough in the pot I was using. 

Tip:  Use a pot with a wide bottom - more surface area next to the heat source.

We kept some of the non thick stuff to use for pancake topping.   The rest I took out of the jars and dumped back in a pot and heated it until it reached a hard boil and I let it boil for a few minutes.   I could tell that it had finished thickening.   I poured it back into the jars [I did lose some volume because more of the water boiled out of the jam], put new lids on and sealed them again.    Perfect thick jam.

My point is this.   Experiment if you want to.   Don't panic if things don't come out perfectly.   It's not a contest.  There is no Permanent Record.  It's food.   It's supposed to be fun.  If you use your head and adjust things a bit, you can probably fix it.  Ask around, join a forum like the one at Chickens in the Road, or ask me in a comment.    Chances are someone will have some tip to help you. 

Happy preserving!

Comfrey: Part 2, Medicinal Herb

Comfrey [Symphytum officinale or a hybrid of it] is a fabulous plant to keep around the house.   It's beautiful and extremely useful.

As I mentioned last week, we inherited a couple of these plants and I was thrilled when I realized what they were.   I planted them in several areas and they've volunteered in others.

It is native to Europe and is now widespread both there and here in North America, where it was brought by early settlers and where it no doubt did a lot of healing.

Comfrey grows into a casual clump of stalks about 3 feet tall.   It blooms in pink or blue clusters that uncurl from the top of the plant.   There are several cultivars that are highly prized garden specimens - Vita Sackville-West had a whole long walk lined with a shorter, bright blue variety at Sissinghurst. 

The leaves are long, faintly crinkled and hairy.   Don't let the prickly hairs keep you from using it.  

Comfrey is not a fussy plant.   It'll grow wherever you put it.   If it gets dry, the leaves will pout and perhaps even begin to dry and crumble around the edges, but, like hostas, it takes a lot of punishment and doesn't die easily.

It transplants easily - just dig up a bit of an existing plant.   If you try to move it, then make sure you dig up all of the root, because it will come back if you leave even a tiny bit.  

Comfrey has been used traditionally as garden compost.  It adds nitrogen and potassium.  Just cut the leaves and toss them in the garden.   The leaves enrich the soil as they break down.  If you want to use it in the garden, but you don't want it to self sow, then make sure you've cut all of the flowering parts off before you toss the rest of the plant in the garden.   It'll volunteer whenever it can. Alternatively, you can make a tea with the leaves [dump them in a bucket with rainwater] and use that to water with. 

Legend has it that comfrey was 'soveriegn in and out' meaning that it was the best healing herb for both internal and external use. 

Modern medicine recommends that it NOT be used internally now.   There is evidence that it can cause liver failure.

There are no warnings against external use and I have had excellent results with it. 

I have used a comfrey poultice to dress all kinds of injuries, including a serious laceration on our dog when he got hit by a car.   Overnight, the skin began to heal rapidly.   You can see a grey film beginning at the edges of the wound - that's new skin.   As long as the wound smells clean and not putrid or rotting, then there's no problem.    Note:  I do not recommend that you use comfrey instead of taking an injured animal to the vet.   We did take the dog to the vet, and then supplemented with our own poultice.  [We kept it on by putting a diaper over the poultice-covered wound.]

After tripping and ramming my kneecap into the edge of a limestone step, we packed my knee in comfrey for the next three days.   I had a deep dent in my kneecap and you can still feel a slight indentation, but the knee healed completely and didn't bruise.   Not kidding!  My other leg had bruises all over it, but the smashed knee didn't bruise.  At all.  I am a huge fan of comfrey poultices on skin injuries.

To make a poultice,  tear off the leaves [I use the older and larger leaves at the bottom of the plant] and crush them with a mortar and pestle.   If you don't have a mortar and pestle, then put them in a ziplock bag and crush them with a hammer.   Crush them long enough that you don't feel the hairy prickles when you put it on your skin.   The plant will ooze and the juice will quickly turn brown.   Comfrey juice stains, so if you use a cloth with your poultice, make sure it's one that you don't mind staining.   Your skin might stain, too, so don't be surprised.   It'll wash off in a day or so.  

I have left poultices on for several hours and even overnight.   Get a fresh one in the morning and before bed.  Take time to clean the wound and do a thorough visual check for infection.

I've used comfrey to make a soothing skin balm by steeping the leaves in hot olive oil and mixing it with lavender oil and beeswax.  Warning - comfrey that is steeping in olive oil smells like something that died...in poop.  That's why I use lavender oil with it - to cover the stink.    Experiment away from critics. 

