The ol' homestead

Strawberry Jammin Time (in pictures)

I was blessed with 2 flats of organic strawberry's this week and so I have been making strawberry jam. I had enough to make 3 batches or 27 half-pints. I wanted to share with you how easy it is to do and impress on you the utmost importance on safety while canning. If you get into the habit of ALWAYS canning the recommended way then you will never have any worry. Recommended means up to date -not grandma's old canning book.

First you grab a kid.... any old kid will do. If their not willing to work withhold food half a day and ask again. A kid will make the difference in things going faster. (Unless you grab a teen...)

In my case this is the kid I grabbed today.

First you take some strawberries and wash them...

Then you grab that kid and have them hull them....See how happy the kid is now?

And then you mash them (a potato masher works fine here)

I sprinkle on a little fruit fresh to keep' em nice. (man is that stuff great or what?!)

Get your lids and jars sterilizing...

Cook up your jam according to your recipe and fill up your jars...(notice the teen is now happy to work for food too)

Then you start on a new batch...

And when it is all done, grab a glass of diet coke, sit down for a few minutes while contemplating whether or not to pop one of those sweet baby's open. Then go ahead and cut a chunk off that fresh bread you have and slather it on, and enjoy every bite. See how yummy it looks?

Oh... sorry... Gee I guess I didn't get a picture of that -I was too busy stuffing it in my mouth. Then stand back and ADMIRE all those beautiful jars of jam that will taste so good all winter long. Mmm Mmm.

Saccharine Pickles

Lotsa canning and SNOW..... not

Canning success!

Well, here they are!

Don't they look great?! I got the apple pie filling done in time to go through my storage shed and dig out the rest of my jars. Washed and put away the canners and now waiting for the next tround. I did find a great strawberry jam recipe I would like to make..... but where to find the strawberries! Like everything I want to do, it is out of season. Next week I am going to put up several kinds of beans. They are better for you than beans in the tin cans and when you need some for a recipe -viola -just open up a jar.

Today I am off to take my Chelsea to finish getting supplies for her sweet 16 birthday party on Saturday. She is so excited -I am trying to remember that time, when nothing was as  important as turning 16 and the world was going to be differnt somehow. lol.