Strawberries

Last weekend, T and I made a batch of lemonberry jam, our favorite.  The smell of these berries being rinsed off in preparation to make jam is just lovely.  That’s happy!

Blueberries

It’s been my experience that once I make that first batch of summer jam, the impulse to can more things grows stronger.  It’s like my inner Laura Ingalls can’t be stopped.  JT’s favorite jam is blueberry and the stack of fresh New Jersey blueberries at my local market was more than I could resist.  Just like that, four cups of blueberries became five jars of jam.

There are charming labels to mark the completed project.  They come from an Etsy shop, of course.

The completed jars were lovely to behold.

One of the jars headed straight for the fridge for eating later this summer.  The rest will be stored in my cool basement.  Come cooler weather, JT will heap this jam on homemade biscuits.  For all of his life, blueberry jam will taste like home.  

That’s pretty sweet.

Strawberry Jam

One of my local produce markets smells like ripe strawberries when you walk in the front door.  That’s the official cue: the jam season is upon us.

T and I piled our cart full of strawberries and lemon and set to work on Sunday and Monday  We make a lemon berry jam that is delicious.  Last year, we made more than a dozen jars and we ran out at Christmas.  This year, we plan to have even more jam at the ready for gifts.  

By the time we finished on Monday night, we had 23 jars of lemon berry jam just like these two jars.

Homemade jam is delicious.  Come a cold day in December,  this jam thick on a slice of bread brings back the delicious taste of summer.  That's happy!

Pop, Pop, Pop

I made apricot-pineapple jam last week —— 10 pots worth of delicious jam.

Making jam is one of the most pleasing elements of summer.  The smell of hot jam on the stove is heavenly.

When the pots of jam come out of the water bath to cool on the counter, the sound of the seals as they pop is one of the happiest sounds of summer.

These jars will be stored on the shelves in the basement, at the ready for warm slices of freshly-toasted bread, fresh scones, and Winter gift-giving.  That’s happy!

Food Friday: Blueberry Syrup

Last week, I made up a batch of blueberry jam and had some blueberries left over.  A normal woman would make some more jam or maybe bake a pie.  Instead, I opted to explore some recipes to make make and can blueberry syrup.  I love fruit syrup and thought that blueberries would be a good place to start.  Successful canning requires organization and precision.  Getting everything measured and ready to go makes the job a while lot easier and is essential.

Ingredients

6 cups of fresh blueberries, washed and stemmed

5 cups of white sugar

juice & zest of half a lemon

1/2 cup of water

Rinse the blueberries, stir in the water and then crush the berries.  I considered using a potato masher and doing this by hand before opting for getting out my stick blender and going to work.  The stick mixer made quick work of the job.

Mix the crushed berries with the lemon juice and the zest and heat over high heat.  Once the berries reach a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. 

At this point, if you have larger chunks of berries, you should press the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, to get smoother liquid.  My berries were plenty squished by my blender stick and I like a little texture in my fruit syrup, so I skipped this step.  

Either way, the next step is to add the sugar and bring the berry mixture to a boil again.  The mixture will begin to thicken.  Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often.  Then turn off the heat and allow the syrup to cool for a bit.

Pour into sterilized jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of the top.  

Secure lids and bands and process for 10 minutes, following the usual canning rules.  In my case, that's 10 minutes in the boiling water bath.

There are canning experts in the world and you look there for instructions.  Try Simple Bites Canning 101 or the Ball Canning website if you want high quality canning play-by-play guidance.

I used 12 ounce jars to store my syrup and this recipe filled three jars (it reduces a lot!).  The leftover syrup also went into a jar for the fridge and was served on pancakes shortly thereafter.  The remaining jars were set aside for a yummy breakfast sometime soon.

Food Friday: Apricot Pineapple Jam

Last summer's fiesta of canning found me making a small batch of apricot jam.  On a lark, I bought two pounds of apricots, which turned out to be enough for just 4 pints of jam.   It was amazing tasting jam and I went looking for more apricots only to find that the apricot season was over and the fruits were already gone from my store.

I mentioned the apricot jam experiment to my mom and she said that she adds pineapple to apricots to stretch out the amount of jam.  I was taken with the idea and resolved I would make apricot pineapple jam this season.  That is exactly what I did last week.

Neither my canning books or the Ball website that is my canning bible had a recipe for apricot pineapple jam, so I devised one of my own, which is pretty easy because most jams are just fruit and sugar.

Ingredients

4 pound of apricots

1 can of shredded pineapple, drained

7 tablespoons of pectin

8 cups of sugar, measured in advance.

The apricots should be scored with an X on the underside and then placed in a pot of poling water for about 3 minutes.  Remove the apricots, cool them in a bowl of ice water and then peel off the skin and pit the apricot.  Boiling will help to loosen the skin to make it easier to peel.  It's a messy job, but it comes along quickly.

Chop the peeled apricots and then mix them with the shredded pineapple.  Stir in the pectin and bring to a hard boil on high heat.  Add the sugar and stir, stir, stir until sugar is dissolved and jam is in a second boil.  Boil for 1 minute, stirring all the while.  When the jam is sheeting off the spoon, it's ready to be placed in the jar.

Hot jam should be ladled into sterilized jars and then processed.

I follow processing directions on the Ball canning website.  

I made 9 jars this time and it takes like summer on my morning toast.  That's happy!

My Ongoing Laura Ingalls Fantasy

One of the the things that T and I have in common is an interest in canning and food preservation.  Earlier this summer, we made strawberry jam.  It was delicious and we were hooked.  Soon after that, I bought some jar labels from Etsy and added mastery of home canning to my life list.  This past weekend, T and I made up a batch of peach jam.

Then we tried our hand at dilled green beans.

Jars of dill pickles followed.

Apricot jam was next.

If this commitment to homemade continues, it won't be long before I'm building my own log cabin and driving my horse and buggy to teach school in a one-room schoolhouse.  Somewhere in the attic, I can surely find the sunbonnet my mom made me for Halloween in the third grade.  Basically, I'm good to go.

All Jammed Up

 On and off, I have engaged in food preservation efforts.  I am a whiz at freezing but though I have helped others to do some canning and (of course!) read about it all the time, I've never canned on my own.  T is equally interested and about as experienced so….you see where this is headed, I hope.

This weekend, T and I decided to put all that book learning to work.  We canned 10 pints of strawberry jam and then, because we still had some strawberries, we made 6 pints of freezer jam.  We used a very simple recipe from Pioneer Woman, but the real help came from Ball Canning's amazing website.  The stove hasn't had this many burners lit since Thanksgiving.

The jam smelled amazing while it was bubbling on the stove.

All 10 pints fit nicely into the giant canning bath pot.

And here's the finished jam, jars properly sealed, and stacked up to fulfill my Laura Ingalls fantasies.

The jars came with labels and we slapped on a few of those. 

There's volumes more of these to be found at etsy, I see.  I think that we all know what that means.

On Sunday morning, T and I awakened to discover that we both dreamt about canning the night before.  We're hooked, I suspect.  There's more jam on the horizon and we're thinking of trying our hand at pickles, zucchini relish, and dilled green beans.   It's a very good thing there is a root cellar in the basement of Sassafras House.