Wednesday, June 11, 2014

The Clock is Ticking

The silver lining of our long winter was that there was still asparagus available when I returned from Victoria, unlike last year.  Since there is only one more week left for this year for this most ancient of vegetables.  Suzy and I have been taking advantage of the time, and have revisited the household favourites: Pickled asparagus, roasted asparagus, and asparagus soup.  All of the asparagus are courtesy of Jim Hayward of Haystrom Farms, and here's a panoramic of Suzy  preparing the first batch of brine...

Speaking of the brine, the old recipe is a bit arcane due to some unit of measure mismatches, here it is in plain cups:

8 cups of white vinegar
8 cups of filtered water
1 cup of salt

Plus a few more of the work in progress(with our amazing new immersion blender in action) and the finished products:









Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Last Jars

Stores certainly appear to be running low!  There are only two jars of pickles left, the jam supplies are looking anemic, and the last jar of Jim Hayward's San Marzano's went while I was out in British Columbia. Nyls asked for pasta for his birthday dinner today, and that led to me cracking the last jar of the pistou.  I continue to be amazed by how intense the smells and flavours remain a year after the basil and garlic were harvested. This has been great, especially when I consider how late the growing season is this year.  Last year at this time the asparagus was pretty much done, and here it is just starting.  All of which brings me to the bright side, namely the opportunity to lay in some pickled asparagus and asparagus soup this year.  Look for an update on that front as soon as I source 24 pounds of asparagus :)

Until then, here are a few photo's for your enjoyment!