Monday, May 31, 2010

Strawberry Jam Canning Session!



Saturday morning, I woke up early (7am), which is very uncharacteristic of me. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE sleep and sleeping in! Why the motivation, you ask? Strawberry picking! I decided to go to Lakeview Farms, pretty much the only place within 45 minutes where I could find (non-blackberry) berry picking. A couple girls from Yelp met me at my place at 7:30am and we headed off after enjoying some delicious bagels.

I had done extensive research on the farm before going, and decided to go that early so they wouldn't run out of berries. I also called the day before, which they said to do to make sure there was still picking. There was.

We finally were nearing the entrance and drive up, only to see a sign that says "Sorry, we are closed" in the entrance. WTF? We pulled over and called and they were already picked out! BUMMER. We had to turn around.

Now, I had my mind SET on making jam/preserves that day. So I cheated and bought some strawberries from a local produce stand and got started!

I wanted to go chemical free and sugar free, so I found a great recipe on the internet using agave nectar instead of sugar. Here is my ingredient list:

- 3lbs Strawberries
- 2-3Lemons
- 1/2 cup Agave Nectar
- Squirt of Honey
- 1 Apple



I also bought a water bath canner and many jars to preserve my stuff from this season in:



Here are the steps I took:

1. Sterilize five 1/2-pint jars by boiling them in a hot water bath for five minutes or so.
2. Wash and stem strawberries.
3. Put strawberries in a bowl.
4. Stir berries, lemon juice (start with 2 lemons, adjust to taste), agave nectar, and grated apple together in a pot over medium-high heat.
5. You can mash the mixture with a potato masher, but I decided to use my immersion blender to get it more liquified but still with some chunks.

6. Bring to a full, rolling boil and boil at least 10 minutes, or up to 15 minutes. Adjust sweetener to taste after 5 minutes and again after 10 minutes. To test for jelling, put a white plate in the freezer when you start cooking the jam; when ready to test, put a teaspoon of jam liquid on the plate, and return to freezer for one minute. You should be able to make a line in the jam with your finger that doesn't fill back in at all. Mine did after awhile but I don't mind a little liquid!
7. Remove a jar from the water, ladle hot fruit mixture into jar leaving 1/4" headspace, wipe threaded rim of jar clean, and attach lid and band. Repeat until all jars are full. I had EXACTLY enough to fill 5 half pint jars.

8. Process in a boiling water bath for 5-10 minutes. Leave undisturbed overnight or until completely cool.

9. TIP: Being a canning rookie, I wasn't sure if the seals were properly sealed when I pulled out the cans. After about 10 minutes, they all popped and were definitely concave!

Monday, May 24, 2010

New Obsession + My first Harvest!

New kitchen toys are finding their way to my cocina!

It's Ben's fault... he started it by surprising me back in March with an awesome new Kitchenaid mixer. The kind that mixes on its own, has many attachments, and has a bowl that comes with it. It's pretty much totally fabulous.

I've just added a couple more things to my kitchen repertoire. First, a food processor. My first goal: to make pesto with the abundant basil I have growing.

Second, a canning kit. Which leads me to my new obsession! CANNING! My next kitchen gadget will be a water bath canner. This weekend, I'm heading to Lakeview Farms to pick strawberries and raspberries. Then I'm having a canning party! Do I have much of an idea of what I'm doing? NOPERS! But I don't care. I'm gonna give it my best shot! Stay tuned for how it turned out...



On another note, yesterday I harvested my first item for consumption: lettuce! I made a delicious salad with it.

Home grown, organic lettuce. Plus some other stuff (not so organic or home grown!)

Paired with some Dr. Praeger's veggie burgers (the only ones that I will eat) and some Trader Joe's sweet potato fries (TO.DIE.FOR), it made the perfect warm weather meal!

These sweet potato fries are THE BOMB!

The garden is growing like mad - way bigger than in the last pictures even. I haven't complained about how much rain we've had because it's been beautiful for my garden. While weeding the other day, I realized that I have a small berry patch growing that I DIDN'T PLANT! Crazy. My squash is blossoming like mad and I even have fruit on one of the plant. Can't wait til the squash starts coming - we'll be up in our ears with it! Want some? Come on by!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Garden Update

My garden is finally in the ground!

I know it's been awhile since I updated but it's been busy. Some new things going on in my life are: my teaching assignment has changed (next year I'm at one school full time, YAY!), I started a gym regimen and got a personal trainer, and I've done a little traveling (Florida for pleasure, Columbia MO and Minneapolis for teaching related things).

Now, my energy is going towards gardening. It's been a slow go because the weather has been bad (2 weekends of tornadoes and big rains, and a couple weeks of fluctuating temperatures, some frost creating) but it looks like we're safe now!

I realized how many flower beds I have. WHOA. Lots of planting to do. I'm focusing on planting perennials in many of them for lower maintenance future Springs and then fruits and veggies in a couple places. Ben and I spent quite a bit of time raking all of the twigs and branches that fell during the winter. Ben got our new lawn mower up and running. It's awesome! It's called the Fiskars Momentum. It's made by Fiskars, which makes scissors. It's a reel mower- so not electric or gas. It appealed to us because of our "green" ideas and Ben thought he could use his muscle to propel it. He really likes it and it does a great job so far! I figure that it saves the environment and will only need some money put in each year or so to sharpen the blades, instead of the money we'd spend on gas or electric power.

My first projects were the bed in the front, in which I planted marigolds, and the large back bed by the pond. I have always wanted lilacs, so I bought two bushes to put there plus 3 little flowering bushes called magic carpet spirea.





We also have a lot of roses blooming. They were blooming when we moved in so I would imagine that they bloom all summer!



I ended up planting some of the things that I originally mentioned but the list is longer and more different! Ben's dad built me a raised bed, and I planted several things there, along with around the perimeter (he also brought his roto tiller and tilled it all!). I also expanded to inside the fence and have plans on tilling a little more later this season or maybe next year to make more space.





This is what I planted:

-Tomatoes (4 varieties)
-Green beans
-Lettuce (2 varieties)
-Broccoli
-Cauliflower
-Sweet red peppers
-Brussels sprouts
-Melon (canteloupe)
-Summer squash
-Zucchini
-Butternut squash
-Acorn squash
-Summer medley squash (comes in yellow, green, orange)
-Sweet lightening - an "in between" summer and winter squash
-Raspberries
-Strawberries (2 varieties)

I'm going to have A LOT of squash!



I also have many herbs:

-Rosemary (2 varieties)
-Mint (didn't plant it- it was there and is invading!)
-Lemon thyme
-Chives
-Sage
-Chamomile
-Oregano
-Summer Savory
-Parsley
-Basil - loads of it!
-Dill

I know I'm missing something here!

Just got a food processor and canning supplies, so I plan on being busy this summer. I will blog more as I do it- will have more time then!