Jam and dirtbikes

So on Tuesday when I got home from work I was reading the harvest board over at GardenWeb while I ate my turkey soup. People were going on about jam and I got interested to make some. I tend to do things spur of the moment so why not some jam? So, I ran to wal-mart and got some jars and other items and made some strawberry jam! The strawberries we had picked locally last year and had them in the freezer. 

Heres the strawberries in the pot with the sugar, lemon juice and pectin. I blended up the strawberries in the food processor before cooking because I don't like chunky fruit pieces. It was like a nice strawberry smoothie, minus the rum.

After it had been boiling a bit.

In the jars now and boiling in the pot. The water almost came over the sides.

Done!

About 3 pounds of berries got me 10 jars of jam! I think it turned out super for my first time. I have some various other berries in the freezer but not enough in quantity to make all one kind, I may do a blend to use them up. I copied a recipe for chocolate raspberry jam, this sounds like something that my grandma would love, I will have to try it. Maybe a mothers day gift.

Overall this made me wish that I would have tried it sooner, it seems like such an awesome thing for gifts and such. It wasn't nearly as hard as you would think either. I may just try to do some more things like this instead of just freezing everything I put up.

Meanwhile, in the midst of canning happiness the UPS man delivered my new phone, yay! :)

I was going to use the extra money from my paycheck tomorrow to get a couple of replacement parts for my t-tape watering system and possibly a worm bin for my kitchen. Better luck next time. I had to pay a deductible to get my replacement so thats how that story ends.

Last night I started my tomatoes, eggplant and rosemary, and I took the celery out of the baggie and moved it to a flat. The amish paste toms that I picked from territorial are on backorder so I am canceling that and I picked up 2 other packets from Home Depot, aka work. I got san marzano and big mama, both paste types for sauce.

Here are the celery sprouts.

I sprayed the paper towel with water really well before trying to pick the seedlings off of it. I think that helped the roots not break as easily.

Here they are planted up in seed mix, I will use potting soil when I plant up from the flats.

Here are the baggies. I used coffee filters this time instead, I read they work better, don't fall apart as easily. I had some on hand so why not.

The final selections on tomatoes this year are- San marzano, big mama, brandywine, peacevine cherry, zebra cherry, yellow pear, japanese trifele black, persimmon, tiger-like and old german. All are organic or heirloom except for the big mamas. 

Last year one of my favorites was the trifele black, they are so pretty and unusual and the taste is pretty terrific. The only other one that I had last year also was the yellow pear, I like the mellow flavor and the color in salads, also great to take to work for a snack. Even if people think you are strange for snacking on -gasp!- veggies. I have planted pretty much all different varieties for the last 3 years now, I am getting it down to what will work best for me. I want a good blend for sauce and also good ones for salsa and just snacking. I am a tomato lover. 

So this is what I have been doing the last few days, I am going to move the alliums out to the greenhouse tonight I think, if I can open up a spot for Franke to get in and out without leaving the door propped open. That lets out all the heat. And for my husband, he is working on his dirt bike so he can ride it on the street to work and such. What was that?.....Where is he working on it you ask? 

In the kitchen of course!