Thanksgiving Pies

Cherry Pie:

I love the warm glow in this picture. The softness of it reminds me of the images I conjure of Thanksgivings long ago. In the foreground, cherry pie from the canning efforts of the summer. I like to use Thanksgiving as an official mark of the changing seasons. I don't open any home canned goods until preparations for the Thanksgiving feast are underway. Apple and pumpkin pie are in the background.

Apple Pie:

And here's a picture with natural lighting. I used the ingredients as inspiration for the decoration. Apples of course, and wheat since the crust is made from freshly ground flour from Soft White Wheat grown by a local farmer.

Whole Grain Pastry Crust:

4 cups Soft White Wheat flour (Pastry Flour)

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cup natural vegetable shortening

1 cup very cold water

Mix together flour and salt, chill in refrigerator. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles course crumbs with some shortening still the size of small peas. Make sure the shortening isn't too soft, chill slightly if you need to. Toss water into flour mixture by tablespoonful working all around mixture. Once all the water in incorporated, toss with fork until any dry area are incorporated into moist areas. Press lumpy mixture together and work into smooth ball. This should make two double crust pies.

It's just about time to eat those pies. Something to be very thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Latest Fascination

Plums have been quite my thing this year. Well, I've always had a thing with plums, but this is an entirely different thing. The fascination that has been inspired in me this year is not only the bounty of them, but the variety. Just look at the specimens below, all picked within a lot less than an acre of each other. Fascinating, very fascinating.



I of course wanted to make plum jam and take advantage of the wild bounty. The purple plum jam was first, and then when we found the yellow plums, why I had to make yellow plum jam too. And then my little sister discovered the green plums, I simply had to make some of them into green jam. I really couldn't resist.

Interesting, I'll allow. Especially all by its little lonesome.

But all three together? I think they're rather fetching.

Wild Plums

Plums, plums and more plums! Last week I canned fourteen 12 ounce jars of plum jam. This week....

....On Monday I made six quarts of yellow plum juice which I canned on Tuesday before heading into town for errands and a hair appointment. I was quite pleased to get so much juice, I really wasn't expecting that. We don't have juicing equipment so I used Mummy's method*.

On Wednesday I canned 18 quarts of plum halves**! Wow, wee! One of my sisters came through in the beginning and helped me pit an entire quart, and then gave up on the project. Thankfully, Twiglet came through and helped me pit the next twelve quarts of plums.

Thursday I made more jam, but I only canned four 12 ounce jars and let the rest cool in bowls for enjoying now.

There are still a few more plums in the house and I'm thinking about a plum cobbler and a kuchen. I was going to do it today, but instead we went to the county fair! We perused all sort of entries, ran into a few friends and shared onion rings, funnel cake and Carmel popcorn! I think it will be fun to go back next year, hopefully a little earlier in the day - and maybe even try doing a few entries!

Well, there are still more plums on the wild trees around here and despite the fact that canning them made my hands look so brown and icky that one of my brothers even suggested I try gloves, I'm still game for putting some more up. My hands recover quick enough and the satisfaction the accomplishment gives you is really quite worth it.

And I do want to try making some yellow plum jam.

*Plum Juice

Cook ripe fruit until soft in a little bit of water to prevent scorching. Mash and cool. Strain/press through several thicknesses of cheese cloth. Heat juice to boiling, pour into clean jars and screw on sterilized lids and rings. Let cool and voila! I wanted the juice a tiny bit more clear and re-strained it through fresh layers of cheese cloth overnight and then processes it the next day. It's still not perfect, but it was much better. It's the first time I recollect making juice and I should look into it a bit more.

**Plums Halves

Wash free stone plums. Halve and pit, place in clean quart jars. For each quart of plums place about a tablespoon or more of honey on top of plums and pour boiling water until about one and a half inches from top. Make sure top rim of jar is clean, place sterilized lids and rings on jars, tighten. Place in pressure canner with about one inch of warm (not too hot) water. Place jars carefully in canner, bring water to boil and follow canner instructions to process fruit at fifteen pounds pressure for zero minutes. (Don't try this at home! Really, this is how I did it, but I don't guarantee the method. Should you choose to use this method, proceed at your own risk.:))

Wild Cherries

They were so beautiful, with their ruby spheres hanging in cascading scarlet amongst the green leaves. Perched precariously on the edge of a very steep bank, where the wrong step would send you through bushes and onto the unfriendly rocks below, some of the clan determinedly picked wild cherries. We didn’t get too many, since we valued out necks, but we got enough for some preserves.

I’ve made a bit of jam, some jelly, but never preserves. In fact, I didn’t really know what classified a preserve as a preserve. Now I do. Preserves are fruit that has been cooked in an equal or ¾ as much sugar as fruit and cooked until the syrup is thick and the fruit transparent and plump. At least that is the gist of what an old Kerr canning book said.

Mummy wanted to try putting up some fruit jams and such without pectin. I used a recipe from Prudence Penny for Cherry Preserves, but rather than sugar I used honey, and only half the amount as specified for sugar. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but I cooked it until it seemed right and then canned it.

Today Mummy and I tasted a small amount that didn’t fit neatly into a jar and it was so good! She’s all for going back and trying to wrestle some more cherries off that tree.

I am too! I just hope Twiglet (an affectionate childhood name for my little sister) will help me pit them again. We have a really neat cherry pitter, but last time I tried it with small cherries it was a dead loss. So we pitted them all by hand with hair pins. Okay, it worked.

One thing I am very grateful for is the beautiful red color of the preserves. That is something to be grateful for after making strawberry jam that had a very blah color. I even added red coloring to the second batch, but I didn't add enough. I'm very happy with my naturally red colored cherry preserves.