Easy Apricot Butter Recipe
No matter what time of year it is, apricot butter is a tangy, sweet treat. Served on a soft, mild cheese like brie or ricotta alongside crackers it makes for an upscale addition to the charcuterie while remaining easy to make. Or serve with a fresh loaf of french bread for a simple treat.
Camilla Wynne joins us to share this recipe from her modern canning recipe book, .
Apricot Butter
I COULD GO ON AND ON about how glorious this butter is. Apricots are one of my very favorite fruits, and there?s something about them in this silky guise that?s extra special.
Materials
Immersion blender, food mill, food processor, or blender
Ingredients
- 4.4 lbs apricots (about 50 small) 2 kg
- 1 cup apricot nectar 250 mL
- 6 tbsp lemon juice 90 mL
- 4 cups granulated sugar 800 g
Make it!
- Pit and quarter the apricots. You should have about 13 cups (3 L).
- In a large pot, combine the apricots, apricot nectar and lemon juice. Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes or until the apricots are very soft and have begun to break down.
- In the meantime, prepare the jars and lids.
- Remove the apricot mixture from the heat and let cool for a few minutes before pur?eing. You can do this with an immersion blender, a food mill, a food processor, or a blender. Just don?t overdo it ? you don?t want the apricots completely liquefied.
- In a large pot or preserving pan, combine the apricot pur?e and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often. Boil, stirring often and gradually reducing the heat, until the setting point is reached (see page 17).
- Ladle butter into the hot jars to within 1?4 inch (0.5 cm) of the rim. Remove any air bubbles and wipe rims. Place the lids on the jars and screw the bands on until fingertip-tight. Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.
MAKES ABOUT SIX JARS (8 OZ/250 ML EACH)
TIP
If using fresh lemon juice, you?ll need about 2 lemons for 6 tbsp (90 mL) lemon juice.
Now run out and get a copy of for more delectable preservation ideas.
Preservation Society is a very personal, very particular preserves company. Its founder, Camilla Wynne, creates recipes filled with imagination and heart. Besides the sumptuous jam, jelly and marmalade recipes, there are recipes for syrups, marinades, chutneys, conserves, as well as a dozen recipes that use the original preserve recipe.
Courtesy of by Camilla Wynne, 2015 ? Reprinted with permission. Available where books are sold.
Everybody loves to have plants around. They bring you tremendous energy, clean up the air and help us relax and feel good. But how about moss? And how about moss as art? Recently, in the world of natural d?cor, reindeer moss has stepped up as an alternative to plants and flowers. 
Reindeer moss is actually a type of lichen that comes in a preserved form, which means it doesn?t require any maintenance at all! Creative people, heed this: the design possibilities are endless! Just to inspire you, I?d like to share some projects we did over the last years.
Mossart Tiles : The secret is the same with the ceilings as with the walls: you glue handfuls of the moss with hot glue onto sheets of sturdy corrugated plastic.
On a ceiling: Hatch Design, a firm in Kelowna, BC, has installed panels of spring green reindeer moss on their ceiling. They wanted the fresh look of the moss, plus the sound absorption capacity. The result is mind-blowing!
On a wall: by using the same principle, it?s not hard to install the tiles on a vertical surface. You can cover biiiiigggg surfaces or smaller ones. Tip : always think of framing the project somehow to hide the side of the tiles.
Mossart signs and logos: each fiber of lichen is just like a pixel on a computer screen: you can only create shapes that are detailed to a certain point. Overall, the result depends on the size of your project and the care with which you glue the moss.
Mossart frames: everybody?s got an old empty frame they don?t know what to do with. This could be perfect for a rustic or modern Mossart frame.
Mixing colors
The reindeer moss comes in 13 different colors, and I know that the artist in you is already wondering which shades will look best when mixed together. In the end it?s only a matter of taste, and hopefully the pictures you see here will inspire you!
Choosing which Color
You see that there?s a lot of green in what we?ve done, but for their kitchen this family chose Silver Grey, for a very eye-pleasing result.
The reindeer moss, harvested sustainably in Norway, is preserved using only natural products. First, the water in it is replaced with glycerine, and then the moss is dyed with food dye. Preserved means it is not live, and the versatile material can be played with in many, many ways ? have you seen the glass-top coffee table with moss underneath? Who doesn?t dream of having coffee on top of a bed of green reindeer moss in the comfort of their living room?
You can get bags of moss for your own creations on . Tip: it takes about 9lbs of moss to make 5 square feet of Mossart tiles!
