And what does one do with fresh strawberries?
Well this time I made homemade jam!
This was a feat for me because the only other time I have made jam was with my mother by my side. She came from a family of ten children, and my grandmother made jam making into an art. So finding myself across the country without either of them to guide me, I spent a lot of time on the phone, reading directions, and cooking it up with a friend.
This friend was a little adventurous, and decided to make hers with reduced sugar. This meaning we bought special pectin, and only ended up using half a cup of sugar for each of our batches. Usually a batch of jam can requires up to 6 or 7 cups of sugar. Well guess what? It turns out that strawberries and apple juice are quite sweet on their own. These jars turned out great!
Now what to do with my left over strawberries? I'm so tempted to try the dried yogurt with pretzels thing. My great cousin left a comment on my last post with a recipe for this I would like to try.
Or maybe I could make fruit leather?
Eat them plain?
S
Last time my husband and I tried planting a garden on our balcony, we ended up with 1 inch long carrots and onions that were so tiny you had to bite down hard to get the taste out of them. This time we are keeping it simple.
Peppers.
And basil and oregano.
I am so excited about the herbs. I was completely flabbergasted when they sprouted like this. I could have sworn we only planted a couple of seeds, and they took forever to sprout. But maybe that's how they work?
I have a lot of farming to do before I become a pro...
5 comments:
I would love the jam recipe with the reduced sugar. My mom made wonderful jam, but it calls for a lot of sugar also, so when I eventually start making jam I was planning on searching for recipes that didn't call for so much sugar. The apple juice idea for sweetening sounds like such a good idea.
I found your Blog through Etsy and so happy I did. You are VERY clever making jam, my Granny used to make all the jams and marmalades we ever had from fruit grown in her garden in England, I have not yet tried it myself!! They also look so cute with the ribbons round them. I even tried growing carrots last year but right in our ground and they still only came up at 1"!! So it's not just you ;) Have a great weekend, Catherine x
Way to go on homemade jam! I love the ribbons you have on the jars, so cute! My sister-in-law does a lot of the reduced sugar canning and it's worked out great for her. Can't wait to see what you come up with next! As for strawberries, Dan & I like to dry them and put them on cereal in the mornings.
You guys are so encouraging! I hope jam making is in your future!
Your jam jars are SO stinkin' cute! And I think it's both humorous and resourceful that you are using Cool Whip containers to grow herbs.
Post a Comment