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When I lived in California, fresh fruit was available almost year-round, but I missed seasonal changes, especially autumn. Having grown up in the Midwest, September never seemed quite right without leaves tinged with gold, orange and red hues. I almost hesitate to say, for fear I'll have to face a really harsh freezing long winter, but I've even come to like (a bit of) snow—that graceful blanket of white that softens contours and brightens winter days.
In our northern climate, where fruit trees go dormant, "putting food by" is a practical and frugal activity. While we can now can buy fresh fruit year round, the price is often dear, especially if you prefer organic or "no spray" produce. My motivation for preserving summer's bounty is complex—it's part frugality, part nostalgia for the tradition, and part delayed gratification. It takes discipline to stand at a hot stove and can fruit during the heat of August, but it is truly gratifying to open that jar of sumptuous preserved apricots in the cold of January. I admit that I've done less canning in recent years, but I still like to preserve some of summer's bounty. I bought a large, used freezer, which I pack full every summer, and I dry a lot of fruit and tomatoes with an electric dehydrator. The fruit you select for preservation should be fresh, firm, and ready to eat. Preservation will not improve unripe or overripe fruit. Wash the fruit in cold water, being careful not to bruise it. Berries can be put in a colander, then dunked in cold water for the very gentlest of washing. Prepare the fruit as you would for eating—pit, peel, or slice it if necessary or desired. Cut away any damaged portions. Canning Fruits There are two basic methods to canning fruit: hot pack or raw cold pack. In hot pack canning, place the fruit in a large non-reactive kettle, add sweetening, and cook until tender. One can taste and adjust the fruit, adding more sweetening, lemon, or spices as needed. The hot fruit is then packed into hot sterile jars, leaving at least ½ inch empty headroom. Closed with hot sterile lids and rings, the jars are boiled in a water bath or pressure canner for a specified amount of time to ensure sealing and sterilization. One should always follow the USDA canning recommendations to ensure the safety of your canned product. It is foolish to take shortcuts with sealing and sterilization. The raw cold pack method is simpler and quicker, but one does not have the chance to taste the cooked product or make changes in the ingredients or amounts of sweetness or flavoring. Pack peeled (and if desired, sliced) fruit directly into hot, sterile jars, add the sweetened liquid to within 1 inch from the jar top, and screw on hot, sterile jar lids and rings. Then put the jars into the boiling water bath or pressure canner according to USDA canning recommendations for time and temperature. With the cold pack method, liquid must be added to the fruit to help spread the heat, and to add some sweetness to the fruit. Drying Fruit Drying is easy and straightforward. Follow the time and temperature directions for your dehydrator. You may want to dip your sliced fruit in either a citric acid or ascorbic acid solution, or fresh lemon juice before drying. When I have fresh lemons, I use a one-to-one solution of fresh squeezed lemon juice and water. Otherwise, I dissolve about a tablespoon of citric acid in one cup of water. Dip the fruit slices and dry. After they are dry, store in sterile jars or freezer-quality plastic bags. Store in a cool, dry place. Freezing Fresh Fruit Most fruits have very fragile tissues that can rupture when frozen. The fruit can become mushy and juices can leak out. To prevent this, many people pack more delicate fruit (such as melon or pears) in sugar or in a sweetened syrup. The fruit cells still rupture, but they absorb the sweetener and stay plump and solid. Sugar seems to act on many fruits to preserve the natural flavor that can be lost during freezing. A sweetened peach, when thawed, tastes much more like a fresh peach than one that was frozen without sugar. That said, I've frozen a lot of fruit without adding sweetening, and the fruit is good for baking, or just eating over ice cream or cake. If you are adverse to adding refined sugar to deliciously ripe summer fruit, you can use concentrated fruit juices, honey, Succinct?, raw sugar, date sugar, rice syrup, or some such less refined product for sweetening. Before freezing, some folks sprinkle a solution of 1 teaspoon ascorbic acid per 1 tablespoon cold water over fruit that might oxidize and darken. Certain fruits, such as raspberries or blackberries, may be trayfrozen before packing in freezer containers. Spread the delicate berries out in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze them hard. Then bag for freezing; they won't stick together in a frozen clump. When packing fruit for freezing, leave a minimum of ½ inch headroom in rigid containers. If you make a sweet syrup, be sure to chill the syrup thoroughly before adding the fruit. You need about ½ to 2/3 cups syrup for each 2 cups of fruit. Seal syrup-packed fruit in airtight, rigid plastic or glass containers, leaving at least 1/2 inch headroom. Place a piece of crumpled waxed paper in the air space between the syrup and the lid to keep floating fruit submerged in syrup. (Otherwise the fruit that floats to the top dries out during freezing.) Most general cookbooks, like Joy of Cooking, Betty Crocker's, or Fannie Farmer's have a section on preserving. There are also many good books that specifically address the topic. I bought two of my favorite books (on the subject) from the Co-op: Canning and Preserving without Sugar by Norma M. MacRae and You Can Can with Honey by Nancy Cosper. The first is a good well-rounded treatment of the subject, the latter is a small 24-page publication. I also use old, well-worn copies of Sunset Book's Home Canning, Preserving, Freezing, Drying, The Green Thumb Preserving Guide by Jean Anderson, and Putting Food By by Hertzberg, Vaughan, and Greene. Since Italian Prune Plums grow so prolifically on the Palouse, I've selected a recipe from Canning and Preserving without Sugar that also doesn't require pectin. Plum Marmalade
6 cups ripe purple plums, pitted and ground
2 cups sweet apples, cored and ground
1 cup seedless raisins, ground
1 large orange, seeded and ground
½ medium lemon, seeded and ground
1 cup orange juice concentrate (frozen, undiluted)
1 cup white grape juice
1 cup water
a dash of salt (optional) Combine all ingredients in a deep, non-aluminum kettle. Simmer over low heat until thickened, stirring frequently to avoid sticking. When thickened, taste and add more lemon juice or fruit juice if desired. Pour into hot, sterile pint jars, leaving ½ inch at top. Cap with hot, sterile lids and process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes after water returns to boiling. If any jars fail to seal, refrigerate and use within 10 days or freeze for later use. To freeze, pour into clean freezer containers or jars, leaving ½ inch at top. Cover with clean lids and allow to cool to room temperature before placing in sharp-freeze section of freezer. When frozen hard, move to other section of freezer for storage. Thaw in refrigerator overnight before using. Makes 9 ½ cups. |
