Making Herb Jelly

Herb jellies can be made from any combination of your favorite herbs.

At the end of the summer season most people who grow herbs have lots of extra herbs. There are all kinds of ways to preserve them for winter. Most herbs dry well. Many, like basil, parsley and cilantro, freeze well (chop up in a food processor with a little bit of cooking oil and freeze in ice cube trays; or, just put sprigs of the herbs in plastic bags, push out the excess air and freeze). But herb jellies are also a great way to preserve summer flavors for those cold winter mornings ahead. Here's a basic jelly recipe that can be used for most any herb.

Basic Herb Jelly recipe

2 cups of your favorite fresh herb leaves or flowers (if using dry herbs, use 1 cup)
2 cups water, apple juice or white wine
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice or white wine vinegar
4 cups sugar (white or brown)
3 ounces liquid fruit pectin
pinch of salt
1-2 drops food color, optional

Wash half-pint jelly jars in the dishwasher, or sterilize in boiling water. Keep jars hot until ready to fill with jelly. Use new Ball or Kerr canning lids, and keep them in hot water.

Method:
Coarsely chop your chosen herbs and put in a medium saucepan. Add 2 cups of water or juice and bring to a constant boil for about 10 seconds. Remove from heat and let stand until completely cooled. Strain, discarding herbs, so that you have 1 1/2 cups of the liquid.

Pour the herbal infusion (liquid) into a large cooking pot and add lemon juice or vinegar and the sugar. Bring to a hard boil, then add the liquid pectin and continue to boil for exactly one minute. Remove from heat and skim off any foam and discard it.

Pour the hot jelly immediately into hot, half-pint jelly jars, filling them to within 1/2 inch of the top. Wipe the rims of the jars with a damp cloth and screw on the hot lids, just lightly tightening. Tip the covered jars upside down for about a minute to coat the inside and create a seal. Place right side up on a towel and let cool. Label and store in a cool, dark place. Your jelly will keep for 1-2 years.

You can use fresh or dried herbs for jelly making. If using dry, use twice as much as when using fresh.

Herbs that work well in the above jelly recipe include: basils, such as cinnamon, Thai, spicy, etc.; chives, chamomile, beebalm, ginger, lavender, fennel, lemon thyme, lemon verbena, marjoram, mint, parsley, scented geraniums, tarragon and rose. Combine herbs you would use in cooking, such as thyme, rosemary and sage, to use for Thanksgiving. Use orange juice instead of fresh lemon juice with orange thyme or scented geranium. Try white baslamic vinegar with tarragon to use on holiday rolls or breads. Use dried rose petals and scented geraniums together. Try basil and blackberry juice with a bit of lemon juice for a jelly. The combinations are endless.

Here's a good lavender jelly recipe that's quick and easy. If you make thumbprint cookies, use lavender jelly in the middle for a surprising burst of flavor.

Lavender Jelly
Use this between layers of cake. Spread on toast, use it in frosting mix for cupcakes. Try a teaspoon or two in your afternoon tea.

4 tablespoons dried lavender flowers
4 tablespoons powdered pectin
3 cups apple juice
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups brown sugar

Tie up lavender flowers in double thickness of cheesecloth, securing with string.
Combine pectin and apple juice in a saucepan and stir to dissolve the pectin. Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Add lemon juice and sugar, stir, then add the lavender cheesecloth bag. Boil for 2 minutes. Remove bag of lavender and discard. Strain hot jelly through cheesecloth into sterilized jars and seal (I use 2-piece jelly lids, kept hot in boiling water but some people prefer the old method of sealing with paraffin).

Cinnamon Basil makes an excellent jelly for all sorts of winter uses.

 Lemon Verbena Jelly

3 cups apple juice
1 cup fresh lemon verbena leaves
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or white wine vinegar
1 package powdered pectin
4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspon butter
1 fresh herb leaf for each jar
2 - 3 drops green food coloring (optional)

In saucepan, make herb infusion with juice and herb by bringing juice to a boil and adding the verbena leaves. Boil for about 10 seconds, then let cool completely. Strain and discard leaves. You'll need 1 1/2 cups of herb infusion liquid.

Combine the herb infusion with lemon juice (or vinegar), food coloring and pectin. Bring to a rolling boil. Mix in sugar and bring to a full rolling boil again. Boil hard for one minute. Add butter, stir. If any foam remains, skim off and discard. Pour into hot sterilized jars with optional leaf in each jar. Wipe jar edges with damp cloth, then screw on hot jar lids, tightening moderately but don't over-tighten. Turn jars upside down to seal, for about 30 seconds. Turn upright and let cool on dishtowel. Store in a dark, cool place.

