Followers

Monday, June 14, 2010

On to the Strawberries!

Sorry I haven't been on lately.  After completing all the rhubarb for the season, we went on vacation for 2 weeks to Washington (to read up on that go to my Airstream blog.)  Here in WI it is strawberry season, and we've learned if you don't get out and pick right away, you miss the season altogether and have to pay higher prices than usual in the stores.

We went picking for an hour one day, and brought back 23 pounds for our jam.  I haven't made jam for two years because we had made so much two years ago that we didn't need anymore.  I do realize that you should only keep home-canned items for one year, but hey, who can bear to waste all that hard work and money?  I watch it carefully for any signs of not looking good, and have had very good luck with things staying good for longer than a year.

Aren't they beauties! Well, once you pick the strawberries, you are committed to getting them taken care of right away. (I don't know what I was thinking, obviously me nesting at 8 months pregnant has overcome my sense practicallity on this one!) Well, we ended up making 36 jars of Strawberry Jam (yes probably enough for the next two years), 7 jars of strawberry sauce, and 3 jars of strawberry/ rhubarb sauce. I still had some rhubarb left in my own garden after all that rhubarb!For those of you looking for the recipe for the jam, I use the one that comes in the package from Sure-Jell.  I figured there was no use sharing that since you'll need Sure-Jell anyway!

I'm linking up to:

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Rhubarb Galore!

What does one do with 55 cups of rhubarb that was given to you?  Why make jelly!  And Bread!  And Freeze it for the future!  Yippee!And then you make more jelly!  We love rhubarb jelly more than all the others I make, so there never seems to be enough of it around.  I will share my rhubarb jelly recipe: (taken from Recipezaar)

Rhubarb Raz Jelly
Makes 3 pints

5 cups rhubarb - cut in 1/2 - 1 inch pieces
3cups sugar
1 (3oz.) package raspberry Jell-O gelatin


  1. Place rhubarb and sugar in enamel or stainless steel bowl (I use my cooking pot), mix well, cover, and let stand overnight.

  2. Next morning bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer, stirring constantly, for ten minutes.

  3. Remove from heat, stir in jello. 

  4. Fill hot, sterilized jars to 1/2" from top.

  5. Place seal on jar, and tighten ring.

  6. Turn jar upside down on towel-covered surface for about 15 minutes.

  7. Turn jar right side up, to cool and seal to set and pop.
Just a note - I have been tripling the recipe, and add an extra box of Jello.  I had a batch come out kind of runny to my liking, so I added an extra Jello to make it set.  Also, I tried Cherry Jello and it's wonderful!

I am linking up to: