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I thought it would be fun to talk about preserves since that season
is now full upon us. What! Preserves! How, you might ask, do preserves relate
to my latest novel WATCHED? Well, it’s the cherries, and apples and berries and
everything else that grows in abundance on Cherry Orchard Farm. Letting nothing
go to waste (especially during the Depression) ahhh… mixed in with murder and
mayhem:
“Davis’s eyes wavered, a study in indecision. Then he turned,
throwing the tire iron unceremoniously through the car’s open window before
climbing into the driver’s seat. ‘This place is bein’ watched and make no
mistake about it. Edwin had a lot of friends,’ he warned, braver now that he’d
put more distance between himself and Shay. ‘You sneakin’ in here don’t make no
difference at all. You gotta sleep sometime, bully boy. Just ask yourself, do
you want to wake up in the mornin’? Think about it.’”
Alrighty then, back to the preserves and in salute to the namesake
of Cherry Orchard Farm there are any number of recipes for preserving cherries,
be they sour/tart, sweet, cultivated or wild. Always a delight for the palate,
but here are some wild cherry blossoms for the soul.
And speaking of pickles, more traditionally at least, they are also
high on the list of something delicious to put away for later, given the bumper
crop of cucumbers available in most gardens.
While digging into this subject I learned that pickling is actually
one of the oldest methods of food preservation, according to www.history.com, dating
back to about 2400 BC. Vinegar, Brine
“or a similar solution” did the trick and the ancient Mesopotamians get the nod
from archeologists as the peoples who were practicing pickling (leeks, onions,
radishes, capers, olives, turnips, melons and yes, even locusts) way back then.
Cucumbers (native to India) got into the game a few centuries later in the
Tigris Valley.
Actually, pickles were considered a super food in c. 50 B.C. Egypt.
Queen Cleopatra ate them for beauty, and Julius Caesar’s (and other Roman
emperors’) troops consumed them for strength. Something new to think about when
you’re enjoying a pickle or two.
Jam has also long been a household staple, a timeless sweet treat
with a variety of applications. Sugar, in ample supply, is needed for jams,
jellies and pickles.
In terms of ancient jamming, we look to the Greeks according to www.nourishcommunities.com/ :
“The origins of jam trace back to ancient times when
the Greeks used honey to preserve fruits. One of the earliest written recipes
appears in the Roman cookbook De Re Coquinaria (The Art of Cooking), featuring quinces, honey, and fresh
wine.
“In the 16th century, even Nostradamus dabbled
in jam-making. His quirky recipe for a "love jam" included unusual
ingredients like the blood of sparrows, promising to ignite passion.”
Marmalade, which like jelly is a close cousin
of jam and also a perennial favourite. This is a famous marmalade myth (digital.nls.uk):
“Legend has it that Mary, Queen of Scots, took
marmalade as a cure for sea-sickness.
“In this case, she must have brought it back
with her when she returned to Scotland from France after the death of her first
husband in 1561.
“Later in life, Mary is said to have asked for
marmalade when taken ill at Jedburgh. From these episodes comes the pun on her
name, ‘Marmelade pour Marie malade’.”
Of course it’s not all about pickles and jams,
given the myriad of produce that can be preserved in what is now called, across
the board, canning. Like the cherries at Cherry Orchard Farm, most vegetables
and fruits can be canned, in addition to fish, meat and so on but let me ask
you this: are sea birds on your canning list this year? For some it is an
annual delicacy. Ictnews.org tells the story:
“The BBC Human
Planet Explorer team recently traveled to
Greenland’s Siorapaluk, one of the
northernmost inhabited villages in the world, to watch Inuit prepare kiviaq, a
fermented delicacy of seal skin and sea birds.
“This recipe originated from ancient
indigenous methods of preserving food to survive harsh winters.
“First, meat is removed from sealskin, leaving
a thick layer of fat. After forming a bag with the skin, it is packed with 300
to 500 little auk birds. Once stuffed and pulled tight, the skin is sewn up.
Seal fat is greased around the exterior to act as a repellent to flies. The
sealskin bag is then hidden under a pile of rocks to ferment for three to 18
months.
“When the darkness of winter pervades the
landscape and game inevitably becomes scarce, Inuit families dig up the kiviaq.
It is generally consumed outside due to the pungent aroma. One BBC commentator
described the taste as a mix of liquorice and sharp cheese.
“The bird meat is tender from the seal fat, so
it is enjoyed raw and whole with the frail bones. Supposedly, the heart is the
most savoury part of this Inuit delicacy.”
And now that I’ve thoroughly tempted your palate,
I’ll take you to the opposite end of the spectrum with something that is quite
frankly, shocking. Horrible. Disgusting. Thankfully the practice has long been
abandoned, but in the interests of an all-inclusive look at preserving, here is
a bit of appalling history from www.smithsonianmag.com/ that I’ll only touch on
briefly:
“(Louise) Noble’s new book, Medicinal
Cannibalism in Early Modern English Literature and Culture, and
another by Richard Sugg of England’s University of Durham, Mummies,
Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to
the Victorians, reveal that for several hundred years, peaking in
the 16th and 17th centuries, many Europeans, including royalty, priests and
scientists, routinely ingested remedies containing human bones, blood and fat
as medicine for everything from headaches to epilepsy…”
Okay, nuff said about that.
Let’s just focus on this nice bowl of cherries,
or any other fresh produce waiting to become a mouth-watering bottle of jam, always
a feel-good taste experience. “Happiness is like jam. You can’t spread even a
little without getting some on yourself.” - Anonymous
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