by Caroline
I know I should make jam. Every summer the local paper runs an article about jam making, with lots of delicious-looking recipes and helpful instructions. Every summer my good friend invites me over to her kitchen to make jam with her. I know it’s not hard, and the fact that I don’t have good tongs for lifting jars out of a hot water bath shouldn’t stop me. My grandparents all made preserves of various sorts (jams, pickles, jellies), and now my parents do, too.
But somehow the insistent chorus of “It’s easy!” is not having the intended effect on me, and I continue to stick with the oven, not the stove.
Occasionally, the farmer who sells our biweekly mystery box offers little extras, produced by her friends and other farmers, for sale. A pound of homemade lard for instance (pass), or a dozen farm eggs (yes, please). Sometimes it’s cheese or honey (sign us up), and this past week it was flats of apricots.
I thought about it. A whole flat is an awful lot of apricots. On the other hand, apricots don’t need to be peeled; they don’t even need a knife to slice them — you can just crack them open at the stem end with your thumbs. Apricots can be frozen easily, or pureed, baked into things and of course, eaten fresh by the handful.
I signed up for a flat. We probably ate a dozen the first day, and continued to eat lots of the apricots fresh out of the box over the next few days. And here’s what I did with the rest of them:
And then I froze a tray in order to capture some of this summer gold for the rainy winter to come.
Kelly
July 20, 2009 @ 11:50 pm
And you have time to do this when? — oh…my favorite mom, between museum visits! Can’t believe that I missed a flat of apricots. We went strawberry pciking today. I am now inspired — thank you! xo K
nicole
July 21, 2009 @ 12:12 am
Oh, apricots. I wish I could get my hands on a flat. Oh, any fruit besides blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. They look beautiful and your cooking looks beautiful too.
Elizabeth Crane
July 21, 2009 @ 12:20 am
Who needs jam when you have all this? Still, perhaps I can bring some over for your poor deprived jamless children.
caroline
July 21, 2009 @ 9:28 pm
Oh, Kelly, you know I make time for baking when I should be writing! but honestly only the sorbet took more than half an hour, and I’m not sure it was worth the effort (roasting, then peeling, then pushing the fruit through a strainer before putting it in the ice cream maker). Nicole, I didn’t realize you don’t have fruit trees in Alaska! I wish I could ship you a flat. And Liz, you know I’ll trade you syrup for jam any day…
Easy Picnic Dessert Recipes
August 21, 2009 @ 8:51 pm
What an interesting and info packed site. Thanks for this, I really appreciate what you have done here. Keep it up, and I will be back for more. Bill Kilner
Daphne
August 24, 2009 @ 10:09 pm
I think the frozen ones look the most delicious! I have made apricot jam but it turned out too sticky and dark. Maybe I cooked it too long. I think you made the right call.
Learning To Eat » Archivio » Summer in a Jar: Salsa Verde
October 19, 2009 @ 9:47 am
[…] can handle, cooked into sauce and tucked into the freezer, next to a few dozen pesto cupcakes, some apricots and some berries. I don’t have a huge freezer, so I don’t put up a lot, but if […]
Learning To Eat » Archivio » Maple Pear Upside-Down Cake
November 13, 2009 @ 11:45 pm
[…] miss and recipes with bigger yields than she and my dad can handle. It’s quite a bit like the apricot upside-down cake I made several times this summer (click here for the recipe), and of course not too different from […]