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We lost our vintage apple and cherry trees in the Blizzard of '93, just months after moving to our mountain homestead. But what remained were two giant cinnamon pear trees and a vineyard of concord, muscadine and zinfandel grapes. Blackberries, raspberries and blueberries grow wild along the country roads, in clearings in the forest, and a neighbor's orchard features a thick stand of blueberries I can get in season for free, as many as I care to pick. We bought new apple trees in '94, they reverted to rootstock after planting too deep but produce a reliable crop of your basic Macintosh and Granny Smiths. I also grow two kinds of strawberries in the perennial bed, and the wild strawberries are fat and thick this spring.
There are a number of delicious things you can do with fruit, which luckily tends to come in on a staggered schedule to make the tasks easier. I've tried my hand at wine with the grapes that come in during late August through September, but didn't have very good luck, plus I'm not all that sold on the industrialized way of doing it which requires added sugar and yeasts. Yet without any additives I have made some excellent herbed vinegars and even a large batch of balsamic that still has some bottles aging and tastes better than any I've ever bought.
There never seems to be enough strawberries for anything but eating, though the wild ones make pretty good jam. I've dried pear and applesauce leathers as well as apple slices, blueberries and cranberries that store well and make nice additions to quick breads, waffles and cookies. You can make syrups and preserves as well, not to mention berry cobblers when they're fresh. If the blackberries are especially fat (as they are in some years and I can beat the bears to the patch), simply filling jars with them, adding a little sugar and covering with brandy makes the most scrumptious topping for ice cream you can imagine!
Yet around here where hoards of young people waft through all summer long, the main fruit commodity in constant demand is jam. We like jam more than jelly because jelly is a pain in the ass to make, plus jam uses more of the actual fruit pulp and has more body. We like to reserve more of the taste of the ripe fruit as well, so I keep added sugar to a minimum. But a low sugar condiment is difficult to make gel even using the low-sugar pectins sold along with jars and lids at the store. So it's a good idea - especially if you've access to an orchard of apple and/or pear trees - to make your own pectin.
Most all processed pectin in the store is made from apples (often with animal-based gelatin), though pears have even higher pectin content. Now that blossoming time is over and the new fruit is beginning to fatten, the trees are shedding their excess fruit from crowded clusters. These are those really little green apples about an inch in diameter littering the ground under the trees. As the season progresses windfall will offer larger green fruit too, which can also be turned into pectin. The greener the better!
To make pectin, here are some basic instructions. When making jelly or jam you'll want to use a cup of gelled pectin for every 2-3 cups of fruit, depending on how much pectin that fruit contains itself. The riper the fruit, the less pectin.
Gather 3 pounds of little green apples and/or pears, wash thoroughly. Remove stems and blossom remnants and quarter, no need to remove seeds or skin. Cut out any bruised areas or insect damage. Cover with two quarts of water and a quarter cup of lemon juice in a heavy pot and bring to a boil. For last weekend's batch I added a couple of cups of fat wild strawberries just because I had some, and a cup of cranberry-pomegranate juice (displacing a cup of water).
Continue to boil over medium-high heat stirring occasionally until the fruit turns into mush. You may have to add water depending on how long this takes. When it's mushy pour it through a sieve and let it sit long enough to get as much pulpy liquid as possible. Measure and return it to the pot, add enough water if necessary to equal six cups. Ladle it into sterile 8 ounce canning jars. Attach new sterile lids and process in a water bath (water about an inch over the top of the jars) for 10 minutes at a rolling boil. Remove jars and cool, they will gel and store well for six months. Or you could store non-processed but clean-sealed jars in the fridge for up to 6 weeks. These cup measured jars of pectin are very handy for making jams in manageable batches when the berries and grapes and other ripe fruits come in, or can be used to thicken fillings for pies and cobblers.
The pectin itself is very, very sour. Just adding sweet ripe fruit isn't going to help much toward making a sweet condiment or pie filling, so you'll still need sugar for consumables when the time comes. Most standard recipes require as much or more sugar than fruit, but this pectin will gel with less. As a basic rule I use just over half as much sugar (by measure) as I've got fruit juice/pulp to process. This gives a slightly tart jam or filling where the taste of the fruit remains strong.
So for those of you looking forward to your own summer produce or preserving what's cheap at the farmer's market this week by the peck, I hope this description of how to produce your own pom pectin will inspire you to make good use of those little green apples while they last!
