Hey there friends,
We made it safe and sound in Vermont. That was an adventure I might share later, but for now, let's talk about what happened next. Now that our furniture has been delivered and things are (mostly) in their new place, I find myself with a little bit of free time. It does feel luxurious since I haven’t had any in months!
I've worked on a pink sweater WIP, and finally bound off. I pulled out my paint by numbers that I’d started before this whole whirlwind begun, back in May, and worked on this a little.
I finally pulled out my “Into the wild” sweater WIP, finished the body and am now knitting on the sleeves. I will show a pic when I’m done working on it.
Did I tell you how much I HATE the yarn that came with the kit I purchased? It literally pulls apart if you hold it with just a teeny tiny bit of extra tension. Can’t wait to be done with it, and then I’ll use my drop spindle to give this dreaded yarn more twist. As a rebel, I absolutely CAN'T let the leftover yarn live like this. It would be unfair to yarn itself to let this half-spun fiber stay in my stash forever…
Anyways… back to my little free time.
A few days ago, I decided to reorganize my fridge. With a new house comes a new fridge, and the stuff on the shelves weren’t “in their proper order”, and it was driving me nuts. That’s when I realized I had a bunch of berry containers spread everywhere. Double pints of raspberries that were dangerously close to molding… at $7.99 a pack, in this economy, I simply couldn’t let these rot!
A two-pounder of strawberries that had seen better days, with only a few berries missing. My daughter had sworn she’d eat those, but here we were a week later and nature was beginning to do its thing. And two huge packs of blueberries I got on sale that I wanted to eat but hadn’t had a chance to get to it .
This week, I was left with… too much berries. I have to remember that in Vermont, the fruits grown in California don’t last as long as I’m used to, because they spend half of their shelf lives on a truck getting to me. After just a few days, the raspberries mush, the strawberries rot, and then there’s nothing I can do with them. It’ll take some adjusting for sure (yes, I do plan on buying local, but the strawberry and raspberry season in Vermont happens much earlier, so there's that).
I'd seen ads for “canning season” while driving around my new state, so I assume that this is something a lot of people do in Vermont. It used to be my thing too, so I decided to get started again and bought new canning jars.
I was getting ready to make jam, can it to then savor during the cold dark months of winter.
I had twice as many blueberries as strawberries and raspberries combined, so I opted to make 2 different varieties of jam. Combining all the fruits together would have the blueberry taste overpower the others, so it didn’t feel right. Yes, I do tend to overcomplicate things.
Blueberry-Maple Jam "Recipe"
In one pot, I put all my rinsed blueberries (8-10 cups or so), along with 2 cups of granulated sugar, one and a half cup of maple syrup (I’m in Vermont, after all), and a dash of salt. First I brought the sugar and maple syrup to a boil, then I added the berries and sprinkled the salt and let simmer while stirring for roughly 35 minutes.
Strawberry-Raspberry Jam "Recipe"
Once the blueberry jam was started, I moved on to the strawberries and raspberries. In another pot, I put two cups of granulated sugar, a few drops of water that I brought to a boil, then I added a pinch of salt and dumped the rinsed strawberries and raspberries - roughly 5-6 cups of fruits. I let it simmer for 35 minutes while stirring constantly.
Two hands, two wooden spoons to stir my two pots for 35 minutes. The strawberries and raspberries mix was more watery, so I let this one simmer longer (like, 5 minutes longer).
Then, I put the blueberry jam in clean jars and got almost 7 full jars. The strawberry-raspberry jam yielded almost 4 jars.
I let the jars cool off, then put them in the fridge overnight.
The next day, I pulled my biggest pot and gave all the jars a water bath canning process (after letting them reach room temperature by pulling them out of the fridge ahead of time). Brought the water to a boil, dropped the jars in, making sure water fully covered the jars by an inch or more, and let them boil for 15 minutes (recipes online say 10 minutes only, but I’m an overachiever and it’s always better to be safe than sorry).
I didn't have a tray to put at the bottom of my pot to avoid direct contact of the jars with the bottom, so I dropped 2 of my silicone tools I use to make bread at the bottom instead. It kinda worked.
No, I didn’t use any pectin. That’s not how my grandma did things and I learned jam-making from her. I was planning to add lemon juice, but honestly, I forgot. It sat sadly on the kitchen counter while my back was turned to the jam-making session. Oops!
When making jams, I like keeping a ratio of roughly 1 cup of sugar for 3 cups of fruit. Some recipes will have a 1:2 ratio, but I find that's too sweet. Anything less sweet and then the jam doesn’t last long before spoiling. Maybe if I added pectin? But I like my jam on a 1:3 ratio, so I’ll stick with this and with the fewer ingredients.
Honestly, I love making jam. It’s one of my favorite things to can! And I have to say both flavors really surprised me. They both were delicious! The blueberry-maple jam turned out a little more thick than I wished it did (not a problem, just a preference), but the strawberry-raspberry jam was utterly perfect!
So if you’ve got berries about to go to waste, spend a little bit of time and turn them into something delicious! Don’t have enough just yet? Freeze them until you do!
Here are some pretty pictures of Vermont I thought you'd enjoy. No filters, I swear!
Thanks for reading!
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