Pickles, Pesto and Jam

Pickles made from my Taproot Pickle pack

It's really late and I am still up.  I am fretting.  I've just lost all my amazing photos from my recent trip to chicago.  I can't even begin to tell you how depressed I am by that.  It's not just the incredible pictures I took while I was in Michelle Aspinal's classroom but my time at the Chicago Art Institute.   Melanie and I spent a few hours there and I got to experience Monet and Georgia O'Keafe's clouds up close.  I photographed it to show the children and it is gone...I want to throw up.

It was all good until I decided to photograph the pickles, basil and jam and then up load it on my computer.  It was that one tiny time when I tried to be technical myself instead of asking the powers that be upstairs to come help me.  It is a well learned lesson.  I hope that when I call apple tomorrow there will be a miracle.  Somehow I doubt it.

Taproot Farm Organic Basil

 So up until I had this little blip with my freaking phone, I was going to tell you about all the preserving i've done this summer.  There are wild blueberries in the freezer for muffin making, three kinds of homemade jam.  Black currant, Strawberry and Raspberry.  All the fruit is organic.  It was all completely unplanned also.  One saturday morning I happened upon the Kidston Organic farm lady at the market and she had quail eggs.  I was beside myself.  I was buying them and blowing them out and you know, saving the eggs for the classroom.  Except that quail eggs are really tough and impossible to poke a hole in without busting the shell.  So we ate a dozen quail eggs in my house on toast and it was extravagant and tasty.  The kidston lady also had black currants.  So I made some currant jam for the first time.  It was easy and I didn't need pectin because currants are really high in pectin. All my jam set up perfectly.  Then I thought, I should make strawberry jam.  So I did.  I made enough for my family and both Maple Tree campuses this year. There will only be home made jam this year!! There is no secret recipe although I do add lemon zest to my strawberry jam.

Tonight I made dill pickles.  19 litres to be exact.  yup, that's a lot of pickles and I got my complete pickle pack from Taproot Farms.  It was an add on option to my regular veggie order this week along with 2lbs of organic Basil waiting to be made into Pesto.  I've posted a recipe I did a couple of years ago for garlic scape pesto.  You can change it up with basil for sure and omit the nuts and parmesan if you want.  The version I make for the school will just be olive oil, basil and garlic.  to many allergies to complicate it and really it is just as tasty.  The pickles were very easy and my seven year old peeled garlic and stuffed jars with cukes.  I know she is dreaming of pickles.  After all we do call her pickle potomus! So now that I am perserving I may have enough material for another cookbook Maple Tree Volume 2 perhaps!  ~m

Oh the jam