Jars of Love

Jam, jam, jam!  I just can't make enough and to those who receive it, hopefully they agree! :0) The berries carefully picked for the latest batch of jam were...
Tayberries...

and Marionberries...

When I make jam, I really make jam.  Meaning, I make a lot of jam.  Jammin' is messy and requires a lot of supplies.  Therefore I like to make the mess, but if I can just have that mess for one day, then that's even better!

Jars!! :0)

The wide-mouthed, half-pint are my favorite!

Since I generally jam alone, I like to set everything up while the water-bath canner is warming up.  I have all of the jars and bands sterilized and waiting hot in the dishwasher.  All of the supplies are out on the counter...like I said...messy.

Some people like to use a food processor for their jam.  Me, I like to use the old-fashioned potato masher.

The potato masher, lets you, the "jammer", mash it to your liking.  I like my berries to still kind of look like berries.

When I make jam, I literally follow the direction in the Ball pectin box.  It's never let me down, and people love it!  The next few steps are hot...so be carefully!

I have burned myself a few times from the sputtering hot jam.  Like I said...be careful. 

Once you make jam the first time, you will have towels that are designated "jam towels."  I use these towels to cover the counter for ladling the jam in the jars and for the cooling stage.  They wash up pretty well, but there will always be a few stains.

Add the two-piece lids and place into the water-bath canner.

Set the timer according to the directions and your altitude.

Do you like my pink towel? It wasn't always pink!

If you are like me, and love the process of jammin',

you will repeat this process a few more times and then...

Jam is complete and ready to bring someone joy. 

When I picture someone opening my jam,

I like to picture sparkly confetti flying in the air.  :0)

BOOM! CONFETTI ATTACK!

Tayberries and Pedicures

~Hello Tayberry~

It's difficult to remember the which day it is during my summer vacation. (I know, I know...the thought makes you feel sick.  But I'm not going to lie...it's true!)  I track the summer days by which berries are ready to pick.  Strawberries, then raspberries, marionberries, blueberries, etc. Growing up around farms and snatching as many berries as I could shove in my mouth, I really thought that I have tried them all.  But what in the world is a tayberry?

Picking berries I wanted something new, shocking, I know. :0)  My niece Leanna and I went to the first farm, though delicious, they didn't have anything that I hadn't used before.  So we travelled a little farther down the road to Smith Farm.

Smith BerryBarn
24500 SW Scholls Ferry Road
Hillsboro
OR 97123
USA
http://www.smithberrybarn.com
(503) 628-2172

It's a spray-free, smoke-free, and pet-free farm.  I sure love the first two things, and I definitely understand the third! (No one wants a dog going potty on your berries! Though Murphy would NOT do that.) Plus they have goats and chickens to feed...bonus!

They had many berries ready to pick, raspberries, blackberries, but also on the list were loganberries and tayberries.  Now, we tried loganberries, and, well, to us, as Leanna accurately describe, they taste like shampoo.  So it was off to the tayberries aisle and me crossing my fingers that they were good. 

Not surprising, since I'm a teacher, I had to know a little more about the berry.  Thank goodness for the information tags located at the end of the row! (Love it!)  The tayberry was originally created in Scotland (Bonus! My mom will love that!) It's a cross between raspberries and blackberries, which are both berries that I love, so they can't be that bad!

The result: good, different, but good....less shampoo like. :0)

So, we picked, and picked...

These berries were a bit difficult to pluck off because of the VERY prickly vines.  My arms are still recovering.  I'm allergic to EVERYTHING...no really....every plant tree or weed in Oregon.  Aren't I lucky?  But it doesn't stop me from doing the things that I love and taking pictures of my niece and her rope bucket.

Awesome huh?  I think she should use it in her senior photo some day.  ;0)

After working our fingers to the bone, in the hot, hot sun (Oregon hot), we deserved a bit of pampering.  So it was off to the nail salon...

Our feet were gross!  I had Leanna picked out the color, which was very mild actually.  I was expecting something a bit more crazy when I gave her the choice.

I recommend that everyone end a berry-picking day like this...