The 40 days and 40 nights of my liqueur de noix

At the end of July, I remember eyeing a few pilfering parrots (called ‘green bastards’ or GBs for short) in SJ’s walnut tree (the ones above are said parrots, just in a different tree) and tossing imaginary parrot-maiming rocks at them. The walnuts were little green orbs, dangling from gnarly black and white branches – unreachable without a long-armed branch clipper or very tall ladder. And at this early green stage, I really didn’t WANT to harvest them. But the GBs liked them just fine. And one by one I watched the green orbs disappear.

The sound of one jar sealing…

proto-liqueur du noix – walnut liqueur

*plink*

I love that sound. I love sitting on the couch and hearing that loud, satisfying *plink* come from the kitchen – a sound that says, “yes, you’re doing it right.” I love it so much that I’ve started a second food blog that will fill my home with that sound, every week, for the foreseeable future.  I’m both excited about this and a  bit anxious – I have a hard enough time keeping up with one blog.  But the need for info and interest in the revived art of canning and preserving made it a no-brainer.

So welcome to The Urban Canner!  I’m going to do my darndest to keep this one jam-packed, pun totally intended.