Black & Blue Berry Jam

It's official.  I am obsessed with jam.

I can't go to a farmer's market without seeing all of the gorgeous local fruit and thinking of what I can do with it.  

I go with a list, a plan of what I'm going to buy and what I'm going to make from jams to sauces to preserves to pickles.  And other fruits just jump out at me.  Filling my cart and giving me even more to process on my already too short weekend. 

Strawberry Gelato

Look at that bucket of berries.

Insanity, right?

Well we had two of those buckets filled to the brim last week.  All picked by the Boy and I in about an hour.  It was literally back breakin' or should I say back achin' work.  Strawberry picking is one of those things that should maybe be reserved for kids.  The unfortunate thing is that we love them.  And there is nothing, I mean nothing like the taste of a warm sun-ripened berry.  It has to be one of my favorite tastes of summer.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie on the Grill

Today, July 5th, is a Pie Party across the web.  It was put out there by the ever fabulous Shauna Ahern, the Gluten-Free Girl.

I think it obvious that I'm a fan of pie, while I haven't made one in awhile I have done a plethora of pie posts since I started this blog.  So when presented with a blogworthy excuse to make one I am all over it.

Here's the glitch, summer is here in full force in Toronto.  80 degree days packed with humidity make my kitchen the last place I want to be when the oven is on.  So what's a girl to do?  The easy answer would be to make an icebox pie.  The problem is my love of fruit pies in a buttery crust will always win out over any graham based crust and pudding type filling that I identify with icepbox pies.

Whiskey Laced Peach Slab Pie for Pi Day

Happy 3.14 or Pi Day as it's more commonly known.  I'm a huge fan of pie so any day where the baking and eating of pie is encouraged is ok by me.  While thinking about a pie for Pi Day I knew I wanted to use the peaches I had frozen at the end of last summer but I also wanted to figure out a way to tie the upcoming St. Patrick's Day into it.   St. Patty's Day to me is all about beer and whiskey.  I wasn't really feeling the idea of beer and peaches, though if anyone has a recipe that proves me wrong on that one I'd love to see it.  But peaches & whiskey?  Why not?

Meyer Lemon Marmalade

We are a house divided when it comes to marmalade.  The Boy loves it and I'm not a fan.  I think that it's the bitterness that I generally associate with marmalade.  All that being said a few years ago I bought some of Pim's Artisinal Marmalades and while I didn't love them (though the Boy and father-in-law absolutely did) they were so beautifully crafted that I wanted to try to make some myself.

I decided that a Meyer Lemon version would be perfect for my first attempt because the gorgeous lemon-orange hybrids are sweeter than the average lemon and these gems remind of California, for which I miss so dearly during the grey winter days in Toronto. It's interesting that the citrus season falls during these grey days, you go to the grocery store and the shelves are stocked with so many varieties of citrus in bright and summery colors.

Unprocessed: Strawberry Rhubarb Jam with Honey

This recipe is a bit out of date, but seemed just so perfect for Unprocessed October that I had to share it. While the fruits I used are past season, for me this is a simple jam that can easily be thrown together with just about anything you come across at your farmer's market or even with fruit you may have frozen from the summer.

About a month ago I walked my little pooch, Stella to our local Farmer's Market it was a gorgeous Indian Summer day and I wanted to take advantage of one of the last market weekends of the season. While visiting one of my favorite organic farm's stand a bunch of rhubarb caught my eye.  The red and green were so vibrant it was impossible to resist.  We of course bought some of Stella's favorite liver treats too.  The next stand had local honey, now not just local to Ontario but local to Toronto, gathered from hives in the Portlands where I often work.  I din't even know we had honey that was that local and had to snatch it up immediately.   I have a bit of a honey problem, I buy some everywhere we go and have amassed quite a collection of honeys from California to Vermont to all over Ontario.  I am far from a honey expert, but I love the different flavors honey can have and how it almost has it's own story.  The Portlands honey was very light in color with a strong floral flavor.  I wanted to drink the whole jar right there.

Canning: Niagara Peaches in Cardamom Vanilla Bean Syrup

For as long as I can remember I've loved peaches and hated how unavailable they are for most of the year.  Growing up in the New England most of our peaches came from the south and when my father started working in South Carolina he'd ship cartons of South Carolina peaches home.  It was like Christmas for me when those cartons would show up on our doorstep.  Barely being able to wait to open the box and smell that sweet peach smell and dig right into a perfectly ripe piece of fruit.  There are few food memories I have that bring a smile to my face the way those cartons of peaches do. 

Cut to the summer of 2009, when I moved to Toronto where I learned about the fabulous little jewels that are grown just and hour and a half away, Niagara peaches.  Since I generally try to focus on ingredients that are grown or produced locally, I LOVE that you can get peaches that are grown less than 100 miles away.  I love supporting local farmers and providing jobs to people in Ontario and most importantly I love the way the peaches taste.  The sweet peachy-orange flesh that just melts in your mouth.  When they are perfectly ripe they have a beautiful ombre to their skin that goes from a pale peach all the way to a deep red.  The fuzz is soft and the fruit gives just the right amount to the touch.  I use them in my peach basil jam, in pies and I just eat them.

Niagara peaches are smaller than the ones I'm used to getting from the South, but they are oh so sweet.  Nothing makes me happier than going to the supermarket and seeing the 3 liter baskets of Niagara peaches.  They are good from the grocery store, but once you start seeing them there, you know you'll also find then at local farmer's markets too.  If I'm desperate I'll get them at the grocery store but my preferred place to buy is at my local Farmer's Market the Birchcliff Village Market.  A few Friday's ago I bought a couple 3 liter baskets at the market.  They were ripe and beautiful freestone peaches, the best kind for breaking down because the stone comes out so easily.  I would have happily worked away at them, eating them, putting them in smoothies, baking up a storm.  One of my favorite peach recipes is Smitten Kitchen's Peach Cupcakes.  But I stopped myself, knowing that peach season was drawing to a close, I wanted to find a way to preserve this lovely fruit that I love so much.