Persimmons and Home Canning Basics

I have the pleasure of working with the Portland Fruit TreeProject throughout the year. They are a great organization, which organizes harvest parties for the large amount of fruit trees in Portland. Groups of volunteers harvest ripe fruit and a portion is donated to the Oregon Food Bank. Volunteers also take home a portion of the fruit, as does the owner of the property/fruit trees. On top of the harvest parties, they also organize canning and cooking classes to help people with ideas on what to do with… we’ll say 30+ pounds of Persimmons, for instance.

Enter Heather and Jason! We joined with the PFTP to teach a Persimmon Preservation class. We did a demo of one of my favorite persimmon recipes, Persimmon Chutney. It makes a great addition to a holiday gift basket and goes well on all sort of things. Jason prefers it on pork while I prefer it on a nice curry… or a spoon.

To help with the class, I put together a handout. Who doesn’t like a good handout? It includes three persimmon recipes as well as a basic guide to home canning. Credit where it is due, the basic guide came directly from My Pantry Shelf. It is incredibly well written and a great guide.

The three recipes are:

Persimmon Chutney

Persimmon Jam

Persimmon Cookies

Granted, persimmon cookies aren’t a canning thing, but it you have persimmons, you should 100% make these cookies. They are soft and chewy. On top of that, the bizarre science experiment that is persimmon and baking soda brings me a weird level of joy.

Beet Burgers - Gluten Free and Vegan

I don’t think I can eat enough beets and cauliflower. They might be my favorite foods. Both vegetables are incredibly versatile.

For this meal, I went very “American bar food” – burgers and hot wing. Shockingly, we were not watching sports that night.

For the hot-wings, I love the PETA Vegan Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower Wing – I have made them with a few different types of flour and find that brown rice flour is my favorite – this makes them vegan AND gluten free AND paleo (in some people’s interpretation of paleo). While I am not gluten free nor paleo, I have some dear friends who are both. Finding gluten-free, paleo, vegan recipes is an exciting challenge. I love food challenge.

The Beet Burgers are hands down my favorite burger ever. The recipe is super quick and easy too!

Note: if you go gluten free on the flour and bun, this is a great gluten free and vegan meal!

Ingredients:

3 whole beets – medium sized:  raw, peeled and grated

1 small onion, diced

2 Tbl chia seeds

1 Tbl flour (whatever kind you like, I love brown rice flour)

1 Tbl olive oil

1 tsp garlic granuals/powder

1 tsp onion powder

2 tsp dry basil (if you have fresh, use that instead. Nummers)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Oil for frying

Condiments and Buns – I love sprouts, avocado and vegan mayo/aoili on this amazing burger.  

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, stir well. Let sit for about 30 minutes.

Once the beet mixture has had time to mingle, heat about 3 Tbls of oil In a pan. Form the beet mixture into patties and place carefully in the oil. Let cook on that side for 4-5 minutes, until a good crust has formed. Flip and cook that side as well.

Place pattie on bun and add condiments.

Enjoy!

Serves 2-3, depending on burger thickness.

With the leftover beet mixture, I made little slider burgers and fried them. I then packed them for lunch the next day with some adorable vegan (but not GF) buns that I found. This is the slider bar at my desk at work: