Monday, August 24, 2009, 07:04
If That Doesn't Beet All . . .
Sunday afternoon I went down the garden and pulled about half of my two rows of beets. I am hoping the smaller ones might still grow a bit yet. I rinsed them off, cut off the tops and put them in my mother's big old aluminum kettle to cook. It is, of course, not the first time that kettle has cooked beets. My mother used it for baking bread, too, and for making jam and jelly.
After the beets had cooked for a while, I took one out to see if I could peel it.
Yes. I could. I set that beet aside on a plate, intending to eat it with my supper, and then I turned off the burner under the kettle.
When suppertime rolled around, I was delighted to find out that the beets -- or at least that one anyway -- are delicious. Sweet and delicious. I had a poor beet crop last year and a pretty good one this year, even though it was dryer this year than last year, or at least dryer for a sustained length of time. Go figure. Maybe the rainwater that I captured in buckets beneath the barn eaves helped the beets more than I thought.
Last year's beets were about the size of a walnut and did not taste as good as they could have. I pickled them anyway and savored each and every one.
I set my kettle of beets out on the porch so they could cool off. Later on, I went out and poured the water off them so they would not get water logged. Perhaps I will freeze this batch of beets. It has come to my attention, while I was doing a batch of pickled red cabbage, that I do not have very many quart jars left. Or lids. And not any wide-mouthed lids at all.
Either way, I am going to have beets this winter.
Black Cherries
Another happy discovery is that the wild black cherry tree growing next to the lower driveway has cherries this year. So does the cherry tree next to the fence by Isabelle's pasture.
The funny thing about both cherry trees is that they have cherries on the east side, where they were apparently protected from late freezes this past spring. The plum tree by the barn is the same way -- only plums on the east side where the blossoms were protected.
We got the stepladder out of the basement, and while Randy picked the black cherries from tree by the driveway, I picked the cherries I could reach from the tree by Isabelle's pasture fence. In all, we ended up with two-thirds of a five-quart pail of black cherries, enough to make a batch of jelly.
It has been years since we've found enough black cherries to make jelly.
Life is good. Beets and wild black cherries in one day. And the wild blackberries are starting to ripen, too. I have already made nine pints of blackberry jam. And have frozen two quarts for pie next winter. And there's still lots of red ones and many green ones yet to come.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 22:15
What About Chokecherries?
Sunday evening, Randy and I each picked half a five-quart pail of chokecherries. That was all we could reach on the trees, but it was enough. I cooked down the chokecherries and squeezed out the juice and ended up with four pints of chokecherry jelly. The jelly will taste very good in January when it is below zero.
The health food stores are always touting the benefits of the Acai berry and other exotic berries that are known for their vitamins and minerals and anti-oxidant properties. It's the deep purple pigment that is supposed to be so beneficial. Blueberries also are touted as being very healthy. And so is the wine made from grapes. And cherry juice.
But what about chokecherries? And wild blackberries? And wild black raspberries? And wild black cherries? And wild grapes? And wild blueberries? And wild pin cherries (that make the prettiest crimson jelly)? And wild plums? I never hear anyone talking about the benefits of wild fruit that grows free for the picking.
But that, of course, is the point, I think. If people went out and picked the wild fruit that is available nearby, they would not be spending money on all of the exotic fruit products that have to be harvested, processed and then shipped thousands of miles. If people made use of the wild fruit in their backyards, they would not be spending money on the items available from the health food and vitamin shops.
Some of the juices I have seen advertised are sold for outrageous prices -- $20 a pint, $50 a quart. This is obviously a big business that would be circumvented if people went out and picked their own "exotic" fruit. And we can't have that, can we? In this country that is built on capitalism, we most certainly cannot have people doing things for themselves. That's not the American way. Bleeding the American consumer dry is the American way.
But the health benefits of wild fruit are not only in the fruit itself. It is also in the picking of the fruit. If people went out to harvest their own health-food products, they would be getting exercise while at the same time they are harvesting fruit.
And not only that, but think about how organic wild fruit is. No one has applied chemicals to it. No one has applied fertilizer. The fruit has grown from the simple elements of soil, water and sunshine. No one has burned gasoline or diesel fuel to plant it. No one has used irrigation that threatens the water supply. No one has burned fuel to harvest the crop or to ship it for thousands of miles.
Two weeks or so ago, we went to check on the blackberries. At that time, it was exceptionally dry but looked as though there would be a good blackberry crop, if only we could get enough rain to help them fill out.
Well, we have gotten rain, something over two inches since then. And then again on Wednesday, it drizzled most of the afternoon.
Last year, in addition to making blackberry jam, I froze some blackberries and we had pie several times over the winter. Yummmmmmy!
Blackberries, here I come. As soon as the rain stops. And as soon as I don't have a meeting to cover in the evening for the newspaper.
LeAnn R. Ralph