Last Post - Print what you want to keep

Okay this is the last post for this blog.  I am not writing this to garner support and try to get anyone to talk me out of shutting it down. It's merely to give you notice so that if there is an article or two that you want you have time to print it out - I will leave it up for a week then am deleting it. I used to blog to 'try' to make some extra money on the side with my pictures. That didn't work. I tried the amazon associate thing, that didn't work either. I also blogged as an outlet for my writing and to keep in touch with my friends, which has been why easier and more effective through Facebook and Pinterest. I might do another one someday who knows.

For me to keep doing something it needs to be rewarding for me to do it in some way. Blogging hasn't been rewarding for me lately, I do not look forward to it anymore. Sorry to Pinners that have pinned the Dog Food article - if you click on the link to "the Canning Granny" you can pin her Dog Food article instead, mine was based on hers. Also I need to spend my time focusing my efforts on earning some extra money to help make ends meet at our place. My photos will still be one Facebook if you'd like to see what I am up to - feel free to like my Facebook Page (link on your right).

Easy Jam and Jelly

In the process of cleaning our freezer out I made some jam and jelly this fall out of fruit I had stashed away since this summer. Stuff we grew or that I went and picked.

They say you are not supposed to double the recipes because the pectin won't gel up. Well I didn't know that so I was tripling and quadrupling recipes. And you know what? They were wrong. Each and every one of these gelled up just fine. 

I took all my berries and either mashed them or juiced them. I measured what I ended up with and multiplied the recipe accordingly to fit the amount of fruit I had. Worked like a charm, though I hear it doesn't always turn out that way. 

This is 4 berry jam. Raspberries, Strawberries, Blueberries and Huckleberries. Jam is so easy. It actually helps the process for the fruit to be cleaned and frozen. You thaw it out - in a stock pot, mash it up real good, add you lemon juice, then if you are doing a classic jam recipe you heat it up to add your sugar first slowly and then when its dissolved in what they call a boil that cannot be stirred down (usually in the midst of adding the sugar I will add the butter - this just keeps the foam down, there is nothing wrong with the foam it just doesn't look as pretty), the pectin. You'll want to simmer it for about a minute longer till you are sure your pectin is absorbed. Click the heat off and skim any foam off the top - put it in a small bowl, it will gel up and you can eat it later. 

Here is the original recipe. I can't even begin to tell you how good this stuff is. When i used to make jam and jelly with my grandma I can remember it being good but really, if it weren't so dang rude, I would've sat down and eaten a bowl of it with a spoon. As it is now I make biscuits as an excuse to eat jam.

5 Tbsp Ball Classic Pectin
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup crushed huckleberries
1 cup crushed blueberries
1 cup crushed raspberries
1 cup crushed strawberries
1 TBS Lemon Juice

1 Tsp of butter

At this point you can either stick it in containers to cool - for the freezer.

Or

I water bathed canned all mine while it was still nice and warm in these really cool jam jars my mom found for me from a friend. Her mom had passed, she didn't can so she needed to give all the jars and lids to someone. My mom knew who might want them.... me! These are super old jars without food they have the blue tint to them.

You see we have beef and chicken in our freezer and don't want to clog it up with freezer jam. Water bath canning is so easy. 

Ladle the warm jam into warm clean jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rim. Fish your lids out of boiling water and center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.
Place your jar into the water bath canner and rack so that the water covers up the jars by at least an inch. PROCESS (boil) jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes (don't start your timer until the water has come to a full boil), adjusting for altitude (see the Ball Blue Book for an altitude chart). When your timer goes off, remove the canner from heat, remove the jars and allowed to cool to room temperature undisturbed. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

This was raspberry jelly. I first juiced my berried with my steam juicer. Therefore I cheated. I didn't mash them up and let them sit in a bag overnight - I just cleaned them, put them in the juicer for an hour and ended up with beautiful, effortless, clear red juice. The chickens cleaned up the berry pulp. I added the lemon juice directly to the berry juice.

I so LOVE this juicer. Perfect for jellies, juice, and wine. It works different than a centrifuge juicer as the juice you get out of it is super clear.

The lemon juice helps preserve the color, clarity, and helps activate the pectin with its citric acid. Lots of recipes don't call for it any more I sill like adding it anyways. This also gives your jam and jelly a good dose of vitamin C.

Then I basically reused the same process from above. Adding the sugar and butter, dissolving it in a boil you can't stir down, adding the pectin, boiling it for a minute or so longer, 

6 Cups of Raspberry Juice
5 cups sugar

8 TBS of Ball Classic Pectin
1 TBS Lemon Juice

1 Tsp of butter

Next I did some no sugar blueberry jelly for Hubby who was feeling left out, not being able to partake in the other stuff cause he has to watch the sugar he eats. For this I used the Ball "no sugar" pectin. And some apple juice I made myself to sweeten it. 

6 Cups of Blueberry Juice (from the steam juicer)
2 cups Apple Juice (also from the steam juicer)

7 TBS of Ball No Sugar Pectin
3 TBS Lemon Juice

1 Tsp of butter

Again I gave the berry pulp left over from the juicer to my chickens, no reason to throw it out. If you don't have chickens, cow, pigs, or goats to feed it to, then compost it.

Same process as the raspberry jelly and same process as the jam to water bath can it.

While I think this turned out ok (it certainly is pretty) next time I will do it with some Splenda to replace some of the apple juice as it is still rather tart.