oregon berry preserves

It was 1848. Or quite possibly 1956.  We'd traveled by wagon train, lost half of our party to cholera, and drowned our oxen by fording the river.

With my windows down, the first wave of Oregon summer, I experience my metro stretch of the trail, up the Interstate-5 corridor toward Seattle.

Roadside berry farms beginning to show life.  Acknowledgement.  It has begun.

oregon berry preserves | 6 half-pint jars

6 cups seasonal berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, marionberries, raspberries)
3 cups sugar + an extra 1/4 cup
3 tablespoons pectin or half of one box
juice of 1/2 lemon

In a small bowl mix the pectin with a reserved 1/4 cup of sugar.  Set aside.

Mix the berries and 3 cups of sugar in a non-reactive pot until the juices macerate.  Simmer over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, while breaking down berries with a wooden spoon.

When bubbly, add the lemon juice and pectin + sugar mixture.  Stir until combined and cook for another 10 minutes - when the jam thickens and gels to your spoon.

Fill hot, sterile jars, seal with lids, and process for 10 minutes in a water bath canner.  Remove and cool on a teatowel until set.

ginger cookies + rosemary and sea salt

There is that lull in space and time - in Oregon - where the dreary mess of winter continues to no end. The fog is dense. The air is cold. The rain falls. Vegetation is still, stilted, and stunted.

But then I look out my window and admire the most admirable of all herbage. Something grows - my rosemary. Sort of a shrub. Not yet a tree. Evergreen.




Eat these near the ocean, wrapped in a flannel blanket, as the wind licks your face.

ginger cookies with rosemary and sea salt | makes roughly 2 dozen

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup molasses
1 heaping tablespoon fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped
coarse sea salt

Combine the flours, baking soda, salt and spices and mix well. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and molasses to the butter mixture and combine. Stir in the dry ingredients. Add the chopped rosemary once thoroughly mixed. Chill the soft dough in the refrigerator until firm - about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and arrange on a Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet with a few inches between each. Sprinkle each with a few granules of coarse sea salt. Bake for 10-13 minutes and, after cooling for 5 minutes, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.