Cherries Get Me Out of a Jam

I went cherry picking this weekend.  I love picking fruit, but I learned that I really should not do this alone.  When I am by myself I am not capable of ignoring any rude, insensitive behavior from strangers.  I need the calming influence of other people who can distract me, or at least remind me not to embarrass myself.  I narrowly avoided an incident among the cherry trees this weekend.  I will spare you the dirty details, but a group of rude strangers almost made me lose an entire bucket of tart cherries.  If you've ever picked cherries, you know they aren't the easiest fruit in the world to pull off a tree and fill up a bucket.

I decided to vacate the fields and head home knowing my husband and our kitchen could make me feel better.  Not so fast, missy...your gas tank is on empty.  So, I pull into a nice gas station (calm down, it wasn't BP), and attempt to release the fuel door.  Haha!  Foiled again....it is broken and won't release.   Fortunately, it was a service station and two mechanics walked out to help me.  They finally got the gas tank open, but now the trunk won't close.  After about half an hour, we finally finagle it closed and I'm on my way.  Then, traffic....sigh.

I was pretty cranky when I finally got home.  I admit that one of my many faults is that I have trouble shaking things off, just ask my husband, but I felt particularly pushed that day.  I had lost most of my enthusiasm for cooking with my freshly picked fruit.  Luckily, my husband had not, and he cajoled me into the kitchen to start making cherry jam.  Oh my gosh, I am sooooo grateful I did.

We did an awesome job with this jam.  It is some of the best jam I have ever eaten.  We lick the knife after spreading it on scones.  Tasting this, all my negative feelings disappeared and I was really happy that I had picked tart cherries.  And, I'm pretty confident the rude strangers aren't eating something as good as this with their cherries.

Tart Cherry Jam
Makes about three 8-oz (half pint) jars

3 cups fresh tart cherries
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Wash the cherries thoroughly.

Remove the stems and pits.  We used our OXO Good Grips cherry pitter, which works very nicely.

   






You can also improvise a cherry pitter and use a wooden skewer, drinking straw, or pastry tip.

I roughly chopped the cherries so that it would not just be whole cherries suspended in jelly.  I was careful to save the juice as I chopped and added it all to the pot.

These cherries were very juicy so there was plenty of liquid with the fruit when I turned on the heat to medium high.  I added the lemon juice and sugar and kept stirring as the sugar dissolved.

Bring to boil and turn down the heat to medium or medium low, continue to stir to prevent sticking.  The  jam will thicken and bubble, keep stirring.

Now to test for doneness.  For the last batch of jam, we used the freezer test.  We dribbled a bit of the cooking jam on a plate and put it in the freezer for a minute, then swiped the puddle with our finger to see if the liquid stayed separate.  This method led to some minor disagreement between my husband and myself, so we decided to use a candy thermometer this time.

It took about 15 minutes of cooking and stirring until the mixture registered 220 degrees F on a candy thermometer.

Pour the jam into hot, sterilized jars and seal.  Process in the boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

As the jars cool down, you should hear a pinging noise as the lids pop from a vacuum forming.  After a couple of hours, press down on the center of each lid.  There should be no flex.  If the lid flexes, you will need to repeat the boiling water bath process to reach a vacuum seal.

Guest Post: Strawberry Fields Forever. And Ever.

To cap off the week of strawberry entries, I'm pleased to have a guest posting from my friend Andrea.  Here is her take on our recent berry-picking excursion with a delicious recipe, too. 

I watched the movie Bottleshock the other night, about the beginnings of the Napa Valley wine industry. The winemakers and vineyard owners were startled that the British, Francophile wine snob (played by Alan Rickman) was willing to pay for tastings.

I imagine it was sort of similar the first time a farmer opened his fields for a U-pick operation. "Really? People would pay me, and do the labor? City folk, no less? Sure. Who'd fall for that?"

Fine, I'm a sucker.

But I'm a sucker snacking on some really yummy strawberry bread...

