Canned Jam

Last week, I had Solanah over to assist me in making some homemade Jam. I have never canned anything before, so I thought it would be much harder than it turned out to be. Because it was so much simpler than I believed it was, I figured I would share all the steps with you, so that you might try it sometime as well.

So then, let's start at the beginning.
1. Pick some berries, or get them at the store. Then you will need to measure them out, you will need about 10 cups of berries whole (not mashed.) I went with Blueberries, Strawberries, and a few Blackberries.

2. Smush the berries. Smash, scrunch, mash. Its helpful to have kids on hand for this part, but having a Solanah works well too. When all is mashed and smashed you should have about 6 cups of squished berries ready to cook!
3. Make sweet love to your lemon... get it prepped and ready to squeeze. as you will need 2 tablespoons of lemon juices. Making weird faces is optional.
4. We have a large pot, and in this large pot we added Squished Berries, 2 Tablespoons lemon juice, and now 4.5 cups of organic sugar! Delicious! Cook on medium high, we want to get a slow low boil rolling here.
5. Add the Pectin, which is a natural substance that forms the "jell" it is found in the baking section of your grocer. Now then, your berry mixture should be boiling, and you will be stirring. You dont want to burn to the bottom, so you got to keep on movin'. Boil your berries for about 5-10 minutes.6. Keep your jars WARM in a sink full of hot water so they are ready for use. (lids should also be kept in a pot of simmering water.) Using a wide mouth funnel, scoop your berries into your 8 oz. jars.
7. Place lid on jar, and tighten rings lightly so that air can still pass through and cause a vaccum seal. Using a handy dandy jar lifter, place the jar in a canning pot, that is hot but not boiling. Turn heat up to high and put the lid on. Boil those bad boys for 10 minutes, then turn heat off and let sit for 5 minutes.
8. Using the jar lifter, pull the jars out and let them sit on a towel in a draft free area. They will need to sit for 12-24 hours to fully cool. You might here a chorus of popping sounds as the seal is set on the jars! This is the sound of VICTORY!
We left one jar open, so that we could enjoy the spoils of victory. I made some waffle batter, and made a brunch outside in the bright sunlight. I highly suggest this as a tasty finale to your jam making party.


So, I hope you have enjoyed this short tutorial on canning homemade jam. For reference, below is a list of items you will need to make this happen in your kitchen.

Jars, lids and rings (8 0z jars work well for jam)
Jar Lifter
Wide mouth funnel
Magnetic lid lifter (all three above things are sold in kits like this)
Canning Pot

10 cups unmashed berries
4.5 cups Sugar (depending on type of berries, some need more sugar)
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
1 package of pectin

A friend to help is also quite useful, but sorry, Solanah is taken. There you are, you now know how to make jam. Go forth and can some treats!

Old Fashioned Root Beer, and My 100th Post

This week I had the pleasure of making homemade root beer with Tim's 80-something-year-old Grandma. She was raised during the depression and has the best stories from the era. She is sharp as a tack and remembers everything from her childhood. I could spend hours listening to her talk about the farm in South Dakota, and the bizarre foods they had to consume during the bad months.
She is an avid canner, pickler, and root beer extraordinaire. She even has her original bottle capper from the 1930s (which we used!) Even my kids joined in on the fun, and it became a wonderful family experience. Don't worry, the recipe is easily available on the internet so you to can make the same rootbeer we made, this is the recipe we used: McCormick's Root Beer Recipe.
You need a GIANT crock pot to make 5 gallons of rootbeer. Of course you will also need something to put all your finished rootbeer in, I suggest drinking a large amount of New Castle Beer (YUM, Thank you United Kingdom!) as they work perfectly for bottling.
The only thing about making root beer that made me cringe was the fact that it called for 5 pounds of sugar. If you are a health nut at all, that may be a turn off.. but at least it's no high fructose corn syrup?
August had a blast stirring, as he loves to cook. I got several shots of him staring at the sugar, asking when he could drink it.
My arms were a bit sore after bottling like 4 dozen bottles (good thing my Fellas helped.) Everyone passed around a bottle to sample the goodness. It actually was not very good, and just tasted like sugar water, as it needs to age and ferment for a week or so. It just tasted like really flat warm root beer. But August loved it, and I guess that is what really matters. I can't wait we get to pick it up on Monday and have a real taste! I will likely blog about its amazingness when the time comes.
If you are looking for a fun way to spend a weekend afternoon, I suggest making your own root beer. It was loads of fun and sure to be tasty.


Also, it's my 100th post! This little blog is really coming along I would say.
Thank you to all my readers for being so wonderful and makign this all happen.