Plum Conserve

I have been wanting to write a post for about a month now, but this amazing late summer/early fall we've been having in the Hudson Valley has me busy with other things. I'm not complaining! But today, as I soak in the hot sun--it's hitting 80 today--I realize we are very close to the end. I am almost done with closing the garden up, the fig trees have been replanted in their winter pots, and stink bugs are crawling everywhere. It's inevitable that every time we have a last burst of heat, some bug frenzy happens. Last year it was lady bugs, this year, stink bugs. I can feel it everywhere as I walk around my yard. The maples are turning yellow, the purple asters are lining the hill, the goldenrod surrounds the pond, and the bees are busily making haste. I have heard from various places that this year is going to be a snowy and cold winter. Have you noticed all the woolly bear caterpillars out this year? I am seeing them everywhere: fat black ones, little fuzzy black and brown ones, and one huge white one. I haven't seen so many in years.

There is a small cool breeze that underlies the heat of the sun today. It riffles the leaves, and they slowly fall, lazily coating the ground. The neighbor's rooster crows, and the buzz of the bugs seems muffled. Birds call, and dogs whine, chainsaws buzz and trucks lumber by. It's lazy but focused, it seems. The word portentous comes to mind. Everything seems to remind me that quite soon I won't be sitting on the porch sipping a beet-carrot-apple-ginger juice in a t-shirt and shorts.

Even the preserving has slowed down a bit, although this batch of plum conserve is on the stove top as I write. Made with some gleaned tiny blue prune plums, I was looking to make something that was rich and cozy for the coming winter. I asked folks on my Facebook page what I should make, and there were a few good ideas! I have saved some plums to make the kuchen that Rosemary posted.

I adapted this from a recipe for Nutty Plum Conserve from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I removed a bit of sugar (and must admit, it still seems a bit sweet), used currants instead of raisins, and added Pisa liqueur, which is a nutty liqueur similar to Amaretto.

Plum Conserve
yields 5 half-pints, with a little extra for the fridge

2.5 pounds of blue prune plums, halved and pitted
2 cups sugar
1 cup dried currants
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/2 cup candied citrus peel
1/4 cup orange juice
1 cup coarsely chopped mixed nuts
1/2 cup Pisa liqueur

If your plums are large, quarter them. If they are small, keep them halved. Put plums, sugar, currants, juices and peel in your jam pot and bring them to a boil. While this is cooking, soak the nuts in the liqueur. Let the plum mixture boil for about twenty minutes; they should foam up a bit, and then get glossy and thick. Add the nuts and liqueur, bring back to a boil, and cook for another ten minutes making sure not to scorch the bottom. Process for ten minutes.

Apple Cranberry Conserve

When I was a child my mother could keep me quiet for a few minutes while peeling an apple or an orange. The reason being she would do it so that the peel was removed in one piece, creating a long spiral. Oranges, mainly clementines I seem to recall, would be able to be reformed into their former shape. Apples were harder to execute and thus, cause for a more rapt audience. Every once in a while it didn't work, which made it all the more exciting. Could she do it? Would she? Isn't that a beautiful thing? That peeling an apple could be such a thing of talent, beauty, and suspense?

That's what I was thinking about when I was peeling all these Ida Red apples, my favorite these days. Yesterday was cold, and snow started falling in the afternoon, the first of the season and not just a dusting. I had bread rising and these apples to cook up; perfect cold weather activities in my book. I had just started some clementine marmalade in a pot, then removing it to a bowl to sit. I didn't clean the pot, just started adding apples to it, so that orange-y syrup could mingle in. This conserve was a total whim, and lucky for me it came out great. Which is not hard when you work with such great ingredients that naturally go well with each other. Note that there is no sugar--it's sweetened only with some juice and a little bit of jelly. We had it in our oatmeal this morning, and it was delicious. It's really gorgeous, rosy pink and studded with golden orbs. I love the fruits of winter.

8 cups of peeled, cored apples, chunky dice

1 cup of cranberries

1 cup of golden raisins

1/2 cup cranberry raspberry juice (any juice with no added sugar would be fine)

1/4 cup crystallized ginger

2 tbsp. of grape jelly (I used this niagara grape jelly I made, adding sweetness and gloss)

1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

Simmer for an hour until apples are softened. When you pull a wooden spoon through the bottom of the pan and there is no water forming at the edges, and the sides don't close immediately, you can call it done. Ladle into mason jars and seal. Once cool, keep in the fridge. I am sure these could be processed but I didn't choose to. I know I'll eat it too quickly.