"Of Course I Can!..."

This is what I've been doing this week!  Ever since our week long power outage 5 years ago, I've been much more enthusiastic about canning. I've learned to only can the things we will absolutely use, though. There is nothing more demoralizing than having to throw away canned goods that you devoted your time, energy, efforts and resources over.  (Apple butter and mixed berry low sugar jelly of 2005, pickled green tomatoes of 2007, to name a few.)  

My family consistently loves and uses strawberry jam, applesauce, apple pie filling, salsa, pickles, tomato juice, diced tomatoes (SO MUCH BETTER than the stuff bought from the store!) and peaches.  So that's what I focus the majority of my time and energy on. Although occasionally I will make a small batch of something new just to try it.  That's how the apple pie filling* made it in to our rotation years ago. 

Happy Harvest everyone!

*I don't use the food coloring in this recipe. Also, according to people in the know about this sort of thing, cornstarch isn't a shelf stable ingredient. However, I've never had a problem with this recipe. 

Kale

We do Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, we buy a share in a farm and we get a share of whatever grows each week. We did a co-op back in NJ, but I really enjoy the CSA better. Spring in Ohio means lots and lots and lots (did I mention lots?) of greens come in our share each week. Every lettuce imaginable and all sorts of other good leafy greens. Coming up with new and exciting things to do with all of the greens week after week can sometimes be exhausting, so the farm is nice enough to send out an email with ideas each week.

Here's a tip from the most recent email:

Cut the kale into thin strips, and put your choice of dressing on it, then massage it! Five minutes is all it takes, and the process softens it up so you can easily eat it raw. If you want to add anything else to the salad (shredded turnips or radishes, pickled beets, gorgonzola,etc.) do it AFTER the massage. Enjoy!

I confess that I was amused at the idea of massaging my kale before eating it. When I mentioned this to Todd, I said something like, "Massage Kale for five minutes?! Why would I do such a thing?!"

Todd smirked and said, "Well, I could imagine you would if it were a hot guy and his name were Kale."

It's a fair point. ;)