Canning Planning & A Food In Jars Cookbook Giveaway!

We've been getting steadily more into canning and preserving so this year, I decided to take a slightly more organized approach to it. So I turned to one of my very favorite tools ever, the GoogleDocs spreadsheet and created a handy-dandy little Canning Planning spreadsheet that makes it much easier to map out what I want to preserve, when, how, and what recipes I'd like to use.

It's still early in the season so I've only pickled the ramps, frozen the rhubarb and canned the strawberry jam. There are still many tasty miles to go before winter (and, more importantly, before the baby is born in September since canning and preserving may grind to a halt for a few months at that time.)

Good food is highly seasonal so I encourage you to plan ahead since you'll be more likely to actually make time in the short windows when stuff is at its best to can and preserve the things you'll enjoy eating all year.

Which brings me to the second part of this post - the GIVEAWAY!

I was delighted to receive my copy of Marisa McClellan's new book, Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round, a few weeks ago and it's definitely lit a fire under my ass with regards to this summer's preserving plans.

Marisa has been one of my favorite bloggers for a while now so I knew this was gonna be good. And her book does not disappoint. You really can't go wrong with Marisa's strawberry vanilla jam, rhubarb syrup, boozy canned peaches, pickled asparagus and much, much more...

So I'm giving you all a chance to win your own copy of this petite preserving powerhouse. All's you have to do to enter is:

1. Leave a comment here telling me one thing (or more) that you plan to can, freeze, dry or otherwise preserve this summer.

2. Make sure that you leave at least your first name and email address -- otherwise, I will have no way to contact you if you win, which would be a shame and has actually happened before :(

You can also increase your chances of winning by doing some extra credit (this is completely optional). Here's how it works - you'll get an additional entry in the drawing for each of the following things:

a. Share this post on Facebook and leave me a comment on this post letting me know you've done so.

b. Share this post on Twitter and leave me a comment on this post letting me know you've done so.

c. Write a blog post about the giveaway that links back to this post and leave a comment letting me know.

Feel free to do all your sharing before you write your comment and just fill me in in on your activities in one fell swoop.

3. Entries must be received by midnight on Thursday, June 21, 2012. I'll choose a winner at random (using random.org) and announce it on June 23rd.

4. This giveaway offer is only open to readers in the U.S. and Canada.

I think that is all of the fine print. Good luck!

Two resources you might find useful in your canning and planning endeavors:

• My page of canning directions and resources with links to my favorite recipes, cookbooks and canning and preserving web sites.
• Punk Domestics' recent round up of canning planning posts.

Strawberry Mint Lemonade

One of my fondest memories of summer as a child is of sitting in a white wooden booth with my friend, Dawn, drinking strawberry mint lemonade from a tall, cool glass in Misty's - a tiny, crowded restaurant in the middle of the village of Woodstock.

The lemonade was sweet and sour (as lemonade tends to be...), the strawberry slices were delightfully "pickled" by the lemon and the sugar, and the mint kind of melted to fill in all the flavor spaces left over. We particularly enjoyed this treat after a visit to Big Deep, one of our local swimming holes.

Many years have passed since those halcyon days of youthful summer (yet I am only slightly taller than I was then - I think I must've hit my simply towering adult height of 5' 2" in 6th grade..) Misty quit the restaurant business years ago and now owns a charming shop down the street that sells French antiques and really good chocolates. And as I have yet to find another restaurant whose strawberry lemonade can hold a candle to the stuff Misty used to serve, I just make my own!

It's easy. And delicious. And refreshing. And we pregnant ladies NEED as much of all of those things as we can get, right? Especially when we've brilliantly timed the conception of our second (and FINAL) child to ensure that we will be serenely "enjoying" the last month of pregnancy in the blistering heat and stupefying humidity of August. At least we don't live in DC anymore - that is something to be thankful for...

But I digress. Back to the beverage. Mint is basically a weed (though in a rather ironic twist, the only time I've ever had trouble growing it was when I actually intended to - my pot of mint in Berkeley was perennially beset by bugs...) I think the trick is not to want it and then it flourishes!

Now we've got a bunch that grows wild at the border of our yard and I don't do anything to or for it except pick some when I need it. Which is how I like it.

Strawberries are at their peak of freshness and flavor right now. I used the last of the berries we picked at Story Farm last weekend to make this batch of lemonade.

I used some organic cane sugar from Trader Joe's as my sweetener but you can use maple syrup if you prefer - it will be a little easier to dissolve than sugar crystals. But I wouldn't recommend using honey as it has too assertive a flavor - we're really just going for sweet here, no added flavor needed.

You can juice your own lemons or buy the bottled organic juice. The fresh stuff is better, the bottled stuff is easier. It's up to you -- and there would be absolutely NO judgment from me -- I often use the bottled stuff even though I know it's "cheating".

Start by muddling (which is an awesome little bit of cocktail-making lingo that means mashing ingredients together with something big and heavy) the sliced strawberries and mint leaves with some sugar and lemon juice in the bottom of your pitcher or jar.

I like to let this mixture macerate for a few hours or overnight to let the sugar draw the juices out of the strawberries (a trick I learned from making jam.) Then add the rest of the lemon juice and either cold water or some sparkling water if you're so inclined.Adjust the amounts of sugar, lemon and water to taste and serve! Add ice cubes if you can't refrigerate before serving.

