My Jam Berry Party

Most people that know me,

know that I adore canning.

I love the entire process...

the smell of the fresh berries,

the heat of the berries cooking,

the sweet sugar,

and then the best part...

the pop-pop-pop of the jars sealing themselves.

When I hear that sound,

I know that summer has been saved and

people will be enjoying a little bit of summer 

on any day of the year.

There's a very simple joy in the process.

I also love that I know everything that is in those jars.

I know the farms that grew the berries,

I know the amount of sugar,

and I know that it's been made with all the love that I can squish in there.

Also, I know that with each jar

not only are people enjoying the goodness of homemade jam,

but they are doing something very good.

You see, I don't jam to make money...

nope...not at all.

I jam to raise money for my heart projects.

All of the profits go to help animals.

Often the money goes directly to Fences For Fido

to help us unchain dogs around Oregon and SW Washington,

other times it goes to a need that I see in the community like

Oregon Humane Society, Strut Your Mutt, or P.A.W.S.

Currently, I'm saving money to help stray dogs get medical help and their forever homes.

This is a big goal,

but I'm hopeful that all of this jam will make the difference 

in lives of precious souls that I don't even know yet!

Have I tempted your heart and tummy yet?!

Well, if not, maybe this list of jam flavors will.

• Strawberry
• Raspberry
• Blueberry-Lime
• Blackberry
• Prickleberry (Raspberry and Blackberry)
• Triple Berry (Strawberry, Raspberry, and Blackberry)
• Berry Field (Strawberry, Raspberry, Blueberry, and Blackberry)
• Peach
• Blushing Peach (Peach with a kiss of wild blackberries)
• Peach Pie (A taste of peach pie in each bite!)
• Vanilla Maple Bourbon Peach
• Peach Bellini (Peach with Champagne)
• Apricot
• Cherry
• Pear-Cardamom

I make a variety of sizes of jam, but each flavor has a very limited amount of sizes available. 

It is really first come, first serve.

I only make jams at the peak of freshness, so that limits the supply greatly. 

If there is something that you would like,

don't hesitate to have me hold them for you. 

I'm happy to do that. :)

4 ounce = $2.00 (extremely limited!)

8 ounce = $4.00 (most popular size)

12 ounce = $6.00 (limited)

16 ounce = $8.00 (limited)

Bruce Degen - Jamberry Poem & Berry Jam Recipe

Amazon link

"One berry, two berry, pick me a Blueberry !"
"Hatberry, Shoeberry in my Canoeberry;"
"Under the bridge and over the dam,"
"Looking for Berries - Berries for Jam !"

"Three berry, four berry, Hayberry, Strawberry -"
"Finger and Pawberry, My Berry, Your Berry;"
'Strawberry Ponies and Strawberry Lambs,"
'Dancing in meadows of Strawberry Jam !"

"Quickberry ! Quackberry ! Pick me a Blackberry !"
"Trainberry, Trackberry, Clickety-Clackberry;"
"Rumble and Ramble in Blackberry Bramble,"
"Billions of Berries for Blackberry Jamble !"

"Raspberry, Jazzberry, Razza-matazz-berry !"
"Berryband, Merryband, Jamming in Berryland..."
"Raspberry Rabbits and Brassberry Band,"
"Elephants skating on Raspberry Jam !"

"Moonberry, Starberry, Cloudberry Sky - "
"Boomberry, Zoomberry, Rockets shoot by !'
"Mountains and Fountains rain down on me,"
"Buried in Berries, what a Jam Jamboree !"
Bruce Degan, 1983

Happy Jam Berry enjoyment to YOU!

Pear Butter- A Look Back

I'm not sure how I let this post slip through my fingers,
but it did.
As I was cleaning and organizing my digital life here in blog world,
I discovered that this yummy post about my delicious
and new favorite butter recipe was overlooked.
Geesh!
This is just not right at all.
To try and fix this grotesque error,
here is a look back at a post written at the end of the summer.
Enjoy!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

My summer of gifting continues,

And I'm not the one giving things away this time...

Well, at least not yet. ;)

I love to give,

but it's fabulous when people give me things 

that I can use in my quest to preserve the season.

Though I was thrilled to get a crate of pears,
I knew that my hands were going to pay a price for preserving the little beauties.
And they did.
In fact, I believe that today is the first day that my fingers
are not sore from the hours of peeling.
In case you weren't aware,
there really isn't a good way to handle pears.
Sure you could try the hot water trick that you use for peaches,
but I found that the pears have to be too soft to make it work.
Really, you just need a good, sharp peeler
and a lot of time.
A LOT of time.
This was not a quick project.
In fact, I peeled one day,
and then made sauce and butter the following day.

My fingers may disagree,
but the deliciousness of this butter was worth it.

Crockpot Pear Butter
Recipe Modified from Tammi Lee Tips

Ingredients:
Pears (enough to fill your crockpot)
1 cup Orange Juice
1 cup sugar (can be omitted)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Directions:
1. Peel and peel and peel the pears.
2. Add 1 cup of Orange Juice to your crockpot. (Add the sugar at this time too.)
3. Add pears to fill the crockpot to the top.
4. Turn on the crockpot to "high" for an hour, then turn in down to low for 10 hours.
5. Stir in the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
6. Remove the lid for an hour or two to get a thicker consistency and to let the spices enrich the fruit.
7.  Follow the processing steps from The National Center for Home Food Preservation below.

Processing:

If this is your first time canning, please read up on the process at the The National Center for Home Food Preservation website. http://nchfp.uga.edu/
FYI- I process half-pint and pint jars for 10 minutes.

Simply Tomato-Basil Sauce

Whew! 
I feel like I can finally sit down this week and write on my beloved blog.
My life of a teacher in a middle school has been crrrr-aaa-zzzzy!
Seriously, crazy.  Coo-Coo.
I'm not sure if it's the quick shift from sunshine and hours of playing on dry grass,
to soggy lawns and thundering rain that did it...
but there has been a shift into a different layer of hormonal teenage energy.
Or was there a unique lunar event that I'm not aware of?
It's hard to know when working with the temperamental group called teens.

When I arrive home from the ups and downs of my day,
I like to keep life simple.
Well, simple, fresh and delicious is how I like things.

I've been collecting and freezing fresh tomatoes from local friends
and their family gardens for the last few weeks.
I knew that I wouldn't have time to can anything until school settled in for the year,
so freezing is the quick way to make sure I had the freshest ingredients for my sauce.
Plus, how could I turn down FREE, fresh, local, and delicious tomatoes?!
Now that would make me crrrraaaazzzy!
And I have enough crazy, coo-coo in my world.
Though things haven't really settled,
I'm settled enough to spend some extra time in my happy kitchen,
making a super simple tomato-basil sauce.

Super Easy Tomato Sauce
Recipe and Directions from Ball Preserving
More detail instructions and preservation tips on the website.
Follow the above link...really, it's good to know.

YOU WILL NEED:

• Tomatoes, cored
• Ball® Citric Acid or bottled lemon juice
• Salt (optional)
• Dried herbs (optional) I added basil, because I adore basil!

DIRECTIONS:

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids
2. Wash and sort tomatoes, removing any bruised or discolored product. Quarter 6 tomatoes and place in a large stainless steel sauce saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Using a potato masher, crush tomatoes to release juices, stirring constantly. While maintaining a boil and stirring to prevent burning, quarter additional tomatoes, adding them to the saucepan as you work. Make sure the mixture continues to boil vigorously while you add, stir and crush the remaining tomatoes. When all tomatoes have been added, boil, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes are soft and juicy, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Working in batches, press tomatoes through a fine sieve, food mill or Victorio strainer to remove skins and seeds. Discard skins and seeds.
4. Return mixture to saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to medium-high and boil until volume is reduced by at least one-third for a thin sauce. For a thicker sauce, cook until reduced by half.

Before filling each jar with tomato sauce, add lemon juice or citric acid to the hot jar in the quantity specified below:

• Pint: ¼ tsp Ball® Citric Acid or 1 Tbsp bottled lemon juice
• Quart: ½ tsp Ball® Citric Acid or 2 Tbsp bottled lemon juice

Add salt (optional) in the quantity specified below:

• Pint: ½ tsp
• Quart: 1 tsp

5. Add dried herbs (optional) to each jar.

6. Ladle hot sauce into prepared jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot sauce. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

7. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process pint jars for 35 minutes and quart jars for 40 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store. For each quart jar of thin sauce, you'll need about 5lbs of tomatoes.