Search This Blog

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Jam

There is a Peach orchard not far from our place in the country and we picked up fresh peaches there a week ago to make jam with.  It came out great.  I was telling a friend from work this and she said she had a plumb tree that was over flowing and would I like some of them.  Of course I would.  So I made plumb jam too.  My wife thought since I was making the rest, I might as well make strawberry jam too.  It was a long day yesterday, but I did a total of 14 pints, in half pint jars, of the three fruits.  They all turned out well.  They are not too sweet.  I used a little honey instead of sugar and no sugar needed pectin.  So, they actually taste like the fruit instead of just sugar.

If you want to try it, the recipe is the same for all three:

4 cups fruit
1 cup honey
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 packet no sugar needed pectin

Dice the fruit small and put in a high sided suace pan.  Put on medium high heat togethr with the lemon juice and honey.  Boil the mixture slowly for about 10 minutes.  Add the pectin while stirring constantly to avoid lumps.  Boil an additional 3 minutes with the pectin in.  Remove from heat and spoon into jars that have been heated in your oven for 15 minutes at 160 degrees together with the lids.  Place the lids on the jars and screw down the rings.  Let set on the counter for several hours.  The lids will pop as they cool so you know they are sealed.  

You can double the recipe if you want, but I wouldn't go any farther than that.  Recipes start to do strange things when you play with them too much.

Garden Update: Veggies


More good stuff from the garden.  These are the last of the first planting of beets.  I've gotten quite a few red tomatoes too, but the German Green Stripe look too cool.  They taste just like a yellow pear tomato or some other low acid variety.  The Purple Pod Green Beans are very good.  I eat most of them off the vines.  I've yet to cook any because they are so good raw.