K – Kiwi Jam (1-19) The first jam of the year.
ELGM – Eureka Lemon and Green (underripe) Mandarin Orange Marmalade (1-18) I had three pounds of the oranges and added a couple of pounds of Eureka lemons for this marmalade. Frankly, it’s not as good as a 100% Eureka lemon marmalade, so I give it to the unsuspecting.
BOM – Blood Orange Marmalade (02/23) My friend Dot has a friend with a blood orange tree that produces so well that she has to give a lot of it away, and Dot got way more than she could eat, which is how I ended up with five pounds of them. Even better, these oranges would have benefited by being left longer on the tree because they’re not super sweet and, the telltale sign, didn’t get that blood orange dark red inside but rather were just orange. That’s great for me since for marmalade you don’t want sweet fruit. The five pounds of oranges produced twelve jars of marmalade, so I handed off to Dot five for her friend and one for herself. I’ll be handing this one out only to those who ask for it because my blood orange marmalades in the past have been quite popular.
ELM – Eureka Lemon Marmalade (04/08) I spotted five-pound bags of seedless Eureka lemons at Costco and thought, why not? It was a great pleasure not to have to dig out the seeds, so the slicing went rapidly. The taste? Of course everything tastes better when you’re on a first-name basis with the farmer/vendor, but to be honest, this one tastes just like previous Eureka lemon marmalades from local farmers, which means it’s delicious.
MC – Mango Chutney (04/09) Finally at long last Mexican mangoes are in season. Safeway and our little neighborhood markets almost always have mangoes, but much of the time they’ve been flown in from South America, which makes them too much of a burden on the ecology to buy. Trucked up from Mexico, no prob, and I tell myself that the Mexican ones taste better.
BTC – Black Tartarian Cherry (5/19) These cherries have an ardent following, and I got these on the last day of their season at Gary Alfieri’s stand.
A – Apricot Jam (6/18 I got the apricots at Rodin Farms, a favorite vendor.N – Nectarine Jam (07/3) I love nectarines (from Rodin’s) so much that when I’m planning to make a jam of them I have to buy at least a couple of extra pounds to eat, ideally swimming in sweetened cream.
TB – Tayberry Jelly ( 07/05, 7/11) I’ve slowed down enough that I let the first part of the tayberry season slip past me before I finally picked up a flat of ’em from Yerena. My goodness, do those things ever make good jelly, and so I used up some of my collection of smaller jars with smaller lids for the first batch. (OK, my wide base funnel that fits into the top of an 8oz. Mason jar is too large for other jars. (For the smaller jars, I need to fill a 1qt. measuring cup from the cooking pot and then pour from the Pyrex into the jars.)
BB – Blackberry Jelly (07/09) Stopped at Yerena’s yesterday afternoon and was crushed that they had no tayberries. Sra. Yerena blotted my tears and told me she’d bring me some on Saturday. I went ahead and bought a flat of blackberries since that’s my second favorite jelly.
CPKC – Cherry Jam with Patak’s Hot Curry Paste (7/13) OK, we’re talking highly experimental here. What I was trying to make was a batch of the Cherry Jam with Patak’s Hot Lime Relish that has gone over so well in years past. Unfortunately, owing to a lack of hand/eye coordination attendant upon being so damn old, I ended up getting home from the Indian market with a jar of Patak’s Hot Curry Paste, and since that was on hand, I decided to use it instead of the Hot Lime stuff. And then, once I’d got what looked like a reasonable quantity of it into the pot, I went ahead and just scraped out the rest of the jar. And I’d already chopped in a large green Jalapeño, so what we ended up with is a very highly seasoned product. Not for beginners. Tomorrow I’m going to mount a dedicated search for some more fresh cherries so that I can make a jam using the Hot Lime Relish. See, my glorious retinologist who got me back a good deal of the vision I’d lost in my left eye just loves the Hot Lime version, and my gratitude toward her is profound.
SB – Strawberry Jam (7/14) This is actually the second batch of strawberry jam I’ve made this year, but somehow I neglected to enter the first batch in this report. I won’t bother to mention subsequent batches because I have to make the strawberry jam several times a year because it is very popular with people who are culinarily challenged and eat only foods in a narrow range.
CPK – Cherry Jam with Patak’s Hot Lime Relish (7/18) This is the queen of the cherry jams, and I made enough that I can pass it on to folks in addition to my retinologist.
CN – Curried Nectarine Jam (8/1) Oh wow. Glad I thought of this. All I did was throw some of Patak’s Hot Curry Paste into the jam and chop in a Jalapeño. I think this one is delicious, but it’s not for the little kids.
NPK – Nectarine Jam with Patak’s Hot Lime Relish (8/20) Oh wow. This may be as good as the version with cherries.
BBV – Blackberry Vinegar (9/15) I steeped in the communal refrigerator the seeds and pulp from the July blackberry jelly and then strained the mass through a cloth. The berry vinegars have gone over quite well.
TBV – Tayberry Vinegar (9/20) Made from the seeds and pulp from one of the batches of tayberry jelly.
T – Tomato Jam (10/10) One of my neighbors in the building inquired whether I’d ever made a tomato jam. So I did. Not sure this will be a great favorite, but we all have acquired tastes.