Preserving your Harvest

You can Pickle your veggies… but today we are going to talk fruit. Seasonal fruit is all around us now and “U-Picks” are easy to find. The question immediately becomes, what to do with all that fruit? Well, when life gives you too many lemons, you make lemonade and when you have pints and pints of fruit you make jams, jellies and syrups! Now here’s the great part, get ready.. are you ready? We get to use our HERBS as well!

The following info and recipe is from Indiana Public Media’s  website. The page  is titled Preserving Summer Fruits: Jams, Syrups And Apple Butter (click name for whole site)

“Making Simple Fruit Syrups: When you think of herbs, you probably think of savory things. But, they’re also great to make syrups with. Today, we’re going to make two different syrups that you can use for breakfast or throughout the whole day.

Both of these sauces start with a simple syrup made with 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water. Bring this to boil on the stove and allow the sugar to dissolve. Then you’re ready to infuse the syrup with herbs and other flavors.

(CONTINUING ON OUR MONDAY MINT JOURNEY…)
MINT AND ORANGE SYRUP OVER RASPBERRIES  “Fresh fruit, especially if it’s a little under-ripe, can taste a little bland. You can use these syrups, spoon them over fruit while it’s still warm, and it will permeate the fruit. So, if you have fruit that’s a little bland, you can use these syrups all year round to bring back the flavor of summer.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar (for the simple syrup)
  • 1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
  • 1 small bunch peppermint
  •  juice of 1/2 orange
  •  pinch of salt

Cooking Directions

  1. To make a simple syrup, combine sugar and water. Bring this to boil on the stove and allow the sugar to dissolve. Turn down heat on the simple syrup once sugar has dissolved.
  2. Add mint, zest, orange juice, and salt to simple syrup.
  3. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes.
  4. Remove big pieces of mint and drizzle over raspberries. Garnish with a mint sprig.
{Editorial Note: Julia from inside her Joyful Sparkles Bakery in Botaniumus: As I read this I am thinking – how about if I make a little extra and freeze in ice-cube trays. I could then use them as cubes in lemonade, or even make a flavored water drink. When the weather turns cold how about as a sweet delight in a mug of hot tea!}
Thyme And Lime Syrup Over Melon is the second syrup recipe and a DELICIOUS sounding Apple Butter is the third recipe on the website. I would RECOMMEND checking them out, especially the apple butter!  This is the intro for the apple butter….”This apple butter has more complexity to it than traditional apple butter, so you can use it for a lot of different things. This would be great with any kind of poultry. If you have a tart shell that’s pre-baked, you could fill that up with apple butter and then top it with fresh fruit of some kind. You can also use this to top pancakes, waffles and, of course: homemade buttermilk biscuits.
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Tomorrow See Birdelli in a beautiful Mock Ad which is a tribute to an Alexander McQueen.