Fruit trees are somewhat ubiquitous in suburban America.  Chances are, in any given neighborhood, someone is bound to have a fruit tree or two.  Unfortunately what is equally as ubiquitous is letting all the fruit from these home fruit trees fall off the tree and rot.  This is a shame.

At some point in the not too distant past, everyone seemed to have decided that canning was a strangely laborious process that was not worth the effort.  I’m puzzled by this.  Compared to making a meringue, or even roasting a chicken, I think that canning comes out as something fairly easy, and it becomes especially easy when we’re talking about fruit.

Last March, my mother was eager to show me her expected apricot bounty come summer.  Sure enough, hundreds of little green apricots were bunched all over the tree.  I looked her right in the eye and said, “If you waste any of those apricots, I’m going to smack you.”  Smack my own mother.  That’s how serious I am.

All kidding aside, the type of behavior that will let fruit rot in the backyard, only to buy fruit at the grocery store flown in from Chile, is exactly what’s wrong with our food system.  Food, especially when plentiful, is something to be celebrated.  This is why in ancient times harvest season was the best time of year.  Over time, however, we began to lose sight of the seasons, and how it affects our food.  Why celebrate blueberries in summer when you can have them flown in from South America in January?

You could respond to this in different ways (carbon footprint, labor differences in South America) but I think the most compelling and most apolitical is that blueberries taste better in summer. In fact, the closer you are to the tree, the better your fruit is going to taste.  This is a simple economic fact.  In order to sell more fruit and be able to transport fruit long distances, food producers will pick fruits before they are ripe.  This way they won’t go bad on the airplane/truck/train as they are transported to you, and they’ll also be able to sit on the shelf a longer period of time.

Fruit that ripens on the tree tastes better, and I’m sure this is what people are thinking when they plant fruit trees in their yard, but the problem comes when the harvest comes in.  What is my mom supposed to do with 15 pounds of apricots?  Jam.  Delicious jam.

Canning fruit is probably one of the best ideas someone ever came up with.  Dried fruit tastes good, but never as good as the original, and it also doesn’t last for extended periods.  Freezing destroys fruit by cutting through its cell walls.  But canning, in the form of a well-made jam, can actually taste better than the fruit itself.

Making jam has about four steps.  First, you cook the fruit to soften it.  Then you add the sugar and acid (usually lemon juice) and boil it until it thickens.  Then you ladle it into jars.  Finally, you process the jars in boiling water.  That’s it.  The only hard part about it is knowing when the jam is thick enough, which there’s a few tricks for.  The best one, in my opinion, is the chilled plate test.  Basically, you put a plate in the freezer until it’s nice and cold.  Put a drop of jam-of-unknown-status on it, and take a look at it from the side.  It should mound slightly.  Next, turn the plate on its side.  The drop shouldn’t run, and might be creeping ever so slightly towards the floor.

In order to process the jars, you’ll need a pretty big pot.  Some other nice-to-have things are a jar funnel and a jar lifter, both of which you can pick up at a good hardware store.  You’ll also need mason jars, of course.  I like half-pints for jam.

A couple other quick notes about canning.  You should only use the lids once.  After that, the rubber sealing ring will not be as strong, and may fail on subsequent canning sessions.  Also, you should only can things that are sufficiently acidic.  This is why this recipe calls for lemon juice.  The reason is botulinum toxin, which is the most deadly toxin known to man.  The spores that create the toxin thrive in low oxygen, non-acidic environments, so don’t get all excited and start canning asparagus.

The recipes below are from an excellent book on jams, Linda Ziedrich’s The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves.

Apricot Jam

Makes about 4 pints

• 3 pounds apricots
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 6 cups sugar

Cut each apricot into 8 pieces.  You should have about 8 cups.

In a large saucepan or dutch oven, combine the apricots and water and bring to a simmer.  Cover and cook until the apricots are very soft, about 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, put some empty pint or half-pint jars in your canning pot and cover by an inch with water.  Bring to a boil and leave them in the pot until you’re ready to fill them.  This does two things.  It sterilizes the jars and also reduces the thermal shock on the jars when you pour super hot jam into them.

Add the lemon juice and sugar to the apricots and stir to dissolve.  Increase the heat to medium-high and boil until it the jam passes the chilled plate test.

Remove the empty jars from the hot water and ladle the hot jam into the jars, leaving 1/4 inch of head space.  Put the lids on the jars and screw the rings on until they are just tight.  Don’t go too tight here.  The way that the boiling water seals the jars is that the hot water increases the pressure in the can, which forces air out of the jar.  Once the jar is removed from the water, the pressure decreases rapidly, and sucks the jar lid down, forming a vacuum.  If you tightened the lid too much, no air will be able to escape during processing, which means a weaker vacuum at the end of the day.

Process the jars in boiling water for 10 minutes.  If you’re above 1000 ft. increase the processing time by 5 minutes.

Remove the jars and let them cool.  Then remove the screw rings, so that they don’t rust.

Store the jars indefinitely.

Apricot Pineapple Jam

Makes about 3 pints

• 1 1/2 pounds apricots
• 1 pound pineapple
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 4 1/2 cups sugar

Cut each apricot into 8 pieces.  Peel, dice, and core the pineapple.

Add the apricots and the pineapple to a large saucepan or dutch oven.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Cover and simmer until very soft, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat empty jars in a canning pot filled with boiling water.

Add the sugar and lemon juice to the apricot and pineapple.  Stir to dissolve.  Increase heat to medium-high and boil until it passes the chilled plate test.

Remove the empty jars from the water and ladle the jam into the jars, leaving 1/4 inch of head space.  Put on the lids and screw the rings on just tight.

Process the jars in boiling water for 10 minutes, increasing the time by 5 minutes if you’re over 1000 ft.

Cool the jars, and remove the screw rings.  Store indefinitely.

Tags: apricots, canning, food, fruit, jam, summer

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 5th, 2010 at 10:31 pm and is filed under Lots of Pulp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.