Markets and Preserves

On the weekend Lucy and I took a quick trip to the Mt Gravatt market to see what was on offer.

Tomatoes are a bit of a staple for both of us but ripe ones were a rarity, so we decided to see what was abundant and economical. A few things caught our eyes but we ended spending a very affordable bit of pocket change on mandarins, small brown onions and bendy, dark green cucumbers.

What followed was a very satisfying few hours of kitchen time, with some lovely looking and tasting results. Have a guess what we made and we'll be back with more photos and the run down very soon.

Rhubarb, apple and vanilla bean jam

I flew back to Brisbane very early this morning after a weekend in Darwin. I proceeded to crash for two hours and then went to work. This leads to me not knowing what time it is or what day it is...and this leads to baking and jam making.

I made my usual lazy girl bread (I'll post the recipe soon) and some rhubarb jam. I'd bought the rhubarb last week, not really sure what I would do with it. Then I stumbled across this recipe on one of my favourite blogs and decided to tweak it a little.

The jam turned out quite nicely, a good balance of sweet and tart with a lovely delicate vanilla flavour. The best thing is that my partner (who "doesn't like jam or rhubarb") gobbled it up while still warm.

Rhubarb, apple and vanilla bean jam

makes 4 small jars

5 cups of chopped rhubarb
2 apples peeled and diced
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1 lemon, juiced
pinch of salt

Sterilise your jars in a large pot of boiling water. Put a saucer in the freezer for the set test later. In a large heavy based saucepan, bring the rhubarb, apple, sugar and water to a boil. Add the vanilla bean, lemon and salt to the pot and let it bubble gently for about twenty minutes. I squished the apple with the back of a spoon as I didn't want apple chunks in the jam but you could leave them. Check the set of the jam by spreading a teaspoon of jam on your frozen saucer. If you can run your pinky finger through the jam puddle and the furrow remains the jam is done. Also taste at this point, to see if you like the balance of flavors. Pour into hot jars, apply lids. Process in a hot water bath for ten minutes. Remove from water and let cool.

The beginning

The idea for this blog has developed slowly over the past six months. The story begins with a conversation I had with a friend about skill sharing parties at a birthday picnic and it was further cemented while brewing beer with another mate. I was lamenting the loss of the traditional passing down of skills from parent to child, the break in the cycle. I pinpoint this break to the 60’s when women were escaping kitchens and taking up places in the workforce. The development of instant foods and household gadgets allowed women to be a homemaker and have a job. While this was extremely liberating, it started the breakdown of self-sufficiency: baking your own bread, growing your own vegetables, sewing, knitting, all was pushed aside as modern technologies and packaged goods made these things ‘unnecessary’. A couple of generations passed and the ‘secrets’ were lost.

Now, I talk to people about making my own bread and they react like it’s some form of alchemy, a strange science or magic, and not the relatively simple mixing of a few ingredients. They’re scared that it will be ‘too hard’. This cripples people with fear and allows book publishers to make a lot of money teaching people how to master these ‘hard’ skills. I developed quite a rant while brewing with my mate and realised that I felt quite strongly about this. I think it is completely possible that this break in the cycle can be fixed. While we all can’t necessarily turn to our parents to ask them to teach us, we have new tools to pass on skills. Next month a friend and I will host a skills share party. An opportunity to share what we know and have learned with others in exchange for things they have learned.

We have started the ball rolling by emailing our friends asking them to add something to two lists: one titled ‘Skills you are willing to share’; the other ‘Skills you'd like to gain’. I received an alarming number of emails from friends saying “I don’t have any skills”. While it’s really sad that people feel that way, everyone seems really excited about learning something new. This blog will chronicle our progress and hopefully inspire others to share their skills and learn new ones. My friends will join me here, posting and sharing their ideas. We hope you will join us!

Lucy