• California Bay Nut Brittle | Hitchhiking to Heaven
    Food, Holiday

    California Bay Nut Brittle

    This fall, I’ve been gathering, storing, and roasting our native bay laurel nuts. For Christmas, I decided to invent a recipe for bay nut brittle.

  • Strawberry Hull Tea | Hitchhiking to Heaven
    Preserves

    Saving the Strawberries

    Enjoy the high-summer ritual of freezing the best strawberries to use all winter long. You may also want to try drying the hulls to make strawberry tea.

  • Speaking of Silence | Hitchhiking to Heaven
    Words

    Speaking of Silence

    The silence spoke loudly of silence, and the rivers kept speaking, of rivers, of boulders and air.
    (Jane Hirshfield, “On The Fifth Day”)

  • Plum Strawberry Jam | Hitchhiking to Heaven
    Preserves, Sketch

    Plum Strawberry Jam

    I felt ready for flavors other than citrus and there were no fruit jams in the pantry. This is one of the times I’m happiest to have a storage freezer.

  • Citrus Smash Jam | Hitchhiking to Heaven
    Preserves

    Citrus Smash Jam

    In these moments of too much citrus fruit and too little time, the easiest, most satisfying thing I’ve learned to make is mixed, whole-fruit jam.

  • Preserves

    Pickled Black Mission Figs

    It was an onslaught of Black Mission figs that got me started canning; these pickled figs were the first thing I ever made.

  • Low sugar peach jam made with Pomona's Pectin
    Preserves

    Low-Sugar Peach Jam

    This low-sugar peach jam — pure peach using Pomona’s Pectin — lets you keep both the sweet stuff and the cooking time low.

  • What to do with blackberries you've picked
    Preserves

    What to Do With Blackberries

    Here are some ideas for what to do with blackberries if you, too, are the recipient of what promises to be this summer’s great bounty.

  • Morning glories on the back fence
    Garden

    Patience

    It’s one of those things that happens sometimes. You want something. You try for it and try for it, and you fail. You give up. (Or perhaps some less defeated word. You surrender. Let it go.) Then when you’re not looking, it moves into your house.