raspberry vinegar

raspberry | photo: BraveNewWorld

Raspberries are coming in to season.  Their fragrant luscious aroma greets me every time I walk into the produce section of my local grocery store.  And their plump juicy red fruit temps me.  I love raspberries and truly miss the raspberry bed I had in Connecticut.  It was stocked with four different varieties each bearing at a different time pretty much ensuring a summer full of fresh flavorful berries.

Sadly the drought here in Texas has done a number to my fruit bushes.  The trees seem to be holding their own but the elderberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and goji berries are all shriveled and I'm not sure they're going to make it.

Raspberries are such a wonderful fruit because not only are they so tasty, they're so versatile.  They go great in fruit salads, eaten fresh, baked into scones or crumbles, on top of oatmeal, in a smoothie, the list goes on.  Plus 1/2 C. provides 4 g. of fiber, over 25% of your DV for vitamin C and just over 20% of your DV for manganese.

One of my favorite, extravagant ways to use raspberries is to make a raspberry vinegar.  This way I can enjoy that fragrant summer flavor all year long.

This is my favorite recipe from Fancy Pantry which is one of my best-loved preserving cookbooks.

Red Raspberry Vinegar

8 C. raspberries, cleaned, rinsed and drained
3 C. white wine vinegar

The recipe calls for the raspberries to be used in two portions.  You can freeze 4 C. for later.
Crush 4 C. raspberries and place them in a sterilized, heatproof 2 quart jar
Add vinegar and and cover the jar
set the jar in a deep saucepan and fill with water to come halfway up the jar
set over medium heat and bring the water to a boil
Reduce the heat and keep the water simmering for 20 minutes
Remove the jar and set aside, uncovered to cool the contents
When cool, add a lid to the jar and set it aside
Shake the jar every day for 2 weeks
Strain the jar to remove old raspberries, it is okay to lightly press the berries to extract all the juice
Crush 4 C. raspberries and pour infused vinegar over them
Repeat the scalding as done above
Let the vinegar rest for two weeks, shaking every day
Strain the vinegar discarding the fruit, it is okay to lightly press the berries to extract all the juice
Line a funnel with an unbleached coffee filter and place in a sterilized bottle
Filter the vinegar into the bottle
Cap or cork the bottle and store in a cool dark pantry

Note: the vinegar may develop sediment as it stands, this is okay but the vinegar can be re-filtered if you wish

green tomato chutney

Green Tomatoes | Medved' | Wikimedia Commons

QuantumVegan just harvested about fifty pounds of tomatoes.  That's a LOT of tomatoes.

When we lived in Vermont that kind of a harvest was sure to mean we were getting green tomatoes.  The growing season is so short there tomatoes don't always have time to ripen.  So you come up with lots of good ways to use green tomatoes.  There's green tomato pie, green tomato salsa, the ubiquitous fried green tomatoes and more.

Luckily green tomatoes have lots of nutrition, as I posted before, including lycopene.  If you're getting close to the end of your growing season and you're looking at a large crop of green tomatoes, here's my favorite way to use them up; green tomato chutney.  It goes very well with cheese and crackers, it is excellent with cold roast meats, delicious as a side to a spicy vegetarian lentil dish, it's very versatile condiment to have in your pantry.

This recipe is based on one from Fancy Pantry which appears to be out of print.   find it to be a good book with lots of wonderful recipes and well worth having.  But in the meantime here's my version:

Green Tomato Chutney

4 pounds green tomatoes, cored and cut into chunks
4 pounds green apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
2 C. yellow onions, minced
2 C. raisins
3 cloves garlic minced
3 C. evaporated cane juice crystals
1 1/2  C. raw apple cider vinegar
3 T. minced fresh ginger
2 T. mustard seed
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. red pepper flakes

In a large stock pot mix together tomatoes, apples, onions, raisins, garlic, cane juice crystals, salt, and vinegar.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently.
Continue to boil for approximately 30 minutes continuing to stir frequently.  The fruits will begin to soften and meld together.
Add the spices.
Boil for another 10-15 minutes until you reach the consistency you want.
Ladle into hot sterile jars and seal according to directions.
Bath for 10 minutes remove and let cool.

This recipe needs to settle to allow all of the flavors to come together.  Let it sit in a cool dark space for at least a month before opening.

Makes about 6 pints.

making homemade jam

Josh wrote in and wondered, "We just made some strawberry jam. Best jelly I've ever had. Do you know if you have to use such a huge amount of sugar? The basic recipe we used was adamant not to adjust or the jam would not set properly."


Strawberries are very low in pectin so you do need to add a fair amount of sugar to get them to set. If you use less sugar they will not set. You can try using some strawberries that are not fully ripe and still have the white tips but I have had hit-or-miss success with this method.


One way to vary the amount of sugar, especially if you are not using pectin, is to mix the strawberries with a higher pectin fruit such as apples, blackberries, crab apples, cranberries, gooseberries, grapes, or citrus peel.  This works for any low pectin fruit such as apricots, blueberries, peaches, pears, rhubarb, and raspberries.


If you are willing to use pectin you can use a commercial variety, and there are some low sugar ones out there, but another option is to make your own homemade pectin using apples or lemons. There are excellent directions in the book "Preserving Memories" by Judy Glattstein (who I confess is my mother and an excellent canner).


There are recipes that talk about using honey or other sweeteners but I find that most of them call for gelatin which I prefer not to use.

green tomatoes

I was recently visiting family in the Northeast where they have been hit badly by the tomato blight. All over the area farmers and home growers are ripping out plants and throwing them away because of the blight. Although cherry tomatoes and plum tomatoes seem to hold up better they are certainly not immune.

When I went with my sister-in-law to her beautiful community garden plot everything appeared to be growing well. The garden was lush, greenly fragrant and productive, even the tomatoes looked good at first glance. But the blight had obviously damaged the plants and the fruit. As she began to pull out the plants I realized that many of the fruits were still unscathed. Remembering the years we lived in Vermont (which Shep Ogden, owner of Cook's Garden, jokingly says should be referred to as the Green Tomato State) I knew that there was a lot we could do with the fruit. My sister-in-law agreed to give it a whirl and we began to hunt for all of the un-blighted fruit we could find.

After the patch was cleared and we headed back to the house with bags full of green tomatoes we began to search for recipes. There are so many things you can make with green tomatoes; more than just the familiar fried green tomatoes. We usually don't use them because we are so conditioned to eating them when they are fully ripe. According to the USDA the nutritional profile of green and red tomatoes is almost the same. Green tomatoes have twice the vitamin C, more vitamin K, and more calcium. Red tomatoes have more vitamin A, E, and potassium. Apparently they have the same amount of lycopene and it is believed that the chlorophyll in the green tomatoes hides the red pigment which indicates a lycopene-rich food.

Our cooking and canning foray took two days (in part because we also canned zucchini, but that's another story) and we made green tomato cake, green tomato pickles, green tomato salsa, and some really fabulous green tomato relish. Now when their family sits down in the middle of those cold New England winters they'll still be able to have a jar of summer goodness on the table to enjoy.

Green tomatoes are versatile and can be made into pie (it's delicious, trust me), pasta sauce, and all manner of preserved goods. While I'm not sure if the farmers in those states affected by the blight will be able to harvest and sell their green tomatoes I sure hope they do. And I hope that people realize just how tasty green tomatoes are. Who knows, it might start a new demand for green tomatoes.

photo courtesy of wikimedia.commons.org