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!

Picking Raspberries, Making Jam

A few years ago, I took out about half of my raspberries because there was too much guilt in not being able to use them all.  Then last year my old row of raspberries (about 30' long) didn't produce enough - so I transplanted starts to start a new row.

This year, both rows are producing - so I'm back into guilt mode.

Doing my best to keep up - three days into my raspberry picking season, I'm filling the pantry.  My grandkids will be happy!

A Busy Month

July and August are always the busy months for us.  This year we started July with a trip to Alaska, which set up back on our usual July tasks.  On top of that, we're getting ready to build a new house, so that has occupied a lot of our time.  Finally last week, we got our completed blueprints from the designer and set off to the County to apply for a building permit.  That's when we found that we need an appointment to make our application! Yesterday, we got the call with an appointment date:  September 2.  So we are hopelessly behind schedule on the building and reconciled to breaking ground next year. 

In the meantime, our son, Cam, and his family came to visit and we had a family gathering with most of the children and grandchildren.

 

A fun time for same age cousins to bond.

 

On to Omak, for a visit to our kids in Tonasket and to watch the Omak Stampede.  (My first selfie)

We had a good time - and held our breath as we watched the famous suicide run down this hill:

in the dark - and no one was hurt!

Home and back to work repainting all the docks, decks, benches and picnic tables.

And, of course, it's jam season:

We're starting to look forward to fall!



The Fruits of my Labors

Last year I read an article about making compost using dog food, cat litter, and alfalfa pellets.  I blogged about the procedure (How to make quick compost) and didn't feel that the project was all that successful.  Last year was a cold, wet, spring that lasted all the way to the 4th of July, and the quick compost raised bed was a slimy mess.  This year, that raised bed is amazing!  Everything I have planted in it is growing twice as fast as the rest of the garden.

This is the raised bed with the quick compost base - peas down the center, beets on the right and carrots and kale on the left.  Probably too densely planted, but everything is thriving.

I thinned the beets and cooked them for dinner along with the greens.

I pick greens nearly every day and use a couple in our fruit drink in the morning and cook some for me to eat in the evening.  Ron eats beets, but won't touch the greens.

This raised bed is doing okay too, but not nearly as well as the other one.

The pole beans are finally starting to climb on their trellis.  Strawberries behind the beans are producing about two quarts every other day.

Today I picked them and made a batch of strawberry jam.

I really love this time of year when the garden starts producing a variety of good things.

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.

Pantry Filling Time

It doesn't seem like I have done that much storing this year, but when I look at my pantry, I discover that I have been busier than I thought.

Starting the season with raspberries - jam and frozen berries resulted from many days of picking.  Now the old canes are cut out and the new ones ready for next year's crop.

On a visit to our kids' in eastern Washington, we came across fruit stands that are hard for me to pass up.  So on to stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, salsa, and nectarine jam.

Now my little garden is starting to produce, and I haven't even started on blackberries yet, so clearly I still have a lot to do.