Chronicles of the Long Shot Farm

This afternoon our herb harvest and processing continued.  We cut bunches of oregano and hung it up in the kitchen to dry.  This should be done in time for spaghetti sauce making.  Also harvested some of our mint and tried a new recipe:
Orange Peppermint Jelly

• 2 cups peppermint leaves
• 4 cups orange juice (I used juice from concentrate)
• 8 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 six ounce pouch of liquid pectin

Place mint leaves in medium bowl.  Using a large stainless steel pot, bring the orange juice to a boil, and then pour juice over mint leaves.  Let this steep for about 30 minutes, then drain through a fine mesh sieve, squeezing out remaining juice from the mint leaves.  Discard leaves and return liquid to large pot.  Add sugar and lemon juice and bring to boil, making sure all sugar is dissolved.  Stir in pectin and bring to a full rolling boil.  Boil for one minute – mixture will foam a lot! (hence the large pot).  Skim off foam and ladle jelly in to prepared jars. (Jars need to be washed and hot – inserts need to have been placed in simmering water to soften the rubber).  Wipe jar rims, adjust lids and process in boiling water bath for 5  minutes.

I let Lars taste the skimmed off foam – which had set nicely before the water bath even came to a boil.  His reaction was that the jelly tasted just like cough drops!  While this is true, it is not at all a bad taste, rather sweet, with a lot of citrus and mint, just like the ingredients.  Almost like a minty lemon curd.  We’ll see how this tastes in the middle of winter – we’ll be sure to put it on Lars’s toast whenever he gets a cold.

Started off this morning by cutting our basil plants back until I had 2 bowls of leaves for pesto.  Here is the recipe I used (3 times!):

• 6 cups (firmly packed) basil leaves (cleaned and dried – I used a salad spinner)
• 1.5 cups of walnuts
• 1.5 cups Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 8 cloves of garlic (mine were rather large, so I cut them into 1/2 inch cubes first)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of pepper

Put all ingredients into large food processor and pulse first, then run on low until mixture is nearly smooth.  We used our vacuum sealer, made small bags, and scooped about 1/4 – 1/2 cup of pesto into each prepared bag and then sealed and froze them. 

For lunch we made a quick pasta dish with pesto:  Boil 12 oz of noodles (Fuseli or Bow Ties work nice).  In the meantime, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add 1/2 cup of cream or half&half until hot. Add about 1/4 or more of the prepared pesto and heat through.  Dice up fresh tomatoes.  Drain pasta and make individual bowls – scoop in pasta, add some chopped tomatoes, crumbled feta cheese and cover with pesto cream sauce, mix together and enjoy!