Jam, Jam and More Jam

First step:  Fight the thorns, slopes, bugs, heat, to pick the big blackberries that are so abundant and so seedy that most people reject them.  I spent most of the morning picking berries along the edges of our property and ended up with about 2 gallons of berries.

Years ago, I found a really great device for removing the seeds - It's called a "Squeezo" - The berries go into the hopper, and then are squeezed by pushing them through an auger - where the juice comes out through the screen, and the seeds are pushed out the end.

It's messy - so I set up outside on the picnic table to do the squeezing.

I ended up with enough juice for two batches of jam.  I use the same recipe for all my jams - I first of all ignore all the warnings on the pectin package that says "DO NOT ALTER THE RECIPE".  I use eight cups of fruit,

which I pour into my biggest saucepan - which covers about the bottom two inches of the pan.

I add one package of pectin for low sugar jam, and mix it thoroughly into the fruit.  Bring the mixture to a full boil on high heat.  Then add 8 cups of sugar and stir in until it is all dissolved, returning it to a full boil.  Boil for one minute.

This recipe makes approximately 4 quarts of jam - sometimes 3 or 3 1/2 - so I get an assortment of clean jars in various sizes and fill them with the hottest water I can get out of the tap and leave them in the sink while the jam cooks.  I put the lids I think I'll need in a pan of water and let them boil while the jam cooks.

When the jam is cooked, I empty the water out of the jars and pour the jam into them.  I carefully clean the top of each jar and put the lids on as tight as I can and turn the jar upside for a couple of minutes. 

This makes all the jars seal for some reason.  If I valued my time at anything, this would be some very valuable jam.  But there is the entertainment factor to consider - I really enjoy making jam!

Working on the Orchard

My aunt used to call me a "frustrated farmer" - and maybe she's right!  I can't seem to stop myself from agricultural pursuits - even now when it is just the two of us and we don't even eat that much.  Our latest project is the orchard.  We decided that planting an acre of vegetables every year for the deer, slugs, raccoons, bear, etc. was probably a bit excessive.  And we are getting older - all that bending, heavy weeding, etc. takes its toll on an old body. 

We had a fair start on an orchard, but it had been neglected and heavy weeds grew around the base of every tree.  Over the years the trees had grown, making it harder and harder to till between them.  After one day of getting whacked in the head by overreaching branches as I drove the tractor through the rows to do the spring tilling, I decided it was time to either take out the trees or make it easier to work.
Coincidentally, the PUD had trimmed the trees along the power lines for miles.  We had offered them a place to dump their mulch, and they brought us about 10 dump truck loads last summer.

I enlisted Ron's help, and he hauled bucketload after bucketload of mulch.  I laid out shade cloth and all the accumulated newspapers after I weeded around the base of the trees.  (Hopefully for the last time!)

When we were done, we had hauled and spread about 100 yards of mulch and covered the entire orchard area with about 6" of mulch.  Being a math person, I pondered our project as I worked and figured that 50' x 40' = 2,000 square feet - at 6" deep, should be 1000 square feet of mulch - and if my math formula from memory serves correctly, divide sq ft by 9 to get sq yards - which is 111 yards.  Could that be right?  No wonder my back was hurting!

So now we have 5 apple trees, 2 cherry trees, 1 pear with 4 varieties spliced to it, 2 plum trees, and 1 fig tree.  We also added two varieties of black berries to go with our existing raspberry and strawberry rows.  We have found that it is a lot easier to give away fruit than it is vegetables, and fruit is so much easier to take care of!

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It was a Blackberry Kind of Day

Every year I make jam for all my kids, grandkids, relatives and assorted friends.  I have always enjoyed making jam and the kids love it, so it is a fun thing to do.  My personal favorite is blackberry, but Ron has been diligently removing all the blackberry vines around our property so our resident blackberry source has dwindled.  

We noticed that when they rerouted Highway 9 just north of Arlington, they left a beautiful little paved area just off the main highway where blackberries drip down for about a mile from the hiking/biking trail to where the road used to be.  So we put on our berry picking gear (long sleeves, gloves, boots, hats, etc.) and set out early yesterday morning to pick berries.

Unfortunately, the highway department is widening the road near there and are using the berry picking area to park their vehicles, but we still found a place to park and began picking.  Then a nice local farmer came out to invite us to pick on his farm!

He had a nice long lane on perfectly level ground with a blackberry hedge all along one side.  The berries were big, clean and beautiful!

We picked for about an hour and a half and ended up with enough berries to keep me busy for the rest of the day.

That is a five gallon bucket!

At the end of the day, we had two gallons of frozen berries, all these jars of jam, and a few scratches all over our bodies to show for our work.