You might also like:

• Meyer Lemon and Bergamot Orange Citrus Cooler
• Strawberry Jam

Want even more recipes, photos, giveaways, and food-related inspiration? "Like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter or Pinterest.

Strawberry Jam To Enjoy All Year

My husband loves peanut butter and jelly with strawberry jam. And our son likes strawberry jam quite a bit, too. Normally, I stock up on Trader Joe's organic strawberry jam whenever I happen to pass by one of their stores on one of my rare forays out of the hinterlands (Hudson Valleyites take note: a TJ's is opening this August in Colonie - woot!) But while TJ's jam is fine, it's just not as good as the homemade stuff.

Plus, we had so much fun picking strawberries last summer (we froze most of them to use in smoothies and sauces), that we decided to increase the size of our haul this summer and expand our preserving efforts to include jam.

Despite the relatively rainy weather, we've found enough breaks in the gloom to go picking at two of our favorite local farms, Greig Farm in Redhook (if you have kids, plan to leave time to get ice cream and pet the goats at Gigi's Market and to feed the extremely competitive koi in the pond behind Grandiflora) and Story Farms in Catskill and have picked enough to freeze a bunch AND to make a decent sized batch of this divine strawberry jam.

If you're new to canning, this is a great thing to start with since it's fairly straightforward and the end result is both yummy and beautiful to behold.

Also, the smell that will fill your house while you're simmering the jam on the stove is nothing short of divine - so sweet and summery it almost makes you want to cry. This smell stands in stark contrast to the intensely vinegary odor that pervades every nook and cranny of your house when you pickle foods -- that smell will also make you want to cry, but not in a good way...

A few notes before you begin:

Don't skip the macerating step if possible. If you don't have time to let them sit overnight, even an hour is better than nothing.

And don't cut any corners on your fruit - preserve the freshest and best berries you can find!

This recipe is adapted from a few sources including one of my favorite books, Put 'Em Up by Sherri Brooks Vinton as well as the divine strawberry vanilla jam recipe in Marisa McClellan's wonderful new book, Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round. I have more cookbook recommendations, info, recipes and links to great resources for you on my canning and preserving page.

The recipe below yields a sweet, flavorful, beautiful red jam that is nice and thick (not syrupy like preserves).

-- print recipe --Strawberry Jam
Makes 6 pint jars

Ingredients

* 16 cups cleaned, hulled, halved (or quartered, depending on the size) strawberries
* 6 cups granulated organic sugar
* 8 tablespoons powdered pectin
* 1/2 cup organic lemon juice (you can squeeze your own but for projects like this, I buy organic lemon juice in the little squeeze bottles, even the organic stuff is cheap and it saves some time)

Directions

1. Combine the strawberries and 2 cups of the sugar in a non-reactive pot. Let the mixture sit at room temperature until the sugar begins to pull the liquid out of the berries, about 15 to 30 minutes, then cover and refrigerate over night (this is called maceration.) If you don't have time to wait that long, let sit for an hour or more.

2. When you're ready to jam out, prepare a boiling water bath and 6 wide mouth pint jars, lids and bands (you can also use a combination of half-pint and pint jars if you prefer - we canned some of ours in the smaller jars as sometimes it's nice to have the option of a smaller jar) according to the directions outlined here.

3. Take the macerated berries out of the fridge and put them and the rest of the ingredients in a large non-reactive pot (you may want to use a larger pot than you think you'll need since the jam is going to boil and foam quite a bit and a bigger pot can help you prevent boiling over which gets VERY sticky when you're dealing with this amount of sugar).

4. Bring to a boil over high heat(this jam will foam like crazy) and cook on high heat, stirring regularly for 15 to 20 minutes, until it takes on a thick, syrupy consistency. If you have an immersion blender, use it at this point to puree some of the fruit to whatever consistency you desire. If not, you can use a blender to puree about a third of the jam.

5. Let the jam boil vigorously until it reaches 220 F (105 C). If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can judge that it is done when the bubbles begin to look thick and syrupy. You can also see if it's sheeting -- dip a spoon in the jam then hold it up and let it drip back into the pot - if the drips fall singly and seem liquidy, it needs to cook longer. But if the drips have begun to run together and form a sheet as they drip, you've achieved your set and can stop cooking.

6. Remove the pot from the heat and ladle the jam into your prepared jars. Wipe the rims with a clean, wet cloth, apply the lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Remove from the boiling water bath with your jar lifter and set in a draft-free place on a towel to cool. Don't let the jars touch each other as they're cooling.

7. The jars should begin to make a most delightful pop or ping noise ans the seal forms, pulling the centers of the lids down and making them slightly concave. Once the jars have cooled for 24 hours, you can check the seals by removing the bands. Grasp the jar by the edge of the lid and lift gently an inch or two off the towel-covered countertop. The lid should hold fast. If it does not hold, refrigerate the jam and use it within two weeks. If it does, store in a cool, dry place for up to a year.

You might also like:

• Strawberry Shortcake
• Homemade Maraschino Cherries
• Apple Rhubarb Chutney

Want even more recipes, photos, giveaways, and food-related inspiration? "Like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter or Pinterest.