16 7 / 2010
Stuff in Jars
Now that summer has finally begun, the McGovney household canning & preserving season is also in full swing. In the last week, I’ve picked and frozen 20 lbs of blueberries, made a few jars each of cherry, peach, and raspberry jam, and pickled snap peas, cherries and peaches. I’m tired just typing that!
So far, the thing that I’ve been most surprised and delighted by is the cherries.
I love cherries. I love them every way I can get them in my hands: fresh, dried, jammed, braised, candied, in pies and crisps and in tender, sweet muffins with almond-streusel topping.
I could pit cherries all day long; I find the chore of pitting to be just enough work to keep my hands busy and allow my mind to wander. Find a rhythm: stem, pit, plop. A note of caution: wear a black shirt and pit your cherries outside. Cherry juice splatters and stains.
I’ve been mildly obsessed with the idea of pickled fruit this summer, so this time, I decided to try pickling cherries two ways. My eventual plan is to buy a case, from my favorite grower of peaches, apricots, and cherries, Baird Family Orchards, and pickle at least a dozen jars, but I wanted to try before I made that kind of commitment. I decided on two recipes: a vanilla bean-black pepper-lemon rind version and one with allspice-cinnamon stick-cloves. An informal taste test revealed the vanilla-pepper-lemon to be the clear winner. They’re light, a perfect summer pickle, and the spices are subtle enough to allow the cherries to stand out. The other version is full of rich, warming spice making it more of a hearty winter pickle, delicious alongside a roasted pork shoulder or some such.
Here’s a link to the blog post that inspired me (http://bit.ly/aoiQmk) with some really great pictures of the process. If you’re a beginning pickler, this is a great place to start, as it takes about 20 minutes to make them and you just store them in the fridge, no canning required (they wouldn’t last that long anyway!)
I wish I had taken more pictures as I was making them, but…life happens. Here are the spiced ones:
And what’s left of the winner of the great Pickled Cherry-Off of 2010:
