A hawk cried across the sky, screamed from the western pine snag, and has moved along. The crow calls have stopped as well, so i suppose they were threatening to harass it.
It is in the mid 60s (°F) outside and the nearest dogwood is fluorescing red as the green fades. It arches over the yellow of the cutleaf coneflower. I can't smell the figs this morning, but there are so many and I am so behind. The hornets cut through some of the organza bags, so i used the bags less, a bit. I can see, though, that the bags helped with fruit flies. It's just so slow to put on the bags, and so many figs to pick.
I made and had a 5 jar out of 9 success in canning the following sauce recipe on Saturday, and have a couple more quart jars of the dried figs. (More raisin-tender than the rocks I made when i was terrified of moisture.) I fermented some puree that i used to replace water in my buckwheat bread recipe after seeing recipes for fermented fig butter. Those recipes called for adding kvass, which sounds like essentially lightly fermented fruit jusice. Since the figs are fermenting fine, i didn't bother. I wonder though what the bright ruby juice that separates from the solids tastes like. I wonder lots of things but i also wonder if i have the time to experiment.
A reliable fig apple jam recipe for canning is surprisingly hard to come by. I shall wing it this week.
I had some self critical spirals that may be entwined with worrying about how i am bruising and developing petechiae. (From falling down and scraping up my arm and legs? No bruises from that. Tapping my chin on the ladder? A big black bruise on my chin.) I'm feeling a little better We had a short notice gathering with my sister and her family last night to celebrate their eldest who moves into his dorms at NYU on Saturday. He is such a great kid, er, young man. I love listening to him and Christine talk.
I've bought some seaweed foraged in Maine: Irish Moss, "Kombu" (given as Laminaria digitata so an Atlantic species), and a Soup Mix - "Wakame" (Alaria esculenta), Sugar Kelp (Saccharina latissima), "Kombu" (Laminaria digitata). Saccharina latissima ios also known as Kombu
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My idiosyncratic recipe development where i am trying to figure out how much of each recipe quality is needed so i can substitute and riff away, and also guestimate the quantity.
Aromatics & Spices (~ 0.5 cup)
*
1/4 cup olive oil
*
1/2 - 1/3 cup fresh alliums (onions, garlic) Using *my walking onion
tops* and bottoms
*
1 tbsp peeled and chopped ginger
*
/HEAT 7 tsp/
o
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
o
1 tbsp (1 dried pepper) ancho/poblano (/If using whole peppers,
bloom with onions)/
o
/2024-08-17: used two of my 2022 cayenne peppers during the
onion stage. Noticeable heat!/
o
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper /2024-08-17 used up the
last of the white pepper. Meh. Had to add black pepper later./
*
Ground spices
o
2 teaspoons ground **my *coriander
*
o
1 teaspoon ground cumin
o
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice /2024-08-17 used clove/
*
Umami
o
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
*
/2024-08-17: two eights of a preserved lime - So! Much! Salt!/
1.
Grind coriander seed.
2.
Measure spices into bowl
3.
Prep onions and ginger
4.
Heat oil in pan, add alliums, soften
5.
Bloom spices
6.
Add umami (and preserved lime)
FIGS
Two quart jars of very ripe figs ~ 3 - 4 cups as fig puree. Used 2.25 cooked ripe figs and pureed another quart jar with very ripe figs
ACID
2 3/4 cups of spiced and sweetened apple cider vinegar. /2024-08-17 left over from making spiced pickled apples. Had a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio with brown sugar.
/
Mustard (or 1 cup Dijon)
*
2/3 c water in bowl
*
1/3 c yellow mustard powder
*
1/3 c distilled vinegar
1.
Assemble 15 min timer, whisk, measured water in vessel > 1 cup,
distilled vinegar, mustard powder, 1/3 c measure.
2.
Add powder, set timer for 5 - 15 min, measure vinegar /2024-08-17 10
minutes was not too much of a kick/
3.
At timer, add vinegar to stop heat development
- Add fig puree and vinegar
Final adjustments
//
/Added black pepper , 2024-08-18/
*
1 tablespoon kosher salt
*
additional vinegar
Simmer until thick enough, well over 30 min, dropping a noticeable amount in the pot.
15 min water/steam processing of 8 4 oz jars and one pint, plus about 8 oz un-canned. (~56 fluid oz)
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