Put up or ... : Saving the Season, a new blog about preserves
A new Los Angeles-based blog, Saving the Season, celebrates the art of home canning (or "putting up") and all things deliciously jammy -- preserved huckleberries, blueberry butter, white peaches in lavender syrup, apricot jam with maple and vanilla, mulberry-plum preserves and more.
The blog is about "jams and other fruit preserves, pickles and briny things, canned vegetables (above all tomatoes)," according to its author, Kevin West, who is also West Coast editor of W magazine. Though it's just a couple of months old, there already are several recipes for jams and fruit butters, as well as one for cocktail onions -- for Gibsons, of course.
It's also rife with good reading, punctuated by canners' secrets (such as the judicious use of gin), literary references (Pablo Neruda's "Ode to Tomatoes"), and even personal advice from Alice Waters ("do everything neatly always").
On Saturday, West and Bettina Birch of BeeGreenFarm will give a free canning demonstration at Surfas in Culver City from noon to 1:30 p.m. They will show how to make peach jam and how to can tomatoes, with a tasting to follow. (Surfas is at 8777 Washington Blvd., Culver City; (310) 559-4770.)
-- Betty Hallock
Photo credit: Kevin West
Kevin is such a talented writer, and his blog is fantastic. I want to taste everything he makes, and get a little sentimental stir from reading each new posting. He takes me back to days spent in my grandmother's kitchen, preserving more than just delicious fruit - preserving some of my most precious memories! Thank you, Kevin...and thank you for highlighting such a wonderful blog.
Posted by: Dame CCB | August 19, 2009 at 01:53 PM
This is a great blog I always wanted to can extra fruit from my backyard. I have done it before and the process can be lengthy this is why I have been deterred to pick it up again. With this new found blog I think I will be giving it a whirl. Thanks!
Posted by: Daniel | August 19, 2009 at 07:17 AM