Covid Journal, Days 101-102: Jelly and Greens and Scapes and Poetry

Yesterday, 68 in the morning, sunny and breezy with late afternoon showers. Today, 63 and clear, a lovely day.

We stopped to pick flowers again the other day--elderberry flowers, to make jelly. The recipe calls for soaking the blooms overnight in unfiltered apple juice. I had our pasteurized cider, which is pretty much the same thing. So the flowers went into the juice and into the fridge.

It has been a long time since I made elderflower jelly. 2010, to be exact. In 2018 I made elderflower syrup, which was a light, summery taste. We used it pretty quickly. The recipe I used for jelly before was a little different from this one, but I think I like this better as the flower  scent and taste is stronger.

I learned something new in making this. Sometimes I have trouble with getting jelly to set. No problem with jams, but jellies are another thing altogether. This recipe said to put a small plate in the freezer and when you think the jelly is done, put about 1/2 teaspoon of the hot jelly on the plate. Move it around a bit, and see if it sets. If it doesn't, add citric acid and cook a little longer. I'd never heard of that, and it was a real help as my jelly did not set on the first test. I didn't have any citric acid, so I added a little lemon juice and about 1/2 a box more of the powdered pectin. After a couple more tests, it set beautifully. This will be my go-to recipe now. And I'll use that procedure for testing on any other jellies I make.

As for greens: all my life I have hated kale. I remember having it when I was a child--it was strong and bitter and I literally gagged eating it. These days kale is all the rage, so I have planted it last year and this, because it's healthy, right? I have found I can tolerate it, and then the other day I stumbled on a trick. I was cooking kale for dinner and had no ham or bacon to add to it, so I threw in some chopped garlic scapes and a chicken bouillon cube. A.Mazing! It was delicious, so much so that we were both sorry there wasn't seconds. So I made it again yesterday, and we ate every bit. I am sold on kale now. I will try the kale chips next, but honestly, these greens were so good it will be hard to top them.

garlic scapes

A friend told me about harvesting garlic scapes, and we have a lot of self-sown garlic around here that was just forming scapes (the little top floweret/bulb-looking thingie that twists into cool-looking curves).

I harvested the scapes Tuesday and chopped into tiny pieces. (I didn't cut them right--went and read how AFTER I'd cut them. Actually I should have cut them low and gotten the larger leaves on the stem too. I missed those, cutting off the top 12" or so instead.) I chopped up the bulb head and as much of the stem as felt tender under the knife, then put the pieces in a pan on the stove and dried them. So now I have some good garlic bits for future use.

Last night I participated in my first-ever online poetry open mic, with poets from the Athens, Ohio area. It was a fun experience and I hope to do it again. I've balked at online storytelling because storytelling depends so much on audience interaction, and while I might post a story or two, I really miss the sense of community that comes with live storytelling. But poetry is different, at least in my mind. I hope to do it again; it's nice to be able to get some of what I've written into listeners' ears. If you'd like to listen in or be a reader, join the Facebook group for updates.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.