Currant Jam

You want to strip the berries off their bracts into a colander to rinse them, then heat and simmer in a bit of water for about 10 minutes. Run them through a foley mill (or cheesecloth) to remove the skins. By our calculations, 4.5 quarts of berries + 1.5 C water = about 7.5 C currant juice.

Honey Recipe

6.5 C currant juice
3.25 t dry low-methoxyl pectin
3/4 C honey
9 t lemon juice
6.5 t calcium water (comes in a Pomona's pectin packet)

Mix pectin into honey, stirring well. Add lemon juice to berry juice in pot, bring to a boil (be careful not to scorch the bottom --stir, stir, stir). Add honey/pectin mixture, then return to a boil and boil for a timed 2 minutes, then add calcium water, stir that in, and remove the pot from heat. Can away! If I were a better person I'd have estimates for how many jars this makes. Um, sorry?

Sugar Recipe
4 C currant juice
1-2 C sugar (i'd recommend the high side, to counter the tartness)
2 t pectin
2 t calcium water

Process the same way.

Lazy Sunday Lentils, rambling version

I'm surprised this isn't already up somewhere, it's one of my standards. God, maybe it is and I'm just getting worse at using the internet.

1 # bag of green lentils
1 onion (yellow, usually)
3-4 cloves garlic
a bit of olive oil
cumin
paprika
salt and pepper
turmeric?
3-4 carrots, cut into coins and coin halves
3 celery stalks or a small handful of cutting celery, leaves and stem, diced
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes or equivalent amount (2-3 handfuls) of fresh tomatoes
4 C water (?)

Dice onion and garlic, saute in olive oil in a soup pot. Add spices in ratio of 2 cumin:1 paprika, salt and pepper to taste (lots of pepper...add a little salt now, but save some for the end), and the equivalent of 1/2 turmeric if you feel like it. Maybe start with 2 tsp cumin, etc. Stir well, then add the diced carrots and celery, continue cooking on low (you can cover it if you're worried about the garlic scorching). When the carrots are starting to get tender, pour in lentils. Stir lentils around for a bit--i dunno, 30 seconds? i learned this from my old roommie Visnja. She says it brings out the nutty flavor in the lentils--then add water. How much? Well, I put 4 cups, but you want enough to cook the lentils in. It may be closer to 8 cups--i usually add some water, and add more as the lentils puff up. You can always add more later, but you can also always simmer it to the desired consistency later as well if you add too much early on. Your call. Ramble over. So, you threw in the water, now bring to a boil, then back to a simmer until lentils are cooked. Add tomatoes, let heat through. Now check your spice levels and adjust. I used to add the tomatoes with the water, before the lentils were cooked, but somebody told me that tomatoes get more acidic as they cook, so I started holding them back a bit. I wonder if that's even true. Anyway, the stew is better the second day.

(The next time I make this I'll pin down the water and spice deal and update these directions to sound less crazy).

Grafting and Blossoms

Joy making a diagonal cut in the scion wood (the dormant wood from the existing tree that you want to replicate).

Scion wood bundles

The rootstock end has already been cut

And here they are--don't they look fragile? We taped tightly over the grafts to help press the layers together. The green goo on the end helps prevent moisture loss.

Miraculous! Green growth above the graft.

Pear tree at the end in full bloom, ahead of the young apple trees

Bob calls this the "red balloon" stage, when the buds are full and round. I think these pictured may be just shy of red balloon

A row of blossoming apple trees. The buds are set in the previous summer, so your apple is actually over a year in the making. Amazing, right?

The sepal-like green bit behind the blossom is the calyx. And the slight swelling between calyx and stem? Your future apple. The calyx remains through the process- it's that little bit of stuff in the bottom cleft of the apple.

I think this is a pear blossom.