A Day Making Jam

It's the last of the "putting up" activities here. I probably shouldn't say 'last' because we still have so many habaneros and so many garlic bulbs (some of which Michael re-planted in the garden for next year), and so many green tomatoes that I can foresee that we'll have more receipes to potentially tackle (perhaps even tomorrow!). Today's activities are documented just below. Pictorial time!

Here is the beginning of garlic-Hungarian wax pepper jam.

...and here Michael is filling jars with garlic-Hungarian wax pepper jam to
go into the canner.

After that, we began roasting garlic for roasted garlic jam. Yes, roasted garlic jam!
We've found the savory receipe segment of the Ball Canning Book. So much excitement!
Here, the garlic is covered in 1 tsp. olive oil and 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar.

The roasted garlic, here wrapped in aluminum foil, made the kitchen smell amazing.

At 10 a.m., when we got up, we started soaking dried apricots in white vinegar.
Why? We're making habanero gold preserves.
The apricots needed to soak for 4 hours. Now, they've plumped up.

The garlic-Hungarian wax pepper jam is out of the canner.

Now, Michael is stirring the beginnings of the habanero gold.
It contains: 1 /2 cup dried apricots, 3/4 white vinegar, 1/4 red onions (our own!),
1/4 cup habaneros (our own!), 1/4 cup Hungarian hot red peppers (ours, too),
and 3 cups sugar.

Remember the roasted garlic above? Here it is in white wine (there's some
in Savannah at this point, too...heh! It's Saturday, kids.), golden balsamic vinegar,
water, crushed peppercorns, and 3 cups sugar.

The roasted garlic pepper jam 'broth' pureed with our immersion blender and
mixed with cracked black peppercorns...before we added the pectin.

Here is the gorgeous habanero gold.

Michael is putting lids on the roasted garlic jam here. They're about to take
a hot bath in the boilign water canner.

And the full collective of today's activities appear above.

All this productivity made us hungry. Last night, at Riesbeck's in Steubenville,
we found that they make chocolate Redi-whip. So, here, we've got crackers,
peanut butter, banana, and chocolate Redi-whip

Moment with nature: the fall colors continue to spread across the hill.



Another moment with nature: more of fall colors in "the holler".