Book Week at GardenPunks

Man, have I been reading a lot. I have some fun books to share, so I have declared this book week here at GardenPunks!

First up: jams and preserves by Gina Steer (Parragon Books, 2007). My sister gave me this book for Christmas, and I have been drooling over it ever since. Since it is published out of the UK, the recipes are curiously different than the ones I've come across here in the US. Case in point: the author talks about using wax discs to cover the hot goods whereas we use a hot water bath here in the states to process certain canned goodies like jams. When I tried to do some research on it, I was having a hard time finding information on wax discs!

Flashback: I remember when I was small, my parents planted a couple cherry trees in our backyard. One year the trees were absolutely laden with fruit, so they decided to make cherry jam. My favorite memory of this adventure was a late spring/early summer evening when an unexpected rainstorm came up. My dad spent his teenage summers at his family's lake house and cherry orchard in western Montana. Being the cherry expert, he knew that rain would make the cherries split and they would spoil much more quickly than we'd be able to process them. He and my mom went out in the dark and picked cherries in the rain. We had so much cherry jam that we ate it for a couple years AND gave lots away!

I remember this foray into canning because my parents used parafin wax to seal the jars of hot jam. All the canning I've done as an adult has been of the water bath variety, so I was very interested in the author's use of wax discs and no heat processing. - but for the sake of safety, I think I will stick with heat processing via water bath canning.

Some of the recipes that look quite tasty include:

Cranberry jelly - (good thing I stocked up around Thanksgiving!). The citrus will give this a nice tang as well as acidity for canning.
Peach and passion fruit jam - I really want to grow passion fruit, but don't know if I like it! And it is not something you can get at the store or farmer's market. Decisions, decisions...
Ginger citrus marmalade - We live in an area where citrus grow well, this is a must.
Mixed vegetable pickle - This recipe reminds me of the wonderful pickled veggies we had at Shahrzad (Persian Cuisine) on Taryn's birthday!
Lemon curd - decidedly English!

Maybe it's just because I am hungry, or because I have a wicked sweet tooth, but this book makes me want to can right now.