Comfrey root is also useful.  It is dark - almost black in color.  You can use it fresh, or you can dig it, wash it, and dry it.  It will get very, very tough, so you might want to cut it up before you dry it.   Then, when it is very, very dry, you can grind it up and use it in soaps and things.    I didn't enjoy doing the drying and grinding and my soap wasn't that much improved, so I stopped digging.   Besides, I like my roots in the ground, growing things.   I much prefer to have the leaves to use, especially since the leaves and roots have the same healing properties.

Curry Pickles - New and improved

Curry pickles with curry paste

Remember when we made that first batch of curry pickles?

I tried it again with curry paste instead of powder.   I'm so glad I did.   These were really, really good!  So much better than the first batch.

I made a jar with red long beans and red curry paste. 

And I made a jar with green beans and cukes and green curry paste.

The curry paste was a much improved curry flavor, but they were both medium heat and really kicked the heat up a notch.   Since I've got a low heat eater, next time I'll leave the extra chili pepper out of the jar or use mild heat curry.  

With all the different types of curry out there - Indian, Thai, etc. - and all the heat levels, these pickles are really versatile.   I'm excited to try this with different curries next year. 

I really like this recipe because you don't have to make much.  It's easy to cut in half if you want just one jar.  And if you want to try two different things, it's easy to do a different thing in each jar.   Plus, if you don't like them much, then you can always take the other jar to a potluck.  Someone will definitely like them. 

Here's the revised recipe for you.    Enjoy!

Curry Pickles - New and improved version!

• Green or red beans - enough to pack 2 pint jars
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups vinegar
• 1 T canning salt
• 1 rounded tsp of curry paste in each jar.
• 1 dried chili pepper in each jar.
• 1 garlic clove in each jar.

Wash and trim the beans and pack them into the jars. Put a chili [if you want the extra heat] and a garlic clove in each jar.   Boil the water, vinegar, and salt.   Pour over beans until they're covered 1/2 inch with liquid.  Process 10 minutes for canning.  Makes 2 pints.

Wait two weeks before opening.  

Onion Seeds

I'm working on saving a few seeds this year.   Not an easy task here where the weather gets so humid. 

I can't tell you how many times I've 'dried' seeds, only to find them growing mold 3 months later.    Clearly, I'm not doing something right.   

The remedy is to practice, practice, practice.     This year I'm saving onion seeds.

I planted onions from sets in the Spring, and I got a lot of great onions.   One of them sent up a gorgeous flower and I enjoyed looking at it so much that I didn't cut it.    Later, I realized that I could let it go to seed and then save the seeds.  

Here's a close up of that gorgeous flower in July.

How perfect is that?!   

Now, it's matured and set seed.    I left it in the garden until it turned brown and the seed pods started opening on their own.   The seed is good and mature now, ready to start out on its own.

So, I cut it down and shook the seeds into a bowl.    In a week, I'll put them in an envelope, clip it closed and label it with variety and date. 

I've heard rumors that you can put seed in the freezer to keep it good and dry.    Does that really work?   It won't kill the seeds?   Please comment if you have some experience with freezing seeds!

I"ll likely plant these onion seeds in the cold frame this fall to let them grow all winter.  I hope that they're mature enough to use as sets in March or April.

Book: The Forgotton Skills of Self-Sufficiency

photo: amazon.com

Caleb Warnock has a new book out:   The Forgotten Skills of Self Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers.  I've read this book cover to cover and am happy to recommend it.

This book is an excellent resource for folks working toward maximizing their gardening year and for folks working toward a self sustaining lifestyle. It's full of great tips and tricks - tried and true by people whose lives depended on it. Topics include seed saving, pollination, cellars, cold storage, greenhouses, grapes and fruit trees, perennial vegetables, long keeping vegetables, chickens, etc.

There is no way one book can completely cover all of the topics addressed, so the author has listed other resources that will help answer the questions that you might have. I had a great time exploring types of geothermal greenhouses after reading about the author's.

If you're already very knowledgeable about many of these topics, then you might find the treatment too cursory, but if you're just starting out, then I highly recommend this book. I consider myself a skilled summer gardener, but I really learned a lot about winter storage, greenhouses, and extending the gardening year.


Here's a link to the book:

Next on my garden reading list is a lot more reading on seed saving. 

Comfrey: Part 1, Natural Dyeing

Comfrey [Symphytum officinale] is a most useful plant.    We were lucky enough to inherit a couple of wild-ish ones when we moved here.    I say wild-ish because I'm pretty darned sure that the previous owners didn't know what they were, and I know they didn't plant it, but it's not the kind of thing that shows up by itself.   Someone, sometime planted it.

Then it was neglected.  Ignored.  Abused, even.   Poor thing.

But here's the deal:  These things don't die.   They are some of the toughest plants I have ever seen.   Seriously.    When I put in the veg garden, I laid gravel walks.   I dug up one of these that had been in the middle of the path and put 4 inches of gravel on it. 

It lived.   It thrived.  It grew up through the gravel and stayed put.   It didn't die even this summer when it was 9 million degrees and the sun beat down on it for months at a time.    I'd like to be that tough. 

As you can see in the pic above, these are beautiful leafy plants.   They have a wonderful flowers and some day I'll find my photos of them and show you.   Hopefully by the time I write up Comfrey:  Part 2, Medicinal Herb.   Hopefully. 

We used comfrey leaves in our natural dye study group to see what kind of color we could get. 

The pics aren't great, but they give you an idea of what we got.   Lovely sage greens and tan!

Notice that the samples on the left are a lot lighter than the samples on the right.   You're looking at the difference between how this particular dye takes on cellulose fibers [left] and protein fibers [right].    With comfrey, it makes a big, big difference.     With other dyes, like osage orange, it isn't nearly so noticeable.

The cellulose samples were so light, the only color on there was probably from the mordants.

Next time we try it we're going to use alum acetate to treat the cellulose stuff to get better colors.   Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, the protein fibers look wonderful.   [They're greener in person than they are in the pic - a beautiful sage-y green.]

Comfrey dyes more than just fibers.  I've been reading up on using natural stuff to color hand made soap with and comfrey is the most recommended material to use for green.   Here's a tutorial at soap-making-resource.com.  

By the way, if you haven't looked at Jenny Dean's Wild Color website, go there now!   You'll find a wealth of great information and beautiful colors from all kinds of natural dyes.

Jewelweed - Touch Me Not

One of my favorite late summer flowers is jewelweed, also called touch-me-not.    It grows in the ditches and damp places in the bottoms and along creek sides.   They are our local impatiens - only more exotic looking than the pink and white ones you get at the garden store.  

We have two species: Impatiens pallida, which is yellow; and Impatiens capensis, which is orange with spots.    They are both native to North America.

The yellow one, Pale Touch-Me-Not shows up in limestone regions and southern Indiana is one of the foremost limestone regions in the world.   We're famous for our limestone.  

And our touch-me-not. 

The orange jewelweed is the most common jewelweed.   There's a lot of healing lore around it - though none of that has been officially tested.  [Few native plants have been officially investigated, but that doesn't mean they don't work, only that the medical establishment prefers other sources for medicines, etc.]

Jewelweed's most common homeopathic use is to treat skin ailments such as poison ivy.   The stems of the plant are fleshy and when crushed, impart a lovely cooling gel similar to aloe.  

The common name 'touch-me-not' comes from the fact that the ripe seed pods explode when touched, shooting the seeds out and about.  I've never tried it, but it sounds kind of fun.  

Walking

Every evening, I take a walk down our road to the big blacktop that goes to the town village intersection where our post office is.    The blacktop is a mile down the way.  

There are woods and pastures on either side of the road. 

I pass two houses.  Three if you count the one way off the road.   

Most days I don't see any cars at all, but when I do, they slow down and we wave and maybe chat for a bit.

I often take the dog and most days K1 comes, too.

And while I walk, I think, I plan, I listen, I unwind.  Mostly, I unwind. 

I walk because I love to walk.   I love the rhythm of it.  I love all that coordinated motion. I love it when it's 97 degrees in July.   I love it in the rain.   I love it now that the weather is cooler.

I love watching things along the side of the road change - which flowers are blooming, which are going to seed, which have dried up because it's so dry.

I know where the fields smell like cumarin.   I know where the deer carcass was and approximately how many vultures were enjoying it.   I know where the walnut trees are.   And the hickories.   And the oaks.  I know where the nest of red headed woodpeckers was.   I know which fields have quail.   I know where the dead tree with 5 kinds of weird fungus is.   I know where the one stalk of arum along the whole road bloomed.    I know where the black raspberries ripened first.  

All of these things I would have missed if I had not walked by. 

Tencel Roving

Aurora

Tencel roving is shiny and beautiful.

And shiny.  

And silvery and shiny. 

I love it.  Especially because it's shiny. 



So I dyed up a whole bunch and put it on my Etsy site.  1 oz bundles.   $6/oz. 

