making preserves |

Good Day Dearest Readers!

It’s time for me to start getting into gear again for the new season of Terri’s Kitchen at the Cliftonville Market, so I may not be posting as often, but I will try to keep up. You will see ‘Song for a Sunday’ over the next couple of weeks as I’ve already scheduled those to post…and no, I’m not telling you what’s coming. You’ll have to wait until Sunday! The first market for me for the year is in five weeks and I’ll need to get myself reorganized and into the swing of things with making preserves and pickles.

Today I did an inventory to update my list and also re-priced nearly 50 jars at a discount due to the labels getting ruined the last time I was at the market due to the rain. I felt it would just be too much of a hassle to redo labels and that just discounting them would be much easier. For those of you who go to the market, the discounts will run from 10%-40% off, depending on how bad the label looks!

Keep an eye on the side bar to the right under the CLIFTONVILLE MARKET NEWS widget to see what new flavors I’ll have. You should start to see some new items listed within the next 7-10 days. I do know that some of the items to start off will be orange marmalade, lemon marmalade, fig chutney or jam and something with cranberries although I don’t know exactly what. Any suggestions? Also, if there’s something you would like to see at my stand, please let me know and I’ll see about trying to make it.

See you in five weeks!

I decided that today would be the day to make the elderflower jelly, or at least start it as it’s a two-day process. I cut about four or five stalks of flowers and shook them out to get rid of any unwanted bugs. I used the cooking apples I got on the ‘reduced to clear’ section at the green grocer on Saturday.

Apples & Elderflowers

The elderflowers are very small and delicate and have a nice smell to them, but not so when they’re cooking. I learned that the first time I cooked them so for this batch of jelly, I decided to not go so heavy-handed on the amount I used.

I cut up all the apples and put them into my preserving pan with fresh lemon juice plus the lemon itself, cut up, some cinnamon sticks, the elderflowers and some water.

Everything is brought to a boil, then covered and simmered for about an hour.

It doesn’t look very appetizing and the picture is hazy due to the steam. It doesn’t matter what it looks like as it’s going to be put into a jelly bag to drain as it’s the juice you want. After all, we’re making jelly, not jam.

It has to remain dripping until tomorrow. You don’t want to squeeze the bag as that will end up making the jelly cloudy.

I will post the second phase of making the jelly tomorrow.

Terri’s Tasty Tip…

If you suffer from hayfever or allergies every Spring, try these natural ways to keep your symptoms at bay:

Eat more vitamin-C rich foods like peppers and citrus fruits. The vitamin helps to manage the body’s response to histamine, a compound hayfever sufferers tend to over-produce.

Include red onions, apples and berries for their quercetin, a natural inhibitor of histamine.

Eat oily fish, such as salmon, sardines, trout and mackerel to reduce the inflammatory response caused by histamine.

Make a fresh ginger tea. This comforting spice supports immunity and acts as a natural decongestant. Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and some honey for sweetness.

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Live to Eat, don’t Eat to Live…what fun is that?