This recipe is adapted from  Everyday Food (http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/strawberry-bread). Yes, Everyday Food. Perhaps this is evidence that Martha Stewart is not, in fact, the devil? (Ok, and how awesome is it that the favicon on that site is a little a picture of her face? I mean, not even Oprah tries to pull that off!)

Strawberry Bread 
(makes 1 loaf of about 10 decent-sized slices)

Cooking spray
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 cups strawberries, rinsed, hulled, quartered, and mashed
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon or baking/pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
slightly less than 1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8-by-4-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a small saucepan, bring strawberries to a boil over medium heat. Cook, stirring, 1 minute. Set aside and let cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt; set aside. 

With an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar, and eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture alternately with water, beginning and ending with flour. 

Fold in reserved strawberries.

Scrape batter into prepared pan, smoothing top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour (tent with foil after 45 minutes if top is getting too dark). Cool in pan 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges; invert onto a rack. Reinvert; cool completely. 

Strawberry Fields Forever

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I've been anxiously awaiting the start of the warm weather growing season.   Fruit just tastes so much better when you pick it yourself or at least buy it from the farmer who recently picked it.

I made my first farm trip of the year this weekend when I picked strawberries with my friends Andrea and Christina.  We visited Homestead Farms in Poolesville, Maryland and I had a great time.

It has become a bit of tradition for us, and we have made the trip several times over recent years.  The farm is not far out of Washington, DC in Montgomery County, and has a variety of produce throughout the spring, summer, and fall.   We have a nice visit in the car, and then share ideas of how to use the fresh fruit.

It has become a pretty popular place with families, especially with an expanded petting area with goats and a calf, and a hayride to the picking fields.

Each season, we hear more languages spoken as immigrant families bring their kids to the farm, too.  This year we realized the farm is responding to this expanded clientele and we noticed a sign in what we think is Korean.  Neat,  huh?

The farm has a store to sell other kinds of produce and a kitchen that makes goodies with the fresh fruit.  Our favorite is the strawberry smoothie.  It wasn't quite as good this year.  I fear they may be responding to their clientele in another way by making the smoothie lighter in calories instead of rich in cream that coats your tongue with a slickness as you gulp down chunks of strawberries.  Sigh.  Don't worry I still drank it all, though.

I went a bit crazy this year in my picking....I came home with over 10 pounds of strawberries.

It was a gorgeous day and the berries were plentiful, so it was easy to get carried away.  The smell of freshly picked strawberries is just heavenly, and it made the car ride home even more cheery.

 

I have big plans for them, so I'm not worried about using them all.  In fact, you should expect to read multiple entries about strawberries in the coming days.  I hope Andrea will share her recipe for strawberry bread so I can try it out.

Our first treat, though, was strawberry cream popsicles.  I thought they would make a nice dessert after our heavy meal of beef brisket.  Plus, we could use the new popsicle molds my husband and I got from my parents for Christmas.  It was my first time to make popsicles from fresh fruit, and I imagine I will continue to tinker with the recipe, but here is what I did this time.

Homemade Strawberry Cream Popsicles
Made 6 popsicles, using Tovolo brand molds

2 1/2 cups of stemmed and chopped fresh strawberries
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt

Mix all ingredients in a blender or food processor until fruit is pureed and all is well blended.  A blender is best, but I had to use our food processor since our neighbor borrowed our blender late one night for some boozy margarita fun.  The processor will work in a pinch.  Pour the blended mixture into molds, insert sticks, and place in freezer until firm.  You should allow at least 8 hours.

This is really easy, so I encourage you to experiment with the process and different fruits.  You can adjust the sugar to your taste and use all milk, instead of a combination with yogurt to equally delicious results.

A note on the lack of preciseness: I don't have a kitchen scale yet, so I couldn't weigh the strawberries.  Because of that, this recipe is not exact.  I mean, we each cut our strawberries slightly differently and they contain different amounts of liquid so just consider this a rough proportion.

In case you were wondering, here are the popsicle molds we used...