You can spin tencel roving into beautiful fine shiny yarn - it's great plied with wool.  

Or, you can use tencel roving in nuno felting.   Gor. Geous.   

Or you can use tencel roving instead of silk in silk fusion [silk paper] projects.   

You need more fiber in your life.  I think you might need to try some of this.   Here are some more pics to whet your appetite.  

Tex Mex

Pheasant

Vineyard

Iris

Crazy Busy

This time of year is crazy busy.

Crazy.

Busy.

The garden is producing and those vegetables don't can themselves.  Jam doesn't just spontaneously appear in the cupboards.   The house does not clean itself.    Yarn does not dye itself.  The grass doesn't mow itself.  Shows do not set themselves up.  The laundry doesn't do itself.

We've got jobs to go to, homework to do, co-ops to teach, meals to cook, weeds to pull, samples to make, books to read, letters to write, scarves to weave.

There are not enough hours in the day to get done everything that I need to do in day.

Unless I quit sleeping.  

I don't think that's a very good option.

So, I need Plan B.

I think about Plan B every evening when I go for a walk.   I go through everything on my list and try to single out those things that are dispensable.

Here's what's dispensable:

...

[cricket noise]

...

Sigh.  There isn't anything dispensable.   It all needs to be done.  I have good reasons for everything on my list. 

So, I muddle through.

Sumac

Winged sumac bob

Sumac shrubs [Rhus sp.] are invasive around here [southern Indiana].    They grow from the root rhizomes - like iris do - to form large clonal colonies.  The short trees get about 15 feet tall when they're really happy.  The branches ooze a white sap when cut.  The good news is that they're attractive and the ripe red berries are very useful. 

The branches bloom and form dense clusters of red berries, called 'drupes'.  The name 'sumac' comes from the Old Arabic word for 'red'.  The cut branches make a beautiful fall arrangement that will dry on its own and last for months.  The dried drupes have been used throughout the world as a cooking seasoning [sumach] and they are very popular in middle eastern cooking.   We harvest the drupes to make the best lemonade you can imagine.

There are three common varieties of sumac here:  Smooth sumac [Rhus glabra], Winged sumac [Rhus copallina] and Staghorn sumac [Rhus typhina].   Staghorn stems and drupes are covered with fine velvety hairs.  Winged sumac has little wings that grow up along the twigs between sets of leaves. Smooth sumac is .... smooth.   No hairy stems or drupes.  The red drupes of the smooth sumac are often covered with a milky or waxlike substance - it's delicious!

Note:   A lot of people freak out about these plants, believing that all sumac is the poison sumac.   Poison sumac has white or gray berries - 'Berries white, take flight!'.   Not red berries.  Not red berries covered with milky wax.   It's easy to tell these plants apart.   Really easy.  

Winged sumac with bobs

Sumac spice.  To harvest the drupes to use as a spice later, cut the clusters, called 'bobs' and lay them on screens or sheets to dry.   When the drupes are good and dry, rub them off the twig and put them in jars.  Save the little hairs of staghorn sumac - they're tasty! This spice lasts for a long time.

Smooth and winged sumac drupes are often waxy or covered with a milky substance.  The best flavor is in that wax but it's tricky to get it dry enough to store.    Be patient.  Keep them in a very dry place.

Lemonade.  Our favorite way to use sumac is in lemonade.   Here's how:

Sumac bobs soaking for lemonade

Cut the bobs - the waxiest ones you can find - oozing the white stuff over the red [or purplish] drupes.  [If you're using staghorn sumac, then go for the hairiest ones - that's where the flavor is.] Remove all the leaves.  Do NOT wash the berries - you'll wash the flavor off.

Pack the bobs into glass gallon jugs - pack them tightly.   Fill with cool water and set them in the sun for a few hours.   If the weather is cool and cloudy, then use lukewarm water and soak them overnight.  

Note:  Do NOT fill the jars to the top.   As they soak, the bobs release bubbles and the jar will overflow if the water level is too high.   You might want to put the jar in a dish to catch the overflow. 

After a few hours, the water will be a beautiful light amber color.   Strain the water through a fine mesh tea sieve as you pour it out of the jar.  It will be cloudy for a while.  Don't worry about that.  We got just over 2 quarts of juice from each of these jars.

Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups of sugar to sweeten [to taste].  Stir well and enjoy.   This is the best lemonade ever.  I much prefer it to regular lemonade. 

Sumac lemonade

Freezing.   I have had excellent success freezing the juice and using it months later to make lemonade with.    If you can spare the freezer space, it's worth freezing the juice.

