Canning Across America is in today’s Parade Magazine, under Unexpected Food Trends. Check it out!
National Pickle Day, November 14, 2009
Photo by cafemama
Hey folks! It’s National Pickle Day! A day devoted to pickling is designed for preserving folks like us. It’s the perfect time to make pickles, eat pickles, or decide what homemade pickled items we want to give as a gifts.
Almost anything can be pickled. A pickle is: “An edible product, such as a cucumber, that has been preserved and flavored in a solution of brine or vinegar” (definition from Answers.com). Although almost any food can be pickled–don’t forget that Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers–the food that we in the US usually call “pickles” are most often pickled cucumbers. And, there is a whole range of pickled cucumbers on our shelves, with dill pickles and bread and butter pickles being the most commonly known. And there are food items other than pickled fruits and vegetables to explore, like pickled pig’s feet and pickled eggs.
Of course, pickling can be said to apply to humans, as well. We can be “in a pickle,” which means we are in some sort of trouble, and we can be “pickled,” which means we have had too much to imbibe.
What have you been pickling? Let us know! Don’t forget that we have many pickle recipes on our recipe page–check them out!
Keeping Up the Family Traditions
My 80 year old grandmother, who was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, has been “putting-up” for as long as I can remember. I don’t ever recall a single summer where she wasn’t freezing green beans and bell peppers, canning tomatoes, or making jar after jar of strawberry jam. The summer I turned 13 she taught me how to make jams and jellies. Sadly, that summer was the last time I would preserve anything for a long time.
Fast forward nearly 20 years later, to a trip I took to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I happened to pick up a jar of apple butter and upon bringing it home and having it on my toast the next morning, I fell head over heels in love. I found all sorts of uses for it as a sauce, as a marinade, and by putting the occasional swirl in plain yogurt for a simple dessert. I even used it to add a little extra something to my fool-proof apple pie recipe.
After a late summer visit with my grandmother where she was making her now famous strawberry jam, a light bulb went off–that fall I was going to make apple butter. Once my local orchard opened to the public, my then 2 year old daughter and I set off to start our own tradition. I dragged her to the orchard where I picked more apples than I knew what to do with. Over the next few weeks, I made batch after batch of apple cinnamon muffins, apple pancakes, apple turnovers, apple pie, applesauce and finally, apple butter. Pleased with my kitchen full of apple products, I decided that every year going forward my daughter and I would go apple picking and make tons of apple things, especially apple butter. My heart swelled with pride every time my little girl asked for applesauce or apple bread (her name for apple-cinnamon muffins).
Keeping up with our new family tradition, my now four year old daughter and I went apple picking last month and have since put-up a small batch of apple butter. Over the past couple of years I’ve tried about three different recipes for apple butter until I found the one that really works for me, the recipe I use now is perfect for my super busy lifestyle. It gives me great pleasure to share it with you fellow canners out there today.
CAA Contributor Heather Jones, a self described Foodie Princess, is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City (formerly Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School). She has worked for Gourmet Magazine, TV Personality Katie Brown, and the New York based Indian-fusion restaurant Tabla. Heather resides in New Jersey with her husband and two daughters, where in addition to holding down a full-time job she writes for the websites Project Foodie, Cooking Up A Story, and moonlights as a private cooking instructor.
Video: Audra Wolf on the Canvolution
Editor’s note: Audra talks about keeping your canned goods for two years. The current safety guideline is that the canned goods are shelf stable for 1 year.
CAA Contributor Audra Wolf is an independent science writer and editor based in Philadelphia. Originally trained as a chemist before getting a Ph.D. in history of science, she loves explaining the mechanics of pressure canning through the ideal gas law. Audra learned to can on her parents’ farm in Southern Indiana, where it was just something that everyone did. She blogs about her adventures in canning, pickling, fermenting, and dehydrating with her sister, an organic farmer, at Doris and Jilly Cook
Eugenia Bone Talks Fall Preserving on Culinate, 10/21
“Well Preserved” author Eugenia Bone is a featured repeat guest on Kim O’Donnel’s weekly chat on Culinate, Wed., Oct. 21 (10a PT/1ET).
Photo from Cans Across America Flickr pool.
We’ll talk the ups, downs, ins and outs of safely putting up food and what we’ve been canning this fall. (Don’t forget to ask her about canning fresh tuna!)
Can’t make the live hour? Submit your question early.
The Canvolution Makes the Wall St. Journal!
Canning is so hot that even the Wall Street Journal has gotten hip to “putting up.” Check out reporter Ana Campoy’s story, which mentions Canning Across America. To say we’re thrilled is an understatement; we’re doing a jig by the canning kettle!
P.S. Link is good for 7 days for non-subscribers of WSJ. Permanent PDF version of the story to come.
Recipe Spotlight: Spicy Pear and Dried Cherry Chutney from Greg Atkinson
![Greg_7442[2]_00](http://www.canningacrossamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Greg_74422_00-150x150.jpg "Greg_7442[2]_00")
Looking for a nice fall recipe? Writer, chef, and cookbook author Greg Atkinson has shared one of his favorite chutney recipes with us. Check it out!
Spicy Pear and Dried Cherry Chutney
CAA Contributor Greg Atkinson, Author and Organic Recipe Consultant, Tilth Producers of Washington. Greg is an author and blogger at West Coast Cooking and has served as executive chef at Seattle’s venerable Canlis restaurant. His latest book is West Coast Cooking. He also develops menu items for Organic to Go, a burgeoning chain of take-out restaurants and is an organic recipe consultant for Tilth Producers of Washington, a membership organization of over 500 Washington growers, which fosters and promotes ecologically sound, sustainable agriculture in the interests of environmental preservation, human health and social equity.
The Canvolution on the The Splendid Table
Lynne Rossetto Kasper talks to Kim O’Donnel about reviving the lost art of “putting up” food this week on the Splendid Table.
Take a listen to the interview here.
Canning Across America in GOOD
Canning Across America was the subject of an article on Good.is today. As you may know, Good.is is “a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward.” Check it out!
Seattle: Lorene Edwards Forkner at QA Farmers Market Thurs. 9/24
Seattle Canners: please stop by the Queen Anne Farmers Market for a canning demo and book signing with Lorene Edwards Forkner, blogger at Planted at Home and author of Canning and Preserving Your Own Harvest The demo will start at 4 pm.
