Just Plum Tasty!

I bet all of you have been hanging on the edge of your seats this summer, wondering "I wonder when Liz and Adam are going to start their canning adventures this summer? That's all they talked about last summer". Well, wait no further folks. We have begun. A little late, but better late than never. 

First off - I think a lot of canning endeavors are always a learning experience. That being said, there were some minor slip ups that I'm not sure yet if it will make a difference, but we'll see. 

Our first experience, was a repeat from last year: Peggy's Sunshine Dills. I will not repeat the story, b/c I know Matt and Maggie made these earlier this summer (and we made them last year), but they're so pretty. Here's a picture. 

The only problem with these is the discoloration (white and some gray) happening on some of the pickles. I've been reading the common canning problems index in the back of my Blue Book of Canning, and its most likely due to leaving too much of a headspace at the top of the jar before sealing. Peggy's Dills call for a flip of the jar everyday for 2 weeks, and when we flipped them upside-down the first day, we noticed some funky colors on the pickles.  When they say 1/8th of an inch, they mean it and that's why! I think they should still be fine to eat though. 

The stars of the show though are the Plum Sauce and Damson Plum Jam that I made from the plums in our backyard tree. A month or so ago, hundreds of little tiny plums became ripe fast and one big swoosh of the wind knocked buckets full down in our yard. Hence, the multiple plum preservation recipes.  

First thing is first, make sure you have EVERYTHING ready and at your finger tips. Your boiling water canner (on the right) boiling, your seals and lids soaking in hot water, your ladle, your tongs, stockpot, lots of tea towels.... it just makes everything easier when its all ready to go! Behold: 

Plum Sauce: 

4 lbs of plums

2 c. brown sugar

1 c. white sugar

3/4 cup chopped onion

2 tbsp. mustard seed

2 tbsp. chopped green chili peppers

1x1 inch piece of fresh ginger root, minced

1 clove of garlic minced

1 tbsp. salt

1 c. cider vinegar

Wash plums, drain, pit and chop. Combine the remaining ingredients in a stockpot and bring to a boil, reduce heat.  Add the plums.  Cook until thick and syrupy (this may take a while, keep an eye on it and stir often).  Here it is a-cookin'!

I even used an immersion blender to chop up the hard stuff, just cause I wanted it smoother, but the recipe didn't call for that. Do what you want. Ladle hot sauce into sterile, hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe off the rims, place the seals and caps carefully.  Process in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes (boil in water for 20 minutes).  

Damson Plum Jam: 

(Now, I really don't know for sure if what we have are Damson plums.  Mom seemed to think they might be. They are really tiny and very sweet. Quite good. I liked the look of this recipe, so I went for it. Now looking back, they might not be b/c I needed to add pectin, which the recipe did not call for originally.) 

5 c. coarsely chopped Damson plums

3 cups sugar (or more if different plums)

3/4 c. water

(possibly pectin and lemon juice if different plums - maybe use a whole different recipe all together...) 

Combine plums, sugar and water in a stockpot, bring slowly to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.  Cook rapidly to gelling point (this did not happen to me, so I panicked and added almost a full pouch of liquid pectin. This is where I may have went wrong b/c the jam isn't setting quite as nicely as I'd hoped. Lesson: make sure you have Damson plums, and all should go well). As the mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking.  Remove from heat, skim foam off the to; if necessary.  Ladle into hot, sterile jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Adjust seals and bands carefully.  Process for 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner.  

Tah-dah!

Whistle While You Hike

Adam, baby and I had the privelage of going on a vacation this past week. We toured the Northern Cascades, as well as Whistler and Blackcomb mountains in British Columbia, Canada. 

We began the trip with a few nights camping, hiking and backpacking in the Northern Cascades National Park. We hiked to a beautiful little campground called "Neve" (right off the creek) where we dropped our packs and continued the hike up to Fourth of July Pass which gave us stunning views of the glaciers still in tact in the park. Sorry no photos - our camera was out of battery. Only one picture from this part of the trip (me gazing so photogenically at the sunbursts in the trees):

We continued our adventures further north in Canada, where we stayed in Whistler Village in British Columbia. There, we bought a two day lift pass for the "Peak to Peak" Alpine Express. Its the largest free standing gondola in the WORLD. It takes you from Blackcomb Mountain to Whistler Mountain (approximately 2.73 miles apart).  They just finished this project this past winter, so we were lucky to get to use it. It's just in time for the winter 2010 Vancouver Olympics. 

Once on the top, Adam and I hiked all around each mountain each day and became awestruck at how spectacular the sights were. It seemed so easy to get to do high alpine hiking without having to hike UP the mountain. The baby made its presence known to me by squirming around significantly during all hikes. Either he/she really likes it, or was mad at me. But, we are definitely in the stages of fetal movement - WOW!

The last part of the trip was camping near Mt. Baker. We had a perfect camping spot again near the "Nooksack River".  We just had enough time to view the mountain before the clouds rolled in for good: 

First Portraits...