Concentrate:  To concentrate the juice, soak a gallon of bobs the first day, then use that same water to soak another gallon of bobs.   Remember, the longer you concentrate, the more likely you are to introduce bad stuff into the water.   I don't concentrate unless I'm going to cook with it and it will be pasteurized in the cooking.

Canning.   I have tried to can sumac juice so that I wouldn't have to use my scarce freezer space for juice.  I concentrated the juice, then I boiled it and put it into jars and processed them for canning.   It worked beautifully - but the flavor was changed in a significant way.   I don't like the cooked juice nearly as much as I like the fresh juice.    If I want to preserve sumac juice, I'm going to freeze it.

Experimenting.  I used some of the concentrate to make sumac jelly and to make sumac lemonade bars [with a lemon bar recipe].   In both cases, the wonderful subtle flavor of the juice was lost.   The sugar overwhelmed the flavors and the finished product was unimpressive and too sweet.  

Other uses.  Sumac leaves have a lot of tannin in them.   Rumor has it that they're good for dyeing and will give either a yellow dye or grey dye depending on the fiber and mordant.   Someday soon, I'm going to use the berries to dye with.   I'll let you know how it turns out. 

A Little Dusty

These oak leaves are on our road.  They are not a fancy variegated type.    They're just plain dusty.

Everything is dusty.    The grass is dusty.   The gardens are dusty.   The cars are dusty.  The porch is dusty.   The house is dusty.   The trees are dusty.   The dirt is dusty. 

These are the conditions that produced the Dust Bowl of the 1920s.  Regularly disturbed soil and hot dry weather.    The county comes by to grade our road a few times a year - to get the potholes out of it and to smooth out the washboards.   They dump more gravel if need be.    Sometimes they make it better, sometimes they just rearrange the mess.   Always, they make more dust.

Elaeagnus umbellata - Autumn Olive

Elaeagnus umbellata shrub - 10 feet tall

Not long after we moved onto our place, after the cows had been gone a while, and after we stopped raising sheep, we noticed more and more little shrubs with silver leaves popping up.

Elaeagnus umbellata flowers - April

And they grew.






They bloom in the spring and the small white tubular flowers smell like warm spices from far away places.   I thought they were enchanting, so we left them. 

Elaeagnus umbellata berries

And then they bore fruit and I figured out what they were:  Elaeagnus umbellata. [Think of it like a woman's name:  Elly Agnes.]  The autumn olive.  

UPDATE:  Apparently sometimes these have nasty thorns.   I had no idea!  We have the thornless kind.  


And then we found out that they're considered a pest here.   Because the birds love them.   And eat them.  And poop their seeds everwhere.    And now we have loads and loads and loads of them. 
 

The red berries are small - about the size of the nail on your little finger - and have silver spots. 

I did a lot of searching to find out if the berries are edible and indeed they are.    They're very acidic and have a large seed.   If you taste one right off the tree, you'll get that weird dry taste that you get from green bananas and unripe persimmons.

They're abundant, they're full of vitamin C and they're free, so I set about experimenting to see what kind of jam I could make.

The first thing I learned was that the redder they are, the better they are.  Also, it's best to not skimp on the sugar.   These babies are tart, I tell you.   Treat them like cranberries - be generous with the sweetener.

I tried elaeagnus jam with a touch of lavender and lemon verbena - very nice, but not great.  No one would eat it but me.   Also, I had used pectin and that jelly was firm.

Really firm.   If only my butt were that firm.

Then this year, I tried it with oranges and no pectin and Hello! We have a winner!  This jam is good!  Everyone likes it.

And it's really pretty.   It looks as good as it tastes.

This is what I did:


Elaeagnus Orange Jam
from www.rurification.com

• Pick about 4 cups of berries.  Make sure they're good and red. 
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 cups sugar
• 2 oranges:  Zest and juice.

Wash the berries and put them in a pot with the water.  Cook until they're good and soft.   While they're hot, pour them into a chinois or strainer and mash the berries to get the juice and pulp out. 

Don't let the seeds fall into the juice and pulp.  [I don't try to squeeze them all dry.   Seeds are often bitter and I don't want that in the jam, so I stop straining when things start getting dry and sticky and most of the juice and pulp is out.]

Almost done!

Discard the seeds and skins. [Chickens like them.]  Put the pulp and juice back into the pot and add the sugar, orange zest and orange juice.   Cook until it boils hard.  

Ladle into jars.   Process for canning 10 minutes for pints and jelly jars.