Pioneer Woman at Heart

Pears are about ready to be picked.  Hubby brought in 5 or 6 and some were hard as a rock, so we have time yet to pick them.  Thank goodness. Two of them were ripe however, so I used one to can carrot cake jam for the first time.  Using our homegrown carrots, a home grown pear, and a few purchased ingredients.  I used this recipe:  Carrot Cake Jam. It uses the same amount of sugar that most recipes online require, but a mix of white granulated and brown sugar.  I have wanted to try this recipe for years, but put it off.  We didn't get any carrots last year either.  I can't remember why, but we didn't get beets or carrots.   Anyway....

We have waited 3 long years to finally get a good harvest of our rhubarb.  I have made a BBQ rhubarb sauce in the past (and loved it), so I am taste testing a new jam recipe - Rhubarb Ginger Jam.  I originally found the recipe in this cookbook.... ...but it calls for "calcium water" and only a few specialty stores sell that specific pectin.    I just googled the same recipe online and found one that didn't call for calcium water. 

I'm getting more peach jam put up, and for the first time, plum and apricot jam. All jams are reduced sugar.  These will go fast in my family.  I can utilize the plu m and apricot with other meals , not just PB and J's. The p lu m jam is delic ious!  So is the apricot! I'm  starting to put enough fresh plums, apricots and peaches in the freezer to enjoy all winter too.  I'm freez ing them until our our trees start suppl ying us an ample a mount.

First, I have to tell you about the strawberries.  We have one plant that survived last year's monsoon, so we have zero strawberries.  Some years it's just how it goes.  We plan ted everybe aring, and we did not like them anyway (small harvest, small berries, and never enough to can jam). There is a place about 25 minutes or so from our house which sells very good strawberries.  This place is known for their strawberries.  They are huge and tasty. I called, and found out that they were selling for only for one more day, and were picking that morning, and were to start selling at 9am.

The thought of blueberries and onions peeked my curiosity.  So, in honor of my Aunt, I picked a recipe from the Country Woman magazine she sent me.  I chose "Savory Blueberry Onion Jam."   The recipe uses a lot of red onions and some blueberries.  It even uses honey. 

Sunday the humidity was terrible here.  Even so, I canned one batch of wild black raspberry jam, got caught up with laundry, garden work and even got dinner made before going to the movies with Son and the family.   This is a "grab a cup of java" kind of post.  I beat my son up this morning.  How?  I have no idea. Ha ha! We enjoyed our first green and wax beans this season at dinner too.  Yum. 

 (Winston, playing under the rug during a snowstorm) I don't know if you remember or not, but last winter (before last Christmas) we found this cat in one of our barns - declawed, neutered, and the best behaved, loving cat I ever met. Unfortunately, with 3 indoor cats already, and two that are males, spraying was a huge problem.  Unable to find a home for him myself, he went to a shelter about 1 hour away. I don't think I even blogged about it either.  It was just a sad moment for me.

I made a batch of caramel apple jam yesterday.  The grocery store finally got in some organic granny smith apples.  I used organic ingredients, and my homemade vanilla.  Yum.   I apologize for the poor photo.  As fall rolls in, the lighting in the house gets worse.  Here is the recipe:

Each year we purchase 20 pounds of blueberries, and it gets us through winter and spring.  I make blueberry syrup, jam, jelly, freeze some, and bake some.  This year I am doing something new - dehydrating some.  They will be wonderful in baked goods for after school snacks and lunch packings.  I will use them in my homemade granola bars too.

I recently made a jam with cantaloupe fruit and vanilla bean.  This jam has such an interesting combination of flavors, I had to try it.  If I were to make this again, I would can it in 4 oz. jars, and give as gifts, or sell for $4.00 for the small jar.  In the end, I did not get 3 - 1/2 pints, but 2 1/2.  I followed the recipe exactly, but if you are interested, there is one on-line  -

The other day, hubby and I went in search for the person who sells his own honey in a nearby town.  We started by eating breakfast at a small diner that was still in business, and asked around.