Gleaning the Summer Garden

October 30th gleaning yielded bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, small eggplants, green beans, butterbeans, tomatoes, okra, and field peas. Even as the summer garden ends, it still gives enough to make meals. This is why I'm always reluctant to put the garden to bed. We've had light frosts and it won't be long before a hard freeze comes along to make the butterbean vines wither and blacken. There are many flowers and green pods out there at present. I fight with the sunset to pick during the week and the very chilly mornings on the weekends. The winter vegetables are growing vigorously. The blue-stemmed collards that survived summer's harlequin bug infestation truly are resplendent. So, there will be some fresh produce this winter. And every last bit of what the summer garden strives to yield will be tucked into a jar, a drawer, a freezer shelf for those dark and cold winter nights to become steamy meals that bring back the warmth of such a happy season.

Peach Water

Preserving food in my kitchen is either frenetic or contemplative. There seems to be no in between. It's not that food preservation itself is frenetic. I get in a tizzy trying to get things going all at once because there is more harvest than time to handle it. But that's a good problem, isn't it? Sometimes, things do go to waste, though, and I'm spending a good bit of time thinking about how to prevent that next year. And then again, the brief, peaceful periods when one step takes longer gives my mind pause. The feeling is a lot like when I pull weeds. The combination of repetitive action and focusing on the detail of a task always frees my mind. Often, in the kitchen anyway, a particular question echoes, "How much more can I get out of this food?" How can I waste less or turn it into more quantity? This summer, I asked that question and had an absolute epiphany.

I was scalding peaches to skin them for making jam. The blushed skins and sweet peach flesh made the boiling water smell heavenly and look like a sunrise. So, instead of draining the peaches into a colander, I lifted them out of the water. It seemed like a kind of crazy idea was being born and I wasn't sure whether I should try it. So I kept eyeing the water while I skinned the peaches. Finally done, I decided it couldn't hurt to try to do something with that peachy water. So I strained it - I really can't remember with what, but imagine it might have been muslin - to catch the fuzz. Then I tried a bit and found it was really tasty! So I poured up the hot liquid in a couple of quart jars and put them in the fridge.

Over the summer, one jar was thoroughly enjoyed. The other was pushed a bit to the back and forgotten until a few days ago. A quick sniff and some careful visual scrutiny indicated the peach water was still good. Well, after all, it was boiled and poured into a clean jar. I decided to add sugar to make a peach-ade. It made such a pretty, tasty drink that I decided to go public with this extreme food preservation idea, and told a group of Master Gardeners how Peach Water is made. There were some giggles, but the jar was passed around and I'm sure that lovely peach perfume convinced at least a few folks to consider making their own. Next peach season, I will make a bigger batch of peach jam and peach water. And this time, I'll process the jars of Peach Water, too.