Fresh Strawberry Jam

I haven't made Strawberry jam in years!
For one - I'm very allergic. I wasn't always. I love strawberries but when my immune system started crashing, I was in denial. Picking them gave me hives. Full blown hay fever sneezing, eyes weeping, itchy all over.
When my first food allergy test came back, I can't say I was surprised.
Secondly, even if I could eat strawberry jam, there is nothing to put it on.

I have been relying on family gifts to feed my husband. This has always been a quick and easy homemade gift to give. Yet, my cupboards were bare.

My strawberries are bountiful this year - as are the raspberries and blueberries. They are loving this drought we are in. Early to boot and all ripe one on top of the other.

I picked them this morning, afterwards, I soaped down my arms to keep the hives to a minimum.
Then I made the jam.

My family has always done it the simple way. We don't process in (water bath) canners, we just turn the jar upside down for five minutes to get the seal to work. This means everything needs to be sterilized hot. As in touch quickly so you don't get burnt HOT.

So you see my clean canning jars in assorted sizes simmering on the back burner.
The potato masher whose sole purpose is to mash strawberries or blackberries. (I use my little electric mixer to mash my potatoes.)
The funnel cup to get hot boiling jam into jars neatly.

The obscene amount of sugar. This was the pectin I had on hand. You can make strawberry jam without pectin - look online. However, since I hadn't made it in a while, I chose pectin to make sure of it setting up correctly. This pectin required seven cups of sugar! for five cups of mashed berries.

The ladle to dip into the hot jam. The tongs to grab hot jar lids. The hot pads to hold jars while the screw bands are tightened. The tile hot plate. . .

The tile hot plate was a wedding gift from my parent's neighbors. I use it primarily while canning but that thing has been one of the most useful wedding gifts ever. A big tile set into a wooden frame.

The little half-cup jars will be sent as presents. My mom & dad enjoy the smaller jar.
The bigger jars placed lovingly into my pantry cupboard.

Enough Tomatoes to Can

My first batch (Wednesday). By next week, I'll be swimming in tomatoes.

 For more info. on canning, go here.

Canadian Harmony Peaches

I picked 45 lbs of peaches Saturday.

They will take a few days to ripen enough to start canning them.

These Canadian Harmony peaches are spectacular for eating fresh. And they can wonderfully. The skins come off almost without a boiling water dip to speed things along and they are a freestone peach, meaning they separate easily into halves or quarters.

This year, when we went to Crater Lake for a camping trip, my brother brought along this campstove. I am completely in campsite lust for this stove and I can, oh- what's the word? {{Justify}} not only camp with this stove but I could also can my peaches outside on this stove. We were at 5000' altitude at Diamond Lake and this 1000btu stove boiled water in under a minute. It was like lightning - super fast. Kidding, but it was a lot faster than my old Coleman.

Similar to this one in the Cabela catalog. The legs come unscrewed and the whole thing is about 2" thick when collapsed. The wind screen detaches and fold flat.

Playing around with some toggle-thingy on my photo program.

Last year, I canned quite a few pints. I know most people like to can in quarts but I always remember the last peach sitting at the bottom for weeks on end until someone put it out of its misery. With pints, we eat up everything, if we need more, we open another jar.

I am seriously working myself up to purchasing one of these collapsible campstoves. Think about all this steam - outside.






Peaches were picked at Rumpca (pronounced Rumpcey) Farms on Lone Elder Road in Canby.
You can subscribe to their e-mail alerts here.

**Update July 2012:  Rumpca Farms chopped down their peach trees a year ago. A failure with our moist Willamette Valley and no fungal pesticides that would keep on ticking led to their decision. It is impossible to grow peaches, apricots, or plums around here without fungals and pesticides.
If you know of a place where one might pick Canadian Harmony peaches, yell at me. They are my favorite canning peach.

Gardens in Oregon

I didn't pick these.

My husband did.
He's totally into fresh tomatoes from the garden.

Not the planting. Not the weeding, not so much the canning, but the freshness.

These will go in the vegetable drawer in the fridge for freshness through the month of November.

picked Saturday, October 24th, 2009.

Tomatoes Before The Frost

It's beginning.
We just had a couple of nights where it dipped below 40'.
I made my husband happy by canning the last tomatoes.

Over the years, in my indescribably busy life, I have figured out how to can and not go crazy.
First of all, canning your own food can quickly become expensive. The jar lids are 2 or 3 bucks/dozen, then the electricity cost. Finally - what's your time worth?
My tricks are to grow the right product, know what you like and make it simple & quick.
These are just stewed tomatoes - same as the ones in a can (sans chemicals).
I can in pints - 2 cups is a nice recipe measurement.

First?-- get everything ready: Water in the canner simmering, jars sterilized in dishwasher then waiting in hot water on back of stove with lids, pan for boiling water bath - the bath helps slip those pesky skins off nice & easy.

Drop tomatoes into bath for 30 -45 seconds. Use paring knife to either take top core out or slice off top (romas), usually the skin slips right off here, but the knife is helpful for the stubborn ones.
I slice them into big chunks.

Into each jar; one Tablespoon of lemon juice to help the acidity level and then I carefully cram tomatoes into the jar. I wipe off the top of the jar, place a lid on, then the Screw top and place it in canner to stay hot until the canner is full.

The jars gently boil in my water canner for the specified Ball Blue Book time and voila, canned tomatoes to add to soup, lasagna, or marinara sauce.

Roma tomatoes remain my favorite because they speed up the prep time amazingly. Next fave is Early Girl, a nice meaty medium size tomato with a few seeds.

The point of this? People get way too finicky and fanatical about their canning - to the point - it's too much work to can every year.
My system means I have enough canned tomatoes for two years (hint!) and it's fast. Not to mention healthier.

Not to mention that smug feeling of satisfaction when I open the cupboard doors and see the array of food put away for a rainy day.