National Heirloom Exposition

Every imaginable kind of squash, pumpkin and melon.

Mountains of squash and pumpkins in the demonstration hall.

The last time I felt like I was in a large group of like-minded gardeners was at the Terra Madre Slow Foods Conference in Turin, Italy, back in 2005. That is, until the National Heirloom Exposition this past week. The event brought together seed companies, chefs, foodies, serious gardeners, old hippies, new hippies, WWOOFers and anyone interested in locally grown, organic and sustainable foods. Baker Creek Seed, in Mansfield, MO combined efforts with several local and national organizations to put this conference together. Whole Foods, Inc., Seed Savers, Southern Seed Exchange, several organic farming and organic certification organizations. What I kept hearing as people walked around was, "Everyone here gets it! We're all here for the same reasons!"

There was tomato tastings, rare fruit displays, contests, workshops and demonstrations.

Giant pumpkins were on hand for judging. In fact, I can safely say that between the giant pumpkins, the enormous mountains of pumpkins and squash in the display hall, and the children's pumpkin mazes outdoors, there were literally tons and tons of pumpkins at the Expo!

If you can't read it, it says 1051 pounds!

Each of the 3 days had 3 tracts of speakers every hour from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. I was nervous about being the first speaker on the very first day, 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday. I expected maybe 20 people to show up, considering people were still finding their way around. I'm honored to report, the room was filled, standing room only! The estimate was 250 people, and oddly enough, many were fans of mine from magazine writing, some even said they had all of my books! But, there were about 70 outstanding speakers in all, with enthusiastic audiences and great exchanges of information.

This chef was demonstrating the Thai art of vegetable and fruit carving.

Click on this photo and look at the incredible carved melons.

Besides buildings filled with heirloom vegetables and fruit, other buildings held rare heirloom breeds of sheep, chickens, cattle and goats. You may recall I'm a big fan of State Fairs. This Expo was bigger and better than our own Missouri State Fair (if you remove the Midway-carnival part). The produce displays and the demonstrations were both way better than any State Fair I have attended anywhere!

There were dozens of kinds of heirloom and rare varieties of corn. Enlarge the photo to see 'Bloody Butcher' the red corn on the right, to see how beautiful it is.

This fellow made this bread and pizza oven the first day and it was ready to fire on the third day

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There were ongoing demonstrations every hour. The fellow above made this oven the first day of the Expo, out of a mixture of ground corncobs, concrete and straw. He put the finish on it on the second day and by day three, it was ready for a fire inside to cook a pizza. Demonstrations on soapmaking, weaving, seed saving, and many, many more happened on the hour.

There were lots of activities for kids and the oven guy helped kids of all ages mix the concrete mix and make tiny ovens.

There were 3 pumpkin mazes for kids, and lots of activities for kids.

There was bluegrass and local music going on all day, outside and inside, too. A wide variety of food vendors served really good foods. Mushroom-stuffed crepes, pulled pork, grilled local beef burgers, veggie sandwiches, grilled heirloom tomatoes with local cheese, organic ice cream, the list is much longer but that's all I can remember. Fair goers ate well!

Produce vendors sold local vegetables and fruits, too.

The setting for the Expo was beautiful and surrounded by trees and picnic tables for relaxing and eating meals.

These mushroom kits grow on used coffee grounds!

Inside the vendor building where we were, there was a wide variety of really interesting products. The folks, above, sell a mushroom kit that's so simple to use, we had to have one. The box is filled with ground coffee grounds and mushroom spawn. You simply mist one side of the box with water and the mushrooms grow out the side of the box. When you're done harvesting, begin misting the other side of the box for a second crop of mushrooms!

I was fascinated by the Hudson Valley Seed Co. packets. Every year they hold an art contest and the winners have their artwork on the seed packet that year. They're collectible and inexpensive. What a good idea!

This is the artist who created the paintings for the Heirloom Gardener 2012 calendar.

I liked this vegetable lady, all assembled out of colorful veggies.

