Apricots Again

This past weekend we were back out in the orchards with Village Harvest. I wrote about the apricot harvest we did with them last year here. This year Sean and I went to a different apricot orchard than the one we went to last year; this one was actually inside an old cemetery! It was beautiful, and the trees were really bountiful. I didn't catch the exact amount of apricots that we sent to the local food bank, but I think we were well over 1000!

And, as usual, Sean and I came home with about 30 pounds of apricots ourselves. Unlike most harvests, where we come home with imperfect fruit that is either bird-pecked, over ripe or under ripe, this time we came home with a lot of absolutely perfect fruit. The trees had dropped a lot over the last week, and due to various levels of liability, "ground fruit" cannot be donated. But as long as you give it a good washing, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.

I didn't take as many pictures of what we did with our apricots this year, because a picture of apricot jam is a picture of apricot jam. But here's a list of what we made this year:

• apricot turnovers
• apricot jam (12 half-pint jars)
• apricots in spiced syrup (6 pint-and-a-half jars & 4 pint jars)
• dried apricots

these were some of our apricot creations last year

We still have a mixing bowl of apricots in the fridge too, waiting for me to come up with a use for them. I could run them through the dehydrator after the current batch of dried apricots is finished, I could make more jam, I could freeze them, add them to smoothies...

What are your favorite ways to use apricots? Share them in the comments!

Knee Deep in Persimmons

Last Saturday we went out with Village Harvest again, this time to pick persimmons. I don't have any pictures of the actual harvest to share with you, but I do have pictures of all the persimmons we came home with!

Over 1000lbs of persimmons were donated to local food banks, and about 200lbs of damaged or over ripe fruit were available for volunteers to take home. Sean and I ended up with 3 bags, which weigh about 47lbs. Man, that's a lot of persimmons.

Unfortunately for us, these persimmons are not the sweet Fuyu variety, but the highly astringent Hachiya variety. This means they can't be eaten raw unless they are super ripe, something unlikely to happen before they go moldy since so many are damaged. So, like I have after other harvests, I turned to Pinterest to find recipes!

We started with persimmon butter. Similar in texture to apple butter, it can be spread on toast. I used this recipe from Green Basket. The author does call for Fuyus, but after doing some research I figured out that Hachiyas would work fine if I increased the sugar a bit. Unfortunately, while the author says she canned her persimmon butter, the National Center for Home Food Preservation does not recommend using a boiling water bath for canning persimmons as they are a low-acid fruit. (A term Sean would like to go on record as taking issue with, as neutral or base would be more correct, depending on where the fruit actually falls on the PH scale. I love when he's a science geek in the kitchen!) Instead of canning, we decided to freeze the persimmon butter. Luckily, my parents had recently made some room in their large freezer, so in went some jars of persimmon butter!

We also made a batch of persimmon chutney using this recipe. The chutney was very easy, and made a small enough batch that, while the vinegar should make it safe to can in a boiling water bath, we decided to just refrigerate and freeze.

One of the best ways to use up all these persimmons, without needing to freeze a ton of jars, is to dry them. My mom recently picked up a cheap food dehydrator at a thrift store, and this thing has been working overtime since she brought it home! I'm so glad she let us borrow it. Here it is full of persimmons:

We also just tossed a bunch of whole persimmons in both our own freezer and my parents'. I just chopped off the tops, trimmed any bad spots, and filled gallon sized freezer bags. This gives us more time to spread out the cooking, drying, baking...whatever we want to do with them.

Last but not least, I made a batch of Chocolate Persimmon Muffins. This recipe was amazing! I had to change it a little since neither of us wanted to run to the store again, so I used white chocolate powder rather than regular; I also used whole wheat flour rather than buckwheat. I can't wait to make these again using some of the persimmons we tossed in the freezer!

Persimmons also make for good fall decor, as long as they are intact enough to last a few days:

If you have any favorite recipes for Hachiya persimmons, please share in the comments! You can see from the picture just how many we still need to deal with...and then there are the 4 gallon bags in the freezers!

And Then We Made Applesauce...

We had another great harvest with Village Harvest last weekend. If you remember from my post about apricots, Village Harvest is a nonprofit that harvests food that would otherwise go to waste, and donates it to community food banks and shelters.

Sunday morning, a group of about a dozen volunteers picked Gravenstein apples at the Phleger Estate (part of the Golden Gate Parks system). According to our great liaison with the park system, these Gravenstein apple trees were planted in the 1930's. There were only six Gravenstein trees, but old trees are huge and produce lots of fruit. Five of us worked on the biggest tree for nearly the entire 3 hour picking time. And all told, 975 pounds of Gravenstein apples were donated to a local food bank. Wow!

 these buckets just hold the "volunteer fruit" rejects - we were so busy loading the good fruit into the van that we missed the chance to take a picture of what 975lbs looks like

The rest of the orchard is full of other apple varieties, most of which will ripen in the fall. I can't wait to go back to this beautiful park later this year.

Gravenstein apples are one of those varieties you never really see in stores. They bruise incredibly easily, so make shipping difficult. They also mature mid to late summer, rather than during the fall harvest. They are a good apple for baking and making applesauce.

Because of how easily the Gravensteins bruise, there were a lot of "volunteer fruit." That means anything that might still be useful, but is unsuitable to send to the food bank. We were sent home with 32 pounds of apples -- and just like those apricots from last month, they all had to be processed immediately. What better way to preserve imperfect apples than by making applesauce?

 32 pounds of apples

First we had to wash all these apples, many of which had fallen on the ground at the orchard (which is open to redwoods and home to deer and other wildlife). Best way to wash pound after pound of apple? Fill the sink with water and a little white vinegar, dump them in and start scrubbing!

It took the rest of the day for Sean and me to peel, chop, and process all of the apples into applesauce and spiced apple preserves. We ended up with 11 pints of applesauce, 12 half-pints of spiced apple preserves, and a few tiny cans of applesauce that are perfect for lunches. Not pictured below are some more tupperware containers full of applesauce that went straight into the fridge -- we actually ran out of empty canning jars on this one!

In addition to applesauce and preserves, Sean decided to make an apple pie. He used Martha Stewart's recipe, and it was delicious! He sure does spoil me with his new found baking obsession!

We were so eager to eat the pie that we forgot to take a picture of it after baking. Trust me, it was delicious!

What are your favorite ways to cook with apples? Please share any great ideas, as we head into the fall apple season!

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Apricot Madness

*this post is not sponsored or endorsed in any way; what you read here are purely my own thoughts and excitement about this organization and it's mission*


On Saturday, Sean and I spent the morning picking apricots with Village Harvest. Village Harvest is a local organization that picks unwanted produce and donates it to local food banks. An amazing group of volunteers come together multiple times a week to pick produce in urban orchards and backyards in the Bay Area, and we are delighted to be new members of this great group of people.

Sean picking apricots

Statistics show that 1 in 10 people in the community receive food assistance. The fruit and vegetables picked by Village Harvest are able to provide balanced nutrition amid the typical shelf-stable donations of the traditional food bank.

We also prevent tons of fruit from going to waste. The orchard we picked on Saturday, for instance, was planted by the owner roughly 60 years ago. While it used to be a business for him, the land now is just used to feed his family. He has a small vegetable garden, and it sounds like he uses some of the apricots, but there are far too many for his uses now. Not wanting to waste the fruit his trees grow, he contacted Village Harvest. Instead of roughly one ton of apricots rotting, they can instead feed those in need.

Although most of us don't fantasize about the life of a farm worker, spending a morning or two each month picking fruit is very rewarding. The hours in nature, getting in touch with where our food comes from...it's all something I appreciate. It's also a great time for Sean and me to spend some time doing good together. And we meet such interesting people at the harvests, who always make it fun!

One of the added bonuses of harvesting with Village Harvest is getting to bring home some of the fruit! There are always fruits that are damaged or over-ripe, making them unusable for the food banks. Instead of letting that fruit go to waste, volunteers are able to take it home.

After our first harvest picking oranges, we brought home a bag full of oranges with damaged peels. Since the oranges wouldn't last, we made a large batch of marmalade. This turned into a Mother's Day gift, as well as our own stash for the year. We learned from that first harvest: always find out what we're picking and have some recipes on hand for when we get home with damaged fruit.

This weekend, the apricots were so ripe that there were a lot of squishy "volunteer fruit". Sean and I came home with a large bag of apricots, all of which needed to be used right away! This turned into:

-apricot turnovers
-apricot jam (from the Blue Ball Canning Book)
-apricot orange conserve (from the Blue Ball Canning Book)

snack in the middle of canning: plain yogurt with pot scrapings of the apricot orange conserve. yum!

jam and turnovers

 

rows and rows of delicious cans

 jam on the left, conserves on the right

And we still have a colander full of apricots!

 conserves with their labels, look out for these to become part of holiday gifts!

While I was on a roll with my canning, I also made some kumquat marmalade with some kumquats my in-laws gave us (from their neighbor).

kumquat marmalade cooling on a towel

 

All this canning and we're out of sugar! Good thing it hasn't been too hot lately, otherwise slaving over the hot stove making all these preserves would not be fun. As it is, I think that's enough canning for the rest of the month.

Now, what to do with the rest of the apricots? What are your favorite things to do with bunches of apricots?

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