Long time no see...

It's been a long time since I've updated my little blog.  I didn't bake much, so didn't have much to share.  However, I was inspired on my trip to Hong Kong and Thailand.  Mango tarts I made this weekend...inspired from a trip to the Mandarin Cake Shop.

Mini Mango tarts

Summer Update

Apricot Jam

I have been making jam but not as much as I had hoped to make.  I missed out on the raspberries at the market.  Have to wait until next year! Sigh...

Hiking Albion Falls trail

I have been taking advantages of the amazing weather we've had this summer by going hiking, biking and relaxing at the beach!

Hard Work

Yes, its hard work eating freshly picked blueberries…so hard I only managed to pick 5lbs! J I think it was because I ate most of them before they landed in the bucket!  Hopefully August will bring us more sunny weekends and I’ll get to go berry picking again. 

Strawberry Season

Although I’m not a huge strawberry fan, I’ve been waiting anxiously to go berry picking this season.  I wanted to make some jam with freshly picked Ontario strawberries;   what is better than picking it myself? 

I guess everyone is on the lookout for organic PYO fruits; when we got there the parking lot was full and everyone was parked on the street.  It was a huge change from last summer.  They also moved the strawberry patch to another area of the farm.  We had to walk through a muddy trail to get to the large strawberry patch.  Thankfully it was worth the walk and the mud had dried up for the walk out from the patch.  

The type of strawberries that were available this year is a little different.  Last year, they were small but extremely sweet.  This year, they’re big and pretty but not exceptionally sweet.  Instead, they taste very fresh, very strawberry flavoured.   I didn’t pick as much as last summer but have enough for a few jars of jam.  I might go pick up some different varieties from the market and freeze them to make jam later this year.  Hopefully, dad doesn’t fly through his jam so quickly.



Summer 2010

It’s been busy summer this year with the discovery of many pick your own berry farms, and local organic farmer markets. With the abundance of fresh local produce, I have been trying to cook more and eat healthier. Hence, less baking, although I think the main reason is that I have too many distractions. With all this fresh fruits, I already made a few batches of jam this summer. I already finished two jars of strawberry, a jar of raspberry and currently enjoying my blackberry jam. I have stocked my freezer with freshly picked berries for more jamming over the winter, and have just finished making italian plum jam this morning. Hmmm, plum jam, that brings me back to the reason I started jamming this summer. My plum jam doesn’t taste like the one from Italy (I know as I licked the spoon), but I’m happy as this may be my best batch of jam I made. My previous jams were either too watery or overcooked but somehow I feel this jam is perfect…I guess I’ll find out when I dig into it after I finish my blackberry jam.

Baking wise, I did manage to make a successful batch of sesame macarons,. Well not 100% successful as not the whole batch turned out, but successful as it was full of sesame flavour and not insanely sweet. The humidity really affected the drying of the macarons. I think I’ll have to wait until it’s less humid before churning out another batch.

Besides getting fresh fruits, I have been enjoying many fresh veggies from the market. Just the other day, I snagged some fresh edamame beans! They even had stalks of them for sale so of course I had to get some.

Blueberries!!

Highbush blueberries

After eating my friend’s freshly picked blueberries last summer, I knew I had to go this year. We lucked out over the weekend as it was overcast when we got to the farm. The first thing I thought of when I got to the farm was that highbush blueberry plants are so pretty. Different shades of red, purple and blue. I have to say, out of all the berries I picked this summer, blueberries are the easiest and the least effort. I didn’t get too much, just under 7lbs but ate lots of berries while picking away.

Fresh berry tart

I really didn’t mean to make tarts but my mom requested it as we had relatives in town for dinner. It was yummy but I rather eat the berries fresh. I’ll save the store-bought berries for cakes and tarts.

Hard Work

Homemade raspberry jam - those were store bought raspberries.  All my berries went into the jam. :)

I didn’t realize raspberry picking would be such hard work. I was there for over 2.5 hours and only got a quart of blackcurrants and a just over a quart of raspberries. I ended up using all the raspberry to make jam and froze the blackcurrants until I decide what to do with them.

Unfortunately, the purple raspberries weren’t ready the day I went to the farm – I guess I will have to go back next year.

Strawberry Jam

Since tasting the delicious homemade jam from the B&B, I’ve been looking forward to summer for local fruits to try my hand at making jam. Being relatively new to the whole process, I picked up The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving. Their recipe for the Favorite Strawberry Jam was perfect as the yield was small at 2.5 cups. I’ll have to say making the jam wasn’t hard but the whole sterilization process was a bit unnerving. Perhaps I didn’t have all the right tools but I had a difficult time removing the hot water from the jars. Nevertheless, it was music to my ears on hearing the “ping” of the lids once I removed the filled jars from the water bath. One thing puzzled me though – I only yield 1.5 cups of jam…perhaps I measured the wrong amount of strawberries? Who knows…anyhow, I tasted the jam and it’s good. Ok, perhaps a little too sweet for my taste but I’ve never been a major fan of strawberry jam. I can’t wait until raspberry season. I love raspberry jam!

Local strawberry season begins!

It’s been a long time since I last gone strawberry picking. I like strawberries but I can’t say they’re my favourite fruit. The last time I went to PYO strawberries was to Whittamore Farms. I think I was allergic to the spray they used on the strawberries so I never went back.
Having enjoyed some homemade jam at a B&B in the Italian Riviera, I was curious to try making my own jam. The lovely couple at the La Casa dei nonni graciously shared a jar of their plum jam with me but the jar is slowly disappearing so it’s time to make my own.

I was excited to learn that there was an Organics PYO farm close by. I was even more exciting to learn that the PYO strawberry season started this weekend at the Organics Family Farm. I always thought PYO for strawberries started at end of June. So off I went to the farm to pick some fresh organic berries for jam. After two hours, I had an overflowing basket of fresh strawberries. Of course with the huge basket I picked, there will definitely be other uses besides jam.