It was a successful and interesting trip to Santa Rosa. I'm hoping the group that organized this will do it again next year. I'm just guessing, but I think there must have been about 24,000 people spread over the 3 days. Sure, standing on concrete at our booth with Herbal Nail Soak and my books for 12 hours a day, then driving an hour to get to bed, left me worn to a frazzle. But it was an exceptional event that brought together a lot of people who are interested in the enormous whole foods, organic and local foods movement. There were displays, speakers and vendors from all across the United States, this definitely was not a local event! And it also brought together lots of our Garden Writing Assoc. friends (Felder Rushing, Brent Heath, Kelly Norris and several more). This was my last speaking gig for the year, and a good way to end the speaking tours. I've been on the road between 1 and 3 weeks out of every month for out of state speaking since March and I'm ready to get to be home for awhile.

Edible Landscaping, French Laundry and Heirlooms

Someone recently asked me what it is that I do when I'm not gardening, writing or traveling for lectures. I answered I visit other people's gardens and enjoy the food from them. Out of all my trips this year so far, this is the first one where I've had free time that didn't involve speaking or selling. What did I do? Visit more gardens, of course! Here's a sampling of time in and around San Francisco, with more details coming later.

The sign for the restaurant is so understated and hidden in the bushes, it's hard to see.

I've always wanted to visit the world famous French Laundry restaurant and today accomplished that. Restaurants like this one, as well as Chez Panise (owned by Alice Waters, one of the speakers at the National Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa where I'm also speaking this week) and the very famous Herbfarm Restaurant outside Seattle, have been early pioneers in the trend for restaurants having their own gardens. I've written several times about The Herbfarm Restaurant, owned by our friends Ron Zimmerman and Carry Van Dyck and their remarkable herb gardens and food. Here's a taste of the gardens at the French Laundry.

Tucker's a talented and creative horticulturist.

Meet the head horticulturist, Tucker Taylor, who is responsible for this bountiful garden. Tucker told us the gardens furnish all of the produce for not only the French Laundry but the 2 other restaurants they own in Yountsville, CA. While the garden isn't certified organic, they use organic methods for the lowest impact on the location. I was pleased to see the French Laundry has chickens, although our little flock of 60 birds back home don't have fancy digs like these.

The chickens have their own garden, umbrella, yard and house. Pretty cool.

But it's the gardens that are impressive, so here are a few pics of those and of their massive compost pile. I was glad to see how well they make and use their compost from the leftovers from the garden.

Tucker and his crew grow a wide variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers specifically for the restaurant.

One tiny corner of the garden, with the French Laundry restaurant across the street.

This year's compost pile, which will become next year's soil.

Another restaurant garden was at Oakville Vineyard, where we had brunch. Their extensive gardens provide the food for their restaurant chefs and for the many visitors who come on tours and meals.

Oakville's gardens are for both production and for easy access by the chefs and staff on a daily basis.

We spent the evening with our author and friend, Rosalind Creasy who took us to Palo Alto where we visited Stanford University, and the Facebook headquarters. I asked Ros to pose with her best-selling book, Edible Landscaping.
We had a wonderful evening in her garden and enjoyed dinner from her backyard, as well.

Palo Alto is the home of Facebook. They, too, have a very understated, modest sign.

If you haven't read her book, you should. She is also one of the early pioneers in the current whole foods, healthy eating movement. More about her gardens later and more gardens and stories from California. Happy gardening!

Garden Writers Association new plants and books

That's Josh at our table, passing out media packets for How to Eat a Rose.

 I always come away from a Garden Writers Association conference with new ideas, new friends and renewed connections. It is the best professional organization I belong to, and the best community of sharing authors and plant people. I was there, promoting my How to Eat a Rose book in conjunction with next year's Herb of the Year project as designated by the International Herb Association.

Josh Kirchenbaum, in the Territorial Seed booth, showing off their line of Mighty 'Maters, tomatoes with two varieties grafted onto disease-hardy rootstock. You may remember my earlier posts about these tomatoes I'm trialing this year.

It's a big conference, about 500 people and an impressive trade show. Plant people introduce their new plants for next year, book authors showcase their books, publishers seek out new authors and the garden tool companies offer new garden things to take home. All in all, we writer-types are treated extremely well, with all the companies wanting us to write about their products and plants (which I will be doing in the coming months). I can only hit some of the highlights here, I'm still processing and digesting all I saw and learned.

I like hibiscus of all kinds and this one is exceptional, from Proven Winners. It's called 'Summer Storm' with pink flowers and deep maroon leaves. You'll see it in garden centers and nurseries next spring.

Jenks Farmer was there with some of the largest Crinum bulbs I've ever seen. Look him up online, he's a terrific expert on bulbs. Check him on-line at www.jenksfarmer.com

You many not be able to tell from the photo, below, that's a 20 story atrium in the hotel we were in. The glass-sided elevators gave excellent views of each landing.

