During the hot, dog days of summer our dining style becomes more casual and relaxed. The gardens and farmers’ markets are bursting with fresh fruits and vegetables that are a delight to devour during the intense heat, and they come with the added benefit of being healthy for your body.
My favorite part of summer eating is the juicy season of berries: succulent strawberries, red, ripe raspberries and wild blueberries. These fruits are filled with flavonoids which help fight many serious illnesses, while increasing the blood flow throughout the body, regenerating skin and decreasing sensitivity to light, making the skin look brighter and improving texture. As an added nutritional benefit, berries are also packed with fiber at about 8 grams per cup.
Now that the wild blueberry harvest is in full mode, my refrigerator (and soon freezer) is stocked with quarts of these tiny, intensely flavored berries. Wild blueberries are a quick, easy, nutritious fruit enjoyed by all generations. Baked into muffins, pies or cobblers, sprinkled on granola or in salads with goat cheese and maple balsamic dressing, or used as a marinade for grilling meat.
Wild Blueberry Ketchup is a kitchen staple in our household. In a former chapter of our lives, my husband, daughter and I operated a specialty food company whose mission was to put “more Maine food on Maine plates.” As Maine is the largest producer of wild blueberries in the world, the fruit was a natural to develop value-added products for the consumer to enjoy all year.
The wild blueberry has a fascinating history and was first grown on a large scale by the Wabanaki native people who burned-pruned and harvested fields of wild blueberries. By the late 1600’s English settlers had arrived to the coast of Maine, and blueberry fields were picked as a public privilege. During the Civil War, wild blueberries were shipped by sea to Union troops. In 1886 canning of wild blueberries was introduced, and by the 1950’s there were 21 canning factories in Maine. Today, there are 480 wild blueberry farmers in Maine and 99% of the crop is frozen and available in markets all year.
The recipe for Wild Blueberry Ketchup is simple to prepare and makes into a delicious condiment. Ketchup or “catsiup” is a sauce that dates back to imperial China in the 1600’s, where it originated as a fermented fish sauce. Food historians trace the evolution of tomato ketchup to 1812 when the recipe first appeared. By the turn of the century Heinz had developed the formula for the ketchup we know today, a sweet and sour product in a bottle that goes with everything.
In our household, Wild Blueberry Ketchup is delicious with burgers and fries, as a sauce for grilled meats and vegetables or as a marinade for duck, pork or chicken. Our special indulgence for visiting guests is always Clam Fritters made with Crockett Cove surf clams served up with a generous amount of Wild Blueberry Ketchup. The Maine wild blueberry is a testament to the state’s agricultural history and natural beauty. Canning Wild Blueberry Ketchup to enjoy this winter is simple, just like packing summer in a jar.
Wild Blueberry Ketchup
Ingredients
- 1 pound wild Maine blueberries about 4 cups, fresh or frozen
- 1 cup chopped onion
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup white cane sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground mustard powder
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 4 teaspoons chopped candied ginger about 3 cubes
- 2 teaspoons finely minced fresh ginger
Instructions
- Gather your ingredients and tools.
- Add ingredients to a medium heavy pot over moderate heat.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.
- Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the onions and wild blueberries are soft, about 15 – 20 minutes.
- Using an immersion blender, or the bowl of your blender, puree the mixture until smooth. Depending upon your ketchup preference, small chunks are fine.
- Pour into 2 – 1 cup jars. Makes 2 cups ketchup.
- Store in the refrigerator. Or to make a shelf stable product, heat the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Allow to cool and check the seal. Store in the pantry until opening.
- Serve as a condiment...
- or use as a marinade!
