raspberry jam!
For the first time in my jam-making endeavors, the holy grail! Sunday, we went up to my friend and co-worker M's house in Woodbury. M and I picked around 5 quarts of lovely sun-kissed red raspberries while Tom helped her partner C figure out how to solder copper pipe for basket handles. Then we came home and I made jam!
6 cups lightly crushed raspberries + about 1 1/c cups seeded raspberry pulp
3/4 cup honey
3 teaspoons Pomona's Pectin
3 teaspoons calcium water
Cooking directions are available here. I can in half-pint jars with the standard 2-part Ball lids, steam-processed for 5 minutes.
The rest of the weekend was hot, but uneventful. The first cherry tomatoes were picked July 27, and the green beans are in full swing now. The eggplants have started dropping blossoms again, dangit, I think it's been too wet. Certainly it has not been too cold! I pulled half of the potato onions I'm trialing this year over the weekend, as the tops had all fallen over. The other half looks as though they'll hang on for another week or two. Out in community-garden land, the storage onions show no signs of being ready to pull yet, although the garlic is ready. I pulled one head last night that was nearly the size of my fist! Apparently it's a good year for garlic... The winter squash and pumpkins are really sprawling now, and are climbing the pea trellis and the corn. Much weeding needs to be done out at the community plot. And I've got to get out to pick blueberries soon, and I should pick up a crate of peaches, and... oh yeah, I should go do some billable work now. sigh.
6 cups lightly crushed raspberries + about 1 1/c cups seeded raspberry pulp
3/4 cup honey
3 teaspoons Pomona's Pectin
3 teaspoons calcium water
Cooking directions are available here. I can in half-pint jars with the standard 2-part Ball lids, steam-processed for 5 minutes.
The rest of the weekend was hot, but uneventful. The first cherry tomatoes were picked July 27, and the green beans are in full swing now. The eggplants have started dropping blossoms again, dangit, I think it's been too wet. Certainly it has not been too cold! I pulled half of the potato onions I'm trialing this year over the weekend, as the tops had all fallen over. The other half looks as though they'll hang on for another week or two. Out in community-garden land, the storage onions show no signs of being ready to pull yet, although the garlic is ready. I pulled one head last night that was nearly the size of my fist! Apparently it's a good year for garlic... The winter squash and pumpkins are really sprawling now, and are climbing the pea trellis and the corn. Much weeding needs to be done out at the community plot. And I've got to get out to pick blueberries soon, and I should pick up a crate of peaches, and... oh yeah, I should go do some billable work now. sigh.