Looking down from the elevator, you can see our Garden Writers trade show floor.

There was lots of good food, too. (Somehow I always manage to get food into the gardening conversation, don't I? After all, why garden unless you can eat what you grow?)

That's chicken, cooked under a brick. Yes, really. It flattens the chicken, makes it crisp.

Shrimp Louie; even the deviled eggs were made with truffles. Herbs everywhere!

Angela Treadwell-Palmer & Jim Martin, always dress up the show with their plant introductions and their costumes. Angela is the PR person for Plants Neuveau, a company that has introduced some incredible plants in this and previous years.

Miniature and Fairy Gardens are popular this year. Tools, benches and more from Kathryn Newman of www.miniaturegardenshoppe.com. She even sells tiny fences, stepping stones and more for the Fairy Garden.

Pie Boy at the Blue Sky Cafe, Exit 30 on Illinois I-70.

And like any good trip, we finished it off with pie. The Blue Sky Cafe has been making real pie for half a century. I had banana, which is probably the best banana pie I've had in 30 years.

Don't you wish you had a piece right now?

Come see us at our booth at the National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, California, Sept. 13-15. I'll be speaking, along with Felder Rushing, Alice Waters and a whole lot of other garden folks. Stop by and say hi!

Food Fears

It's hard to put your mind around the battle going on between organic (and non-organic) farmers, and the big giant, Monsanto. It would seem at first glance, that all are agricultural-based, and would have common interests. There's the rub.

On one side are the folks who grow your food and want to make a reasonable profit for their family farm. On the other, a giant multi-national corporation that is dedicated to creating products for maximum profit, at the expense of whatever gets in their way. You think I'm making this up? Simply do a Google search for, "Monsanto sues farmers" and check this link, too.

The bottom line is this. Monsanto creates genetically modified seed, which they patent and sell to large-scale production farmers, often called, "factory farms." The seed includes a gene that is specific, such as the Round-up Ready® gene that allows the farmer to plant corn seed, and once it emerges, spray the entire field with the herbicide, Round-Up® and all the weeds are killed, while the crop is not. Sounds groovy, right? But here's the problem. The genetically-modified seed with the added gene, can replicate itself. Not only can it replicate, it does so readily. The pollen can drift into nearby fields, onto organic farms, into your backyard. Monsanto has been aggressive in testing nearby fields of farmers who are not using their patented seed. If they find the genes of the genetically-modified seed in a neighboring field, they sue that farmer for patent infringement, even though the farmer never planted Monsanto's seed, and could not have prevented the Monsanto gene from jumping the fence and contaminating his crops. Through no fault of their own, the farmer gets sued for the contamination that came from a Monsanto-planted field. That's like someone comes along and dumps a pile of garbage in your front yard, then sues you because it's on your front lawn!

Sound like something out of George Orwell's "1984"? It's worse than that. Big Brother is not only watching you, he is feeding you and if you don't eat what he provides, destroys your means of eating anything else. The courts have upheld Monsanto's claims. Imagine being a little farmer, making a small living of $30,000 or $40,000 a year off your organic farm. Monsanto steps in and sues you for half or three-quarters of a million dollars for infringement - all because their pollen blew across the fence into your field. Do you have that kind of money? Do you have a few hundred lawyers on staff, like Monsanto does? Of course not. Monsanto wins the court battles and you're out of business.

Why does this affect you and why should you care? Because Monsanto's herbicide-ready seed, winds up in your corn flakes. It's in your bread, it's in the coating on your fried chicken and in those soy products you love to eat in place of meat. It's also in the honey you buy and the rice you cook.

Here's a very interesting story about what's happening in this struggle between farmers and the Big Giant bully. It gives an update on how organic farmers are combining resources to try to preserve their rights to grow organic food, without the fear of Monsanto trying to squash their operations. The link I'm guiding you to is Wood Prairie Farm's website, where I buy my seed potatoes each year. They're a nice family with an admirable organic farm in Maine. Their newsletter on the website is worth reading.

What can you do? Buy locally from your farmers market. Avoid buying genetically-modified foods if you can (unfortunately, foods like corn flakes, bread and soy products are not required to tell you if their products contain genetically modified ingredients). Why does it matter? Because there has been virtually no testing to see what happens in our bodies once the genetically-modified organism is ingested. The old adage of, "you are what you eat" comes to mind. Do you really want herbicide-ready genes bouncing around in your body, doing who knows what? I know I don't want that.

Read the comments section of this post and you'll see the fight is going on in New Zealand, too. And it's also being waged in India where Monsanto tried to make a deal with the government to regulate the sale of herbicide-ready rice. Imagine, a country that has grown rice for a thousand years as food, with people saving their own seed from generation to generation, having to buy only approved and over-priced seed from Monsanto or risk sanctions and fines! Fortunately, for now, farmers have been able to stop this from happening with their rice. Here in the U.S., people are more docile and more ready to eat whatever is put before them and organic farmers continued to be sued for "patent infringement" when pollen blows into their fields from somewhere else. 

Summertime, perfect for Salsa and Pie

The ingredients and method are in my Banana Salsa YouTube video.

This feels like a cool refreshing beverage kind of day. Maybe a pitcher of margaritas, or just some fresh mint tea over ice. Speaking of refreshments, how about making a batch of salsa for appetizers tonight? If you already have my Sensational Salsas, from Apple to Zucchini book, then you already have the recipe for my favorite Banana Salsa. But if you don't have the book, click on the link and check out my salsa video, here. And if you go to this link, you'll see that both my Salsas and my Homemade Crackers with Herbs books are on sale right now.

Lori & Tom Hess. Lori weaves pine needle baskets, Tom makes his famous pie plates.

Summer is also pie weather. I've been visiting with Tom and Lori Hess at the Reeds Spring (Missouri) Evening Farmers Market (you can see more photos on the market's FaceBook page). Tom Hess is famous for his incredible pie plates, hand-thrown in his shop. They're deeper than a regular pie plate, made of unglazed clay, and the pie crust actually cooks perfectly on the bottom of the pie.

Fine Cooking magazine (2006) declared Tom's plates as The Perfect Pie Plate.

The cool thing about visiting with Hess Pottery folks every Sat. night at farmers market, is they are also Pie-aholics. They keep a diary of the best pie places across America! They are always on the lookout for really good, homemade pie places. When I name this place or that I've visited, they've likely been there and have rated it in their pie diary! I'm always trying to add some new roadside pie stops to their list. So it was no great surprise when I mentioned Royers Cafe in Round Top, TX, and Royers pies, that Tom and Lori had been there several times.

That's it, that's just about all there is of Round Top, TX, population 50.

Round Top, TX is a little bit of a place, even smaller than the town where I grew up. You wouldn't think of it as the kind of eating destination that would be nationally known, would you? Nor would you look at Royers Cafe and immediately think, "Wow, I gotta stop there!" But for those of us who are adventurous-eating-travelers, it's exactly the kind of place we look for.

An unimposing place, it may not look famous, but it is. Most anytime you'll have to wait in line, or sit on bales of straw out front until there's a table empty. The lines to get inside to eat, are sometimes substantial and always worth the wait.

The King of Pies, is Bud Royer. He keeps things moving, personally greets every customer and is full of stories about all the famous and not-so-famous customers who've graced his table. And he knows his pies!

On a balmy evening this spring when I'd finished with my responsibilities at the herb festival at nearby Festival Hill, I stopped by Royers Cafe just as they were closing. Kind and genial hosts as they are to everyone who steps over their doorstep, they invited me to sit on the front porch and visit. It's a family place and the entire Royer family keep the place running smoothly. Even after a long, tiring day, they found the time to visit with a pie-hungry traveler.

It's fun to see a family that not only works together, but can laugh and like each other at the end of the day!

CBS Morning  Show conducted a nationwide survey of great cafes. Royers came out in the top 3 or 4 in the nation!

These pies are famous, not just in nearby Austin, or only in Texas, but they have a following across these United States. And what do people come here for? Buttermilk and garlic marinated pan-fried chicken, sandwiches, quail, and pie. Real, homemade, honest-to-goodness pie, the kind that us hard-core pie lovers look for.

These are the real deal, homemade, over-sized, melt in your mouth pies.

Peach on the left, apple, their top seller in the middle, cherry on the right. Mmmmm.

Getting married? You can order a wedding pie. Why not? Cakes are boringly same.

People send thank you notes, signs, photos. This is just one tiny spot on a wall that's completely covered with notes from happy customers. All the walls, and the ceiling, too, are covered.

So if you're wanting something truly summer-ish, watch my YouTube salsa videos and make either my Banana or Peach-Mango Salsa.  Then, dream about Pie. And if you get anywhere within 300 miles of Round Top, TX, plan to have pie (they also serve other food, sandwiches, quail, chicken, you name it) but save room for real pie at Royers.

That pretty well says it all.