Apricot Lavender Jam

The lavender in this Apricot Lavender Jam adds a faint floral note - an unexpected and delightful addition. Recipe yields 2 half-pint jars.

For many years, J and I have subscribed to a CSA box from a local farm. Each week throughout the summer we’ve received delicious fresh veggies - always a surprise, and always so fun to find recipes to use them.

This summer, we decided not to subscribe to our beloved CSA box, since we will be on honeymoon for a good chunk of the summer. We decided to put more effort into our rooftop veggie garden, and created a serious planting schedule that would keep us in constant supply of lettuce and salad greens, carrots, beets, snap peas, etc. It’s been working great! Although I do miss the vegetable surprises that keep my meal planning on its toes!

The one thing that I always wished our CSA box had was fruit. So this summer, when I found a fruit ordering service that delivered stone fruits from the Okanagan region, I was thrilled! (Thanks sis-in-law!) I signed up in a heartbeat.

Which leads me to the reason as to why I found myself buried in 10 lbs of apricots. Happily buried, I might add. 😉

We’ve been eating apricots with our oatmeal, apricot crisp, apricot galettes, apricot muffins - and then, to finish off the box of apricots (and to make way for my next delivery of 10 lbs of nectarines!), I decided to make jam. But not any old apricot jam - Apricot Lavender Jam.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

IT'S RHUBARB SEASON! Rhubarb is such a unique fruit - so tangy and versatile and truly signifies the arrival of Spring. Here I've captured the flavours of Spring in Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.

IT’S RHUBARB SEASON! Rhubarb is such a unique fruit - so tangy and versatile and truly signifies the arrival of Spring. It reminds me of being a kid and playing in my grandma’s back yard where she grew huge rhubarb plants with leaves the size of my entire little body. Of course, as a child, I could care less about her rhubarb plants - I was more intent on picking the sugar snap peas or raspberries or grapes.

In my dreams I would have a yard (hahaha! Having a yard is actually a laughable concept, given that I live in a city where real estate prices are sky high!) full of fruit trees - and would be able to preserve all fruit to enjoy year round. As a kid I used to dream about living on a farm - and still to this day, I can’t say I disagree! As long as the farm has my dream orchard 😉

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Strawberry Sticky Buns

Strawberry Sticky Buns are like soft fluffy pillows rolled together with gooey strawberry jam, and drizzled with a tangy lemon glaze.

STICKY BUNS.

SO YUMMY IN MY TUMMY.

I normally make regular ol’ Cinnamon Rolls, but this time I decided to put a Valentine’s Day spin on my go-to recipe and use strawberry jam as the filling - because all things pink and red are Valentine’s Day festive, right?!

These Strawberry Sticky Buns are like soft fluffy pillows rolled together with gooey strawberry jam, and then drizzled with a tangy lemon glaze.

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Spiced Apple Butter

I will admit to not knowing what Apple Butter was until approx 3.5 weeks ago when J went across the border to Murrica (ahem - the USA) and brought me back Pumpkin Butter from Trader Joe’s. J loves to bring me back food treats when he goes to the US (what a good fiance!) - usually it’s huge blocks of cheese, but this time - PUMPKIN BUTTER FOR THE WIN.

Anyway. Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Butter is amazing, and you should buy it if you haven’t already. It inspired me to create my own “butter” - but pumpkin sounded too tricky, so here we are with Spiced Apple Butter.

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