Scenes from a week-end…

Weekends are sacred especially when the sun is out!

This week-end though these Red Pears called to me and I answered their siren call!

My inspiration for this jam came from 2 places and although I may have to make another batch, I have to admit that my playing around made for a more syrupy jam then I had hoped for.  Also next time I will not double the recipe!

My latest inspiration is coming from my new book We Sure Can By: Sarah B Hood.

I am loving all the recipes and full color pages, inspiration is not hard to find in this book!

I am also loving this newly found blog Food In Jars, and it was their recipe that I mostly used here and tweaked.

Red Pear Lavender Vanilla Jam

5 cups chopped red pears-skins on. This helps with thickening the jam and for it’s pretty color.
2 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
3 tablespoons food grade lavender buds
juice from 1/2 lemon

2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine chopped pears and sugar in a medium, non-reactive pot. Stir to combine so that the sugar starts to bring out the liquid in the pears.

Place lavender buds in a muslin spice bag or tea ball,{or place directly into your pot, which is what I did mostly because I love the little bits of candied lavender in my jam.} Place in pot with pears and sugar. Add lemon juice and stir.

Put pot on stove and heat to high. Bring jam to a boil, stirring regularly. Continue to cook over high heat until jam thickens. Or at this point if your jam isnot thickening you can add pectin–just simply follow directions for making pear jam-you will probably also need to add more sugar though.

When jam is done (mine took 30 minutes to cook probably because my pears were really ripe), remove pot from heat. Pour into your sterilized jars.

Wipe jar rims, apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

When time is up, remove jars from canner and let them cool.

Sealed jars can be stored in a cool, dark place for up to one year. Unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used relatively quickly.

Kitchen Witchery

I have heard it said that just simply cooking in the kitchen does not make a kitchen witch.

Now I wonder, if someone is already a witch, and magic is “the ability to change consciousness at will”, then is not the alchemy of cooking, or better yet baking, pure magic? and the woman doing it, practicing kitchen witchery?

Now I am the first to admit that the lazy Wednesday night of cooking spaghetti for the family is not very magical, or the practise of kitchen witchery, this is because when I am working my spells in the kitchen there is always an “intent” and this is where the magic happens, or rather the changing of consciousness, and this does not happen everyday.

I can create a warm and comforting feelings simply by baking something that invokes smells and tastes that awaken safe and homey memories, along with cravings for whatever is in the oven. This is turn pulls everyone from their corners of the house to gather in the kitchen, and this is where the best conversations happen, not easy to do as kids get older!  I can also energize the family into a Sunday morning hike by whipping up a serious smoothie with spirulia and other magical ingredients that get everyone feeling full of energy and open to the idea of getting outside–sneaky you say?

Yes I reply, for this is the magic and mystery of being the divine feminine force that inspires my family–this is what I am passing along to my kids, and what my daughter watches me do everyday.

In fact this is what cooking women everywhere do, and often not even realize it. So imagine what a little more intent put into that food, a sprinkle of love and a pinch of respect, with some magic stirred in, could do for those eating it, ourselves included!

This week everyone in my family came home with a case of the sniffles,  so my plans for whipping up some rosehip cordial/syrup were set in motion……

We have a wild rosebush in our back-yard, that this year decided that it liked our old apple tree and so it grew all over it and made a beautiful little cave for my outdoor shrine, bit it also had more rosehips this year then ever before, so it made good common sense that they go to some use!

My intent with this cordial was health and love, and this is what I stirred into it as I worked-kitchen witch style!

Here is my morphed recipe that I tweaked to suit my needs, I hope you like it!

Ingredients:

• 6 cups of water
• 5 cups of rosehips
• 3 cups of white granulated sugar

The How to:

Tail the rosehips, this means take a pair if scissors and chop the furry end off of each one–kids love this job!

Bring your water to a boil, and while you wait for that..

Take the rosehips and chop them roughly in a food processor, or blender–they should look like this…..

Transfer the fruit into your by now, fast boiling water and bring it back up to a boil again.

Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to chill if you are using a jelly bag. If you have a really good metal sifter you can get to the next step right away.{see photo below for what I mean by metal sifter/sieve/colander.}

Pour through a sterilized jelly bag{you can sterilize by either ironing it or scalding it in boiling water.}/or muslin square, or your metal sieve, over a bowl to save the water–it should be a lovely bright color by now!

Return the pulp to your now empty pot and add 2.5 cups of fresh water and bring it back to a boil- At this point I totally cheated and threw in a bag of organic rosehip, raspberry tea, the color was great and the flavor of the raspberries made the whole thing come together–well worth the cheat!

Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to cool if using a jelly bag.

Strain through the jelly bag/metal sieve again squeezing out all access liquid. You can now compost the pulp.

Pour your precious cordial into a clean saucepan and boil to reduce the liquid to 1.5 pts-this takes some time approx 15-20 min’s

Lastly add the sugar and boil rapidly for another 5-6 minutes, you want to see the sugar gets a little thick, but ultimately it will still be quite liquidity and that is ok.

Pour into hot sterile bottles, seal immediately and enjoy!

The cordial takes yummy by the spoonful, but is also great on plain yoghurt, in tea or just about anywhere you want a hit of sour and sweet yumminess!

In my last post I also promised the recipe for Red Pear and Lavender Jam, but everyone over here was feeling so lousy yesterday so I made this cordial and some soup and skipped the Jam. However the pears are calling to me as I write this so perhaps it will be sooner rather then later!

 

 

October meanderings

Wow what a  busy month this is shaping up to be! Sadly I am not spending as much time I would like sharing inspirations and stories here, so this post will be chock full of the inspirations I have been up to!

The end of the week last week brought a few short hours of sunshine and so I was busy as a bee packing up the bees for the winter, giving them yummy reserves of syrup and pollen patties, cutting up Styrofoam for insulation against the cold and wet winter months ahead and tucking them in for the winter. This year being the first year on my own, I have been a bit of a worry wort, but I am trying to be easy on myself since we lost all of our bees last season.

This year my bees are local{Not from New Zealand} where it is dry and warm, not wet and cold, so I am feeling hopeful that they will be sturdier for that reason, and I have also learned a few new things to do to keep them warm and cozy for the winter that I hope will be affective this year!

There has also been much canning, pickling and preserving over here, but this week it is all about red pear and lavender jam and rosehip cordial. Blog post and recipes for both of these luscious things coming up tomorrow!

I have also been working on painting and transforming a few great roadside finds into stands for my jewelry, for I am hoping that this year I will be accepted into a few winter markets I have applied to–fingers crossed!!

Speaking of jewelry a month ago I got in the most beautiful Turkoman and moon pendents and a beautiful array for beads that I have been playing with….

Lastly I have been knee deep in planning our book launch party, we have been blessed with an amazing response and are excited to have some local companies donate everything from wine to chocolate and gifts of honey, candles,  jewelry, organic shea butter and gift certificates for our raffle basket, which is coming together beautifully, I can’t wait to see what the final basket looks like! This basket will be raffled off with all of the proceeds going to the Lunapads Pads 4 girls program!

Can you tell I am excited?