Strawberry Peach Jam

336. No breakfast is complete without fresh fruit jam to slather on toast, muffins or croissant.  Walking down the grocers' aisle you can find a large variety of jam fruit flavors.  They always look so appetizing and delicious.  But when compared with a home made fresh fruit jam, there is