Rathbone: Eggs for Hatching, Eggs for Eating, Eggs, Eggs, Eggs

[rathbone]

I thought I would like to try the journal thing. I am sure I will do something wrong and equally sure someone will point it out to me...and if I am lucky they will point it out politely. And although I don't think I have anything particularly interesting that would make anyone want to follow this journal, maybe, just maybe I will have a record of the growth and changes I experience as a part of reading the threads that you all have taken the time to share.

Name: Kelly
Birthday: November - I am 45 as I start my journal (I have now turned 46)
Hometown: La Grande Oregon
Current Residence: Mojave Desert
Relationship Status: Very much, oh-so-happily married to Armando

Children: Yes I have many and yes they are my favorite thing in life. I have three adult daughters and after a 20 year break...I have two young sons.

When I found sufficient self I had this sharp intake of breath; I had finally found a group of people doing the things that I thought about and wished I were doing. I find that living in a small town, I don't think like those around me and while I have grown accustomed to it, it really is very nice to be able to talk to someone who feels the same way.

I am making some changes, small baby-step changes. I am trying out some things I have long wanted to try. I am probably going to struggle with some changes, fail at a few and hopefully with those baby steps eventually make some big steps. Maybe you will be there to pat me on the back along the way.

 

[i_am2bz]

If you write it, we will read it.

 

[rathbone]

Babystep #1: Canning

When I was about five years old, my mother married. I got a step-father...but the best part of the deal for me was my new grandmother. Grandma Velva was in her forties when she gave birth to her only child - my new step-father. When I met her, she was already "old". My new "old" Grandma knew how to do ... well basically everything. And she could can. She and my grandfather grew all their veggies and then worked together to put up the summer harvest. My absolute hands-down favorite was plum jam. I loved the bits of skin that gave it a tartness in all that sweet.
I always wanted to learn to can but my grandmother assured me, indeed she assured all of us it was just easier for her to do it herself. And so she did. She and my grandfather raised enough food to feed themselves and all of our family, a family that came to have six children.
I have thought often of canning. I have occasionally bought jars at a yard sale, once a pressure cooker which I later gave away since (as my husband pointed out) I had never used it. I collected recipes for canned goods but it never really amounted to anything. Canning was something I thought about but never did.
Two days ago I made the leap from wishing to doing. I decided to make...yes you guessed it...plum jam. I got the Ball blue book (or whatever it is called) and I carefully read the directions. I set all the pots up and read the recipe twice but still worried I was somehow going to poison all of us. I mentally decided to embrace the idea of dying of botulism and simply DO IT.
Plum jam is what I set out to make and...plum jam is what I made. And it was every bit as good as my Grandma Velva's.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Welcome! What's left of that jam looked really good.

 

[JRmom]

You'll be canning everything in sight before you know it!

 

[calendula]

Congrats on the jam, looks yummy! I've taking baby-steps too, I think it's the way to go. Otherwise, you'd just get overwhelmed.

 

[TanksHill]

Welcome!!

 

[rathbone]

Thank you, thank you, and thank you. The welcome is nice. Entering these forums is a little bit scary...rather like the first day of school.

 

[rathbone]

Rathbone: Forays into Strawberry Jam

Well now that I have plum jam under my belt (in more ways than one) I am feeling a bit cocky. In fact, I feel like the canning master. And so I decided it is time to try something new. Plums are now NOT on sale, and strawberries are on sale. Strawberry jam it is.

I read all the directions in the Ball blue book of preserving. Do NOT change or Substitute on the recipes. Got it!

Strawberry jam: 2 quarts of sliced strawberries (that is eight cups - I had to look it up on the internet I am chagrined to admit). 6 cups of sugar. 6 CUPS OF SUGAR??? Whoa! That is a ridiculous amount of sugar! That is a 4 to 3 ratio. I added the sugar cup by cup and after only 3 cups of sugar I tasted it. It was disgustingly sweet. I think that 3 cups of sugar is probably sufficient. I am after all the canning master right?
I told my daughter. I made her taste it. She said it tasted fine and I should put the other three cups of sugar in. "The Ball blue book of Preserving says Do NOT change or substitute on the recipes - you read that part to me yourself" she said. "Who is the canning master in this house" I asked her. "Me, that's right" I said. I stuck to my guns on three cups of sugar.
And so we made strawberry jam just like we make everything in our house. I did everything and she sat on the counter and watched and said "do you need me to do anything". "No" I said like I always say "You just sit right there and if I need you I know you are there".
Sometimes I stirred and sometimes she stirred (she does like to stir things) We cooked strawberries. We cooked and we cooked and we cooked. And they didn't jell. They thickened because all the liquid was cooking out of them. But they certainly did not jell. "I wonder what went wrong" I asked her. She smiled and said nothing. "I wonder if it has anything to do with those three missing cups of sugar" I wondered aloud. "I wasn't going to point that out" she said.

And this is how we came to make "strawberry sauce for pancakes".

And so if any of you "canning masters" are learning alongside me...remember what the Ball blue book of Preserving says. "Do NOT change or substitute on the recipes."

Amarante says that Strawberry sauce is delicious by the way.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

You might enjoy using Pomona's Pectin for making jellies and jams. It is low/no sugar pectin.