Feeling Peachy

I like to make a big mess when I'm canning. Hopefully you can keep your canning space tidier than mine!

We had a couple of cases of beautifully ripe peaches hanging out so, we decided to put them up!
I canned 16 quarts of peach quarters and 8 pints and 5 jam jars of peach jam!

To can peaches you must first peel the skin off. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, score the bottoms of the peaches and toss them in the water for 30-60 seconds. If your peaches are a little firm, let them stay in the water for 60 or more seconds to soften them up. Then let them cool in a bowl of ice water. The skins should come off very easily. From here you can make the canned peaches and jam!

Peach Quarters
6 c water
2 c honey
     quartered peaches

Bring water and honey to a simmer. Stir to dissolve honey and remove from heat.
Fill the jars with the peaches then fill with the simple syrup.
Process in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Peach Jam

This recipe calls for a special type of pectin that is low in methoxyl. This pectin reacts with calcium to thicken rather than sugar. This allows you to make jams and jellies that are full of rich fruit flavor, undiluted by large amounts of sugar. I used Pomona's Universal Pectin which comes directions for making all sorts of jams and a Jamline in case you have questions! I used the basic recipe in the package and then added cinnamon, allspice and crystallized ginger!

4 c peaches
1/4 c lemon juice
1 T 1 t calcium water

1/2-1 c honey
1 T pectin powder

Bring peaches and lemon juice to a boil. If you are using other spices or flavoring agents, now is the time to add them!
Add the calcium water.
Mix pectin with honey and add to fruit. Stir vigorously for 1-2 minutes to thoroughly dissolve and distribute pectin. I used a potato masher to mash up large chunks of fruit.
Bring to a boil and remove from heat.
Fill your sterilized jars to 1/4 inch from the top, lid and process in boiling water for 5 minutes.

Everybody Loves Jack

I can dive for rocks in puddles and creeks of any depth

 Meet Captain Jack de Wilde, the official Hospitality Coordinator at Harmony Valley Farm.  Somebody quick, make him a cape!  Besides somehow being so dang cute all the time, he does put in a full day at the farm.  Read all about it in this week's CSA newsletter!

Very Zen in the snow

I love winter.  Throw me some snow.

Total spaz.

Jack and his friend Joe

I am proud to represent the best farm ever, Harmony Valley Farm

Meet the Crew: Packing Shed Supervisors Logan & Jenny

Logan

This spring we had the opportunity to hire not one, but two great people!  Jenny and Logan joined our packing shed crew within weeks of each other.  They’ve both fallen into their roles here based on their varied skills and interests.  While they both share the job of packing shed supervisor, they also have their own responsibilities.  They have been a tremendous help with maintaining inventories, receiving product, managing pest control, monitoring and enforcing food safety procedures and records, managing seeds, ordering supplies, and much, much more!  We’re glad to have them both as part of our team.
We asked them to interview each other for this week's CSA Newsletter.

Jenny

Can Do!

Today I heated up my apartment in Madison with some canning!

I am working on putting up some of my rhubarb. I'm a little behind, I know.

BUT today I made a big dent in my freezer stock pile of HVF produce!

17 jam jars of rhubarb-strawberry jam
10 pints and 1 jam jar of rhubarb BBQ sauce
2 pints of drunken dark cherries (not from HVF, but from Wisconsin)
1 jam jar of drunken cherry molasses

All that and I'm not done yet! I still have a gallon bag of rhubarb to save for another day!just finishing up the bbq sauce!

What have YOU been canning or want to can this summer??

Coming Soon - Melons!

 Tasty personal sized melons, perfect for CSA boxes or gobbling up in one sitting. 

¡Ajo!

 

Richard thinks the crew will finish the garlic harvest by Saturday.  It's looking good, real good.  Not as great as he would have liked, but that's the way it goes.  With our porcelain garlic you are always hoping for nice, big heads but this year they are a little smaller than he would have liked.

 The bunches are drying in the greenhouse now, grouped in bunches of 15 or 20 and organized by variety.

 Sorry folks, but we have to save the very biggest as seed garlic for next year's crop.  No worries, there will be enough for the CSA boxes for the season and then some.

Just in time for the Garlic Dinner at Harvest in Madison!

July Days

The big news is that the new truck arrived today, just in time to load for the Madison CSA deliveries!   
Our old Mac delivery truck is nearly obsolete - at least finding replacement parts to keep it in good running condition was certainly difficult.  It was just time to make the change.

Pictured left to right: Rogelio (Madison delivery driver), Juan (mechanic & market truck driver), and José Manuel (Madison delivery driver).

Benjamin

Fresvindo

After such a slow, cool spring I think we're finally catching up.  Sometimes it's all or nothing, hurry up & wait, you know?  Richard promised me melon pictures, so we'll get those up soon.

Juan Diego

We're harvesting some very interesting items for our CSA members, including radish pods - new this season!