In the last two weeks, we have made four rounds of plum jam, plum preserves, grape mushti (grape juice with a kick), grape pekmez (molasses), fig jam, dried hundreds of figs, and today a batch of thana (cornelian cherries) raki.
Never a dull moment on the homestead.
The grape pekmez made for a very sticky situation. We've made it from mulberries over the last few years but never tried to make it out of grapes. IT WAS THICK! We picked the ripest grapes, smushed, strained and slowly simmered down to a thick honey texture. I enjoyed the flavor. Art enjoys the mulberry pekmez a bit more. We only made about six small jars but a worthy experiment.
And taking full advantage of our grapes we made some mushti. We picked nice juicy grapes and smashed into a small barrel. We let it rest for two days and then strain into a pitcher. It was taste sweet like grape juice but has a bit of a kick.
We've gone a bit plum crazy here this year. It started with 5 kg of plums. Then another 5 kg and another 5. After three rounds of jam we preserved another 3 kg of plums. And just this afternoon I picked up another 6 kg. I called not my jam. I'll update next month on the jar count of plum related items we have stored for the winter. Side note, we have several plum trees that aren't quite mature, so hopefully next year most of the plums come from within the walls of our garden.
And the figs! It was delicious season for our figs. And Art tried several different versions of drying with just the sun vs a new dehydrator or a combo of both. The fresh figs sliced in half placed in the dehydrator took about 18 hours, dried evenly, but I enjoyed the texture of the whole fig for two days in the dehydrator. It's a soft chewy instead of a taffy tough chew. After drying, we bag and freeze for another 24 hours. This helps prevent any pests that may have burrowed there way in from living. We place the dried figs in jars with a bay leaf and store in our pantry, which is filling up really fast. We do share a fair amount with my sister-in-law here. And the jam was a success. We've tried a few variations of fig jams, with lemon juice, without. And this year we choose without lemon. It's yummy!
We walked through the orchard to inspect the pomegranates. Art picked one and it's sweet although pretty small. I would say we are weeks away from a bountiful season of juicing coming our way.
In between all the brewing and canning we took advantage of the cooler temperatures to enjoy the lake. The Bar Restorant Syri i Sheganit is about a ten minute bike ride and the views never get old even with the addition of a few quacky ducks. It adds to the ambience of one with nature.
The garden is still producing peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, watermelons, cucumbers, beans, and pumpkins. The cabbage, leeks and brussel sprouts are progressing along. Cooler temperatures are in the forecast plus a bit of rain.
Our trees that are pick ready: apples, figs, plum, kimchee, and a few olives.
Next up the pomegranates, quinces, persimmons, orange, and lemon.
Vine to wine season in the next few weeks.
Cheers!