Backyard Farmgals

This week has been farm tear down week and I am utterly exhausted.  I now know why we have winter, the people that work so hard from Spring to Fall need a serious break!  I am looking forward to hot chocolate and playing in the snow, but we are not there yet! With tearing everything out, my emotions run high, especially among the tomatoes.  I can't throw them away.  They have been so good to me all summer, I tear up when I start ripping them out of the ground.  This is the cycle of the seasons and life, so they have to go, their time is up.  But before loading them on the trailer, I pick through the vines for the last precious jewels that they have been hiding.  What I end up keeping is astonishing!  Three bushels of tomatoes have followed me home this week.  As exhausted as I am, I can't let them go to waste, so tomato sauce once again comes to mind.  This time bottled, to last through next spring.  Making a very simple sauce can...

I've gone a little nuts...with the jam that is.  I have made oodles of it this year, but this one is by far, the most outstanding of any jam I have made.  I was inspired by another vendor at the farmer's market and thought I could make my own, and make it better.  I think that the key to this is using really, really, horribly ripe apricots.  So ripe that they fall apart when you peel them and your hands are coated in juice.  I made another batch with not so ripe fruit and it was good, but not fantastic. I am really in love with the flavor combination and with the lime juice.  It brightens the whole flavor and surprises your taste buds.  I used the lime juice and zest because I loved the little flecks of green zest in the orange jam.  What can I say...orange and green...I must be a child of the 70's!  The ginger plays a lovely role after the jam has cooled, you get this sweet spiciness in your mouth toward the end of your bite.  It's ...