About the Author
Fred Collay is one of the creators of the cool green-art design company . Fred and his partner, Nicolas Rousseau, offer innovative, creative, alternative indoor plant products and ideas. You can see a tour of the By Nature studio in Vancouver and .
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Welcome to my Play Garden! I believe that gardens should be for everyone, and this space is intended to be inviting and interesting, welcoming adults, children, and furry friends alike. Children love gardens just as much as adults do and a long-lasting appreciation for flora and fauna comes from sharing your garden space with them. 
Today, I?m happy to show some photos of the backyard play space that I have been building for my family and friends to enjoy. Keep in mind that growing gardens is a long-term project and this tour begins when the garden is in its infancy. The elements have been created and the plants chosen, but it will continue to grow and develop over the season and subsequent years. 
I have five gardens that I am currently working on:
- the backyard play garden,
- the front yard shade garden,
- the perennial herb garden,
- the vertical vegetable beds,
- and the ornamental shade garden and quarry.
Today the tour begins with the newly created play garden space in the backyard. 
When I moved into the house, all of the structure of the garden spaces and was finished and it was just the plants that needed an update. The trees were planned out well around the property to bloom in succession, bringing interest to the garden from early spring into summer. But the garden beds were full of 5-foot tall raspberries and roses and other thorny, green things that created a visual barrier as well as an unwelcoming feeling.
The worst thing I encountered, however, was that the soil was dead. Not a worm or microbe to be found. The plants had plenty of disease and struggled to thrive in this unhealthy soil. Even worse, the home garden renovators buried literally tons of construction material in the soil. I worked hard over the last three years to rebuild the soil (see how to do that ) and this year, finally, I was ready to plant!
The back garden bed, just off the main lawn in the back yard is 5 feet wide and 20 feet long. A plain rectangle that had two large trees flanking either side and an awkward vegetable garden strip. My goal for the space was to retain the current structure of the center lawn with three surrounding beds but remove the tall plantings, basal prune the trees and shrubs and remove any unhealthy or crowded plants. With the heaviness of the trees and shrubs lifted there was room for new perennials, annuals and vegetables down below. The new structure created visual room around the garden, expanding the overall living space.
I wanted to integrate play structures for my toddler so that the yard would be usable but also beautiful and educational. Creating elements like a table and chairs made out of found wood stumps, a hopscotch pathway through the middle of the garden, and low plantings (18? and under) that are decorative, , and occasionally edible, makes for an interactive garden space that becomes an extension of the lawn.
These were created by using method and laid in the garden forming a path that goes by bleeding hearts, blueberries, and bunny tail grasses until it reaches the table and chairs made out of wood stumps.
Above the table and chairs is a solar light chandelier which you can see how to make .
On the table, a tea kettle planted with succulents leads you to believe it is the perfect spot for a tea party.
More stepping stones were created throughout the garden beyond the hopscotch stones, using prints from leaves found around the garden. See how to make these stepping stones
In addition, a leaf from the large rhubarb that grows at the west side of the garden was used as a mold to create the stepping stone that sits at the base of the table and chairs. See .
Upon exiting the play space, there is a pot for digging with a wall of golden raspberries in behind for snacking.
Coming out of the garden you approach two bright red Adirondack chairs, beside the Japanese maple ?Bloodgood? that is planted in a large pot filled with . I plant strawberries wherever I have a free container. More on strawberries in containers and and .
My favorite place to relax is the hammock swing. Built off the deck with an arbor structure, this hammock swing is the perfect spot to enjoy the garden. The arbor is currently growing an evergreen clematis, although it can?t be seen yet. In time it will cover the arbor providing some shade and beautiful fragrance when in bloom.
Behind the swing, growing on the side of the deck is an grafted on. The espalier tree is only two years old, yet it is producing a few apples this year! In future years, I will continue to prune and train it to produce an abundance of apples in a small space. The branches will thicken and create more buds for more apples as the years go by, but the overall height, width, and shape will remain the same.
The stairs go up to the deck which overlooks the garden. Beside the deck you?ll find the perennial herb garden which makes for easy access for zipping down from the kitchen to get some fresh herbs. The herb garden contains rosemary, sage, thyme, mint, nodding onion, chives, a large fig tree, and even a small yuzu tree I was given as a gift. (See the perennial herb garden from my last house ). There are also a few hanging baskets with Tiny Tim Tomatoes and annuals sent to me from as part of their 2016 collection.
All of this in a small city backyard and I haven?t even shown you HALF of the gardens! You can see many of the projects that I have done around the space in the .
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