Meet the new Oregon Holt Baby:

Kinda crazy huh? This baby will go with us on our trip up north to the North Cascades National Park and Whistler, BC. I sure do hope he/she likes the outdoors..... 

Bearing Fruit

Brandywine

Pimento Padron

Arugula

Our garden is actually hanging on pretty well. Above you'll see pictures of our Brandywine tomatoes, a Pimento Padron pepper and some arugula. I just started some fall vegetables today as well: Flashy Trout's Back romaine lettuce, more arugula, spinach, raddiccio and some broccoli. The Rudolph broccoli starts that I bought promised an "abundance of broccoli heads well into mid-december". We'll see! 

In other news, we've recently been up to Olympia, WA to attend a wedding of some dear friends, Meredith and Dan. It was a beautiful and intimate ceremony right on the Puget Sound. Here is a photo from that event. 

Cockadoodle-Doo!

The Ruth-ster  (or more affectionately, the "Rooster") was out here in the Gorge recently. Between Thursday evening and Monday morning, we had quite the fun-filled visit. Shopping (yes, maternity clothes were on the list), touring the farms of the Mt. Hood Valley, watching the kiteboarders and windsurfers on the Columbia River, and we even got to sneak over into Washington State to try and get an up-close glimpse of Mt. Adams. Too bad it was all clouded-in. Oh well. We saw a pretty waterfall anyway! Enjoy some of the photos we took (most are from our "Fruit Loop" tour). There were a couple of lavender festivals going on, so we took full advantage of the views. We even visited an alpaca farm!  It was truly wonderful to have her out here, if even for a short while. 

Mom in the vineyards with Mt. Adams in the background...

Lavender!

More lavender...

It just keeps coming....

Alpaca...

See, the pretty waterfall....

Appreciation for the "Land of the Free".....

What a weekend! I really do love summer. The possibilities for outdoor activities around here are endless. And we took full advantage. Behold our friday afternoon:

I really don't mean to brag, but can it get anymore beautiful than this? It was so nice to take our kayak out again. It had been a while. We paddled around this mountain lake for a few hours, looking at salamanders, fish jumping out of water and the occasional bald eagle. 

The next day (no photos, sorry) we took a short bike tour around part of the "Fruit Loop", or so its called here. We rode a little over 20 miles up into the high valley of Mt. Hood where all the fruit orchards and farms are. Spectacular. 

Sunday, we decided to pick a hike from a local guide book, called "Curious Gorge" (cute). We hiked in to "Elowah Falls". A lesser known hike in the Gorge with a 290 foot waterfall to view. Here are a few images from that trip: 

For those of you asking for a so-called "baby bump" picture (or lack thereof), here is one. Almost 15 weeks here, officially in the 2nd trimester. Belly poking out a little bit, but really more uncomfortable to me, than really visible to anyone else. Happy Independence Day to all!

Life's a Garden. Dig It.

Now, the garden I spoke of briefly in the last post.... I like how I casually slipped it in there, like it was an afterthought - no big deal. Well, this garden was sort of a big deal. By that I mean - a 10x10 foot square of rocky earth that we dug up and turned over all by our bare hands (more Adam's bare hands, than mine). Halfway through this process, we realized we may have gotten ourselves into something bigger than we had planned, but we persevered!  We were going to be damned if another move during another summer ruined our plans of fresh grown produce for at least part of the summer!

So, remember the part about "rocky earth"? Here's what I mean by that.....

Those are the first of the rocks that Adam used this heavy, metal pole-vaulting type of instrument to extract out of the ground. We used almost all of them to line the garden. 

After we got the garden all dug up, we broke up the clumps of dry, rocky soil with a shovel and a hoe (*this is hard work*). After that, we poured a mixture of compost on top: steer manure, organic compost and mushroom compost.  We turned it all in and began the fun part: planting our plants! We bought some tomato plants about a month ago in Portland and put them in pots, wanting to take them with us when we moved. They ended up growing into ginormous tomato trees, and we realized if we ever wanted tomatoes from them, we should transplant them into the ground so their roots can continue to grow. We were a little nervous about it, but the root systems were so packed in the pots, we could easily slip them out and stick them in a big hole we had ready for them. The trick (I think) was soaking the roots in the hole before we piled the dirt around them, and then soaking again after they were planted. So far, no shock from the plants has been witnessed.

In addition to 9 tomato plants (all different varieties), we put in 4 peppers (jalepeno, sweet banana, pimento padron and cayenee) 3 squash (1 delicata and 2 zucchini), 1 cantaloupe, onion bulbs and another round of lettuce and arugula seed. Tomatoes are already poking their heads out of each plant and the peppers also have some fruit showing. Both the onions and lettuces are already peeking out too. I know some of you are thinking we're crazy and its way too late in the season, but we should be fine, as its been a cool and late start to the summer here. 

I can't wait for the summer canning craziness to begin! Living in the Hood River Valley, I have apple, pear and cherry orchards surrounding me, so I'm hoping to make lots of yummy things with those. Stay tuned for adventures in gardening and canning.....