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.

Spicy Peach Jam

www.sandhillsfarmersmarket.com

Growing up with a peach orchard next door,
I was spoiled with eating peaches straight from the tree.
We would fight the bees for the very best ones
and it was totally worth it. :)

This jam is a favorite of anyone who tries it.
There is something special about opening a jar and smelling summer...
especially on a cold and rainy day in Oregon.
It reminds us that we endure the rain,
so that our trees can produce these little golden beauties.
And we always endure.
Of course, the jam definitely helps keep our spirits high.

skinnyms.com

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped or coarsely ground pitted peaches

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 box of pectin

6 cups sugar

Directions:

1. Prepare peaches:  Peel the peaches or use a quick water bath to remove the skins. Then remove the pits and chop peaches into small chunks or run it through a food processor.  Just be careful...Only pulse a few times or until you get the consistency that you like.  I prefer to have a little fruit texture in my jam.

2. Measure 4 cups of peaches, add one box of pectin and a teaspoon of vegan margarine.

3. Bring the mixture to a hard boil, stirring continually.

4. Add pre-measured sugar and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

5. Boil mixture for 2 minute, continuing to stir constantly.

6. Remove from the heat and skim off the foam.

7. Add the spices and stir to combine.

8. Pour into sterilized jars and prepare according to National Center for Home Food Preservation.

9. Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10-20 minutes, depending on the size of your jars.
Yield: approx. 6 cups.

Blueberry-Applesauce

It's been a very fortunate summer for me,

because people have been extremely generous with their homegrown produce. 

I've had crates of apples and pears, 

so I've been making applesauce and pear-sauce.

But I wondered what other flavors I could make...

Thank goodness for Pinterest,

because I had pinned many different versions. :)

I love the different ideas from The Yummy Life! 

Since I had been gifted blueberries too,

it was an easy decision...

Blueberry-Applesauce!

Modified recipe from The Yummy Life

http://www.theyummylife.com/recipes/338

Ingredients:

- 4 lbs. apples (use apples that are already sweet)

- 2 cups blueberries 

- 1/2 cup sugar (you can omit, but my apples were a bit too tart)

- 1/2 cup water

- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice

- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract 

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients into a large stockpot.

2. Heat on medium height until the liquid begins to boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low. 

Stir every 15 minutes for about an hour.

3. Bring the apples/pears to a simmer and cook down until it has the correct "saucy" consistency. 

I use a potato masher to get the consistency that I like.

4. Canning: Fill sterilized pint jars to 1/2-inch headspace, 

then process in a water-bath canner for 25 minutes.

My house smells amazing and I just love hearing the pop, pop, pop of the jars sealing.  

Though this process took me all morning, the process was easy and the reward is great. 

 I can't wait to share these lovely jars with those I love.

Seriously! Look at the color!

Simple beauty. 

Happy Canning!

Capturing Summer

I don't garden myself.

I've tried and had success and failure.

Hardening is not my joy, the products of the garden are.

I love the food it produces and wish that I enjoyed it, but that's not going to happen.

I'm just sticking to what I enjoy, 

producing a beautiful and tasty product from the hard work of others! Ha!

I love to can.

I love everything about the process.

And it truly is a process.

For some (many) it seems monotonous,

But it's not to me.

I love looking at the beautiful jars lined up on my table.

I love the magical "pop" that tells you it's sealed correctly.

Pop, pop, pop!

That music to my ears.

I love the color or the fruit or vegetable.

I don't even really like beats, but they are one of my favorite foods to pickle.

The color is so vibrant and natural.

If someone can't appreciate nature and it's stunning beauty,

then none of this makes any sense.

Seriously, look at how pretty these are!

Canning creates a beautiful product,

and captures a little bit of summer for later.

I love opening a jar in the middle of winter and smelling the fresh berries.

For that moment it's not raining, or chilly,

it's summer again.

How fabulous is that?!

I've been canning like crazy.

So far I've canned the following jams;

Strawberry

Raspberry

Marionberry

Boysenberry

Triple Berry (raspberry, marionberry, boysenberry)

Blackberry

Blueberry-Lime

Apple Butter

Flavors that are coming soon;

Spicy Plum

Peach

Huckleberry

Pear

Cherry

Man, that's a lot of jam!

But mostly it's a lot of summer captured for use later.

And that makes me really happy. 

Happy Canning,

Lori

Just Beet It

 Or just beat it!

Versions of of "Beat it!" run through my head as I pick out different colored beets.

Michael Jackson

Fall Out Boy

I like these beats...but not others.
See, I'm not really a beet fan.
I know, I know.
Yes, they're good for you.
Yes, they provide vital nutrients.
But you see, I don't really like them.
My mom does though...and so do people that I care about.
So I pickle beets.
I tried a couple different pickling recipes, and liked them both.
But what I like most of all was a combination of both.
Oh no! Am I starting to like beets?!

Spiced Pickled Beets
Recipe modified from Bon Vivant by Candace Shaw

Ingredients:

6 lbs. beets

1 medium onion- sliced

3 cups apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon pickling salt

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup water

1 cinnamon sticks

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. ground allspice

Clean, sterilized jars and lids

Directions

1. Cut leafy greens and stems off beets; place beets in a pot.
2. Cover with water and boil until fork tender.
3. Cool beets, and remove skin (skin will peel away easily with your fingers).
4. Slice beets.
5. Combine vinegar, salt, sugar, spices, and water in the pot. Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes
6. Place slices of beets and onion alternately into sterilized, hot jars.
7. Pour vinegar mixture over beets and onions.
8. Remove bubbles by running a knife around the edge of the jar.
9. Prepare according to National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Store for at least a week to allow the pickling to take effect, then enjoy.

Or if you're like me, give them to someone who will enjoy them.

But seriously...how beautiful are these?!

Wow!

Something this beautiful, must be tasty. 

I think I might have to give these another try.

Spicy Plum-Pear Jam

 

Plums...tasty summer time treat or a nuisance collecting wasps?

Growing up we had a plum tree by the barn.

And each summer I would try to avoid that path

because the wasps would be swarming the area. 

Plums would be scattered around the ground,

and the bees would be having a summertime sugar party.

 

But I have heard that plums have other purposes...other than wasp collecting.

So to help change my mind about plums and their uses, I decided to give them another try.

And what always seems to work out well for fruit in my world?

Jam.

Beautiful sweet, loving jam.

And plums definitely added a new delicious texture to my jamming.

 

Spicy Plum-Pear Jam

Recipe modified from Taste of Home

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

3 cups chopped or coarsely ground pitted plums

1 cup chopped or coarsely ground peeled pears

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 pouch of liquid pectin

5-1/2 cups sugar

 

Directions:

1. Prepare plums and pears:  Place plums and pears in a large stock pot and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once it reaches a hard boil, let it boil for 5 minutes.

2. After fruit is prepared, stir in sugar and bring the mixture to a hard boil again.

3. Add liquid pectin, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

4. Boil mixture for 1 minute, continuing to stir constantly.

5. Remove from the heat and skim off the foam.

6. Add the cinnamon and stir.
 

7. Pour into sterilized jars and prepare according to National Center for Home Food Preservation.

8. Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
Yield: 6 cups.

Now, I know that I said that I don't like plums, 

but this jam definitely changes my mind about them.  

Even for someone like me, this jam is delicious.

So go ahead and ask your neighbor if you can pluck a few plums from their tree

and give this recipe a try...you'll find it just as tasty as I did.