Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

Make most of mixed peaches, cherries, plums in easy conserve

Recipe: Tutti frutti summer conserve is versatile condiment

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED AUG 29, 2021

Conserve on toast on plate with fruit slices — This conserve works on bread or meats.

“Conserve” lives up to its name. This age-old technique makes the most of summer’s sweet odds and ends, creating a jammy condiment as versatile and varied as its ingredients.

Tutti frutti – or “all fruits” – combines an array of summer favorites – fresh or frozen. For this batch, I used fresh peaches, Bing cherries and frozen Italian purple plums (remaining from last year’s crop).

By tradition, conserve uses at least two kinds of fruit, cooked with sugar. A green apple provides any necessary pectin. Raisins and, if desired, nuts are added to the mixture along with orange zest and juice. The nuts provide texture to go along with the sweet-tart fruit.

If used, wine smooths out the fruit flavors and also helps meld the colors. Red wine intensifies the purple.

Some conserves are intentionally chunky and best used as a dessert topping or alongside grilled or roast meats. Ingredients in this conserve are finely chopped, allowing the fruit mixture and raisins to cook down into an almost smooth jam. That consistency also works on desserts or next to meats, but is just at home on toast, bread or crackers. Team it with brie for an easy appetizer, too.

The conserve can be frozen or water-bath

canned for later enjoyment.

Tutti frutti summer conserve

Makes about 3 half-pints (3 cups)

Ingredients:

1 orange

3 cups mixed fruit (peaches, plums, cherries, nectarines, pluots, etc.), pitted and finely chopped

1 Granny Smith or similar apple, cored and chopped

1/2 cup water or wine

½ cup raisins, chopped

1 stick cinnamon

2 to 2-1/2 cups sugar, depending on sweetness of fruit

¼ cup finely slivered almonds (optional)

Instructions:

With a zester or vegetable peeler, remove zest from orange. Cut zest into thin strips. Cut strips into 1/2-inch pieces. Set aside.

Juice orange pulp; set aside juice.

Use at least two varieties of summer fruit, fresh or frozen. Peel peaches, but otherwise fruit can be unpeeled. Pit and finely chop fruit. Put fruit in large heavy pot. Stir in orange juice and water or wine.

Core and finely chop apple. Add to pot.

Rehydrate raisins with ½ cup boiling water. Drain and chop. Add to pot. Add cinnamon stick.

Over medium heat, bring fruit mixture to boil. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer until fruit is soft, about 10 minutes. Add orange zest.

Add sugar to fruit; stir to blend. Increase heat and return briefly to boil. Reduce to simmer.

Simmer uncovered, stirring often, until mixture becomes jammy and will mound on a spoon, at least 20 minutes. Add water if needed to prevent sticking and scorching. Remove cinnamon stick. Stir in almonds, if desired.

Ladle hot mixture into prepared jars and seal Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Cool.

Conserve also may be stored in refrigerator for up to 1 month or frozen for up to 1 year.

(Photos by Debbie Arrington)

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

fruit recipes gardening preserving Sacramento cooking summer produce backyard produce produce management orchard fruit farm to fork

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Find our spring recipes here!

Local News

Thanks to our sponsor!

Sites We Like

Garden Checklist for week of May 19

Temperatures will be a bit higher than normal in the afternoons this week. Take care of chores early in the day – then enjoy the afternoon. It’s time to smell the roses.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. If you haven’t already, it’s time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.

* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Don’t forget to water. Seedlings need moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants.

* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Find our fall recipes here!

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Find our winter recipes here!