Yesterday we had a fantastic opportunity to offer a free workshop for a group of Congolese families at the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle Farm. It was a great mix of people, from little kids to older adults, and even some of the volunteers at the farm got to join in. The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is a fantastic organization with countless programs, but one we learned about through doing this workshop is that they have set aside a few rows at their farm out in Raleigh for these families and the food they produce helps to feed about one hundred people.

Whenever we do workshops at farms we try to figure out what produce is most plentiful or, in many cases, in excess.  From there we research recipes, trying to keep in mind the global origin of the fruit or veggie, and what preserves recipes, spices or traditional recipes of those cultures.  When we asked the Farm Manager, Sun, what they would have around this time of year he told us they would have plenty of beets.  We got to researching traditional beet preserves and came up with eingemacht, a traditional Jewish/Eastern European recipe for beet preserves.  Generally it includes blanched almonds or walnuts, but in keeping with trying to use what we had, we ended up skipping the nuts. The recipe makes a nice, sweet jam that has a beautiful red color.  When it bubbles the foam is bright pink, which the kids loved.

Here’s the recipe:

Beet Jam

Yield 10 half-pint jars

9 lbs. beets, peeled
6 cups granulated sugar
6 lemons
2 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp ground cardamom
1 pinch salt
fresh basil to taste (the basil on the farm had been killed by the frost, so we omitted it when we did the workshop)

Sanitize your jars and lids either by placing in boiling water or in a hot dishwasher.
Boil the beets for about 1 hour until they have softened enough to stick a fork through them. Drain and set aside to cool.
Once they are cool enough to handle, cut the beets into small pieces. Place in a large saucepan with the sugar and about 1/3 cup cold water.
Heat gently, stirring frequently to make sure the sugar doesn’t stick to the bottom.
Plunge the lemons into boiling water for five minutes and drain. Peel off the skin and pith and cut into small pieces.
After the beets have been cooking for 1 hour, add the lemons. After another 30 minutes add the ginger, cardamom and salt.
Bring a pot of water for your canning bath to boil on the stove. You will need enough water to cover your jars in 2 inches of water.
Continue to cook until thick (about two hours total). To determine if the jam is ready, drop it onto a chilled spoon to see if it gels.
Just before ladling the jam into your warm, sanitized jars, drop the chopped basil in.
Process in boiling water with lid closed tightly for 12 minutes. Remove and let sit overnight before storing in a cool, dry place.

With all the beets we used for the jam we ended up with A LOT of greens. Beet greens are actually pretty mild, and we ended up making a nice, simple stir fry with a little olive oil and soy sauce.  We forgot plates, but had brought some homemade bread from home, so we ended up having open-faced sandwiches with the greens.  We even got some of the more daring kids to try it with a little success… although there were a little more excited about the sweet jam.  It was interesting to find out that a lot of the Congolese parents said they weren’t too familiar with beets- apparently they’re not really grown or used over there.  They were excited to find out, as I would bet a lot people native to the U.S. don’t know either, that you can use the entire beet plant, greens included.  When we finished dishing out the jam there was a little more than we had jars for, so we ended up getting to try some right then on the rest of the bread.  It was a little gooey since it was still warm, but it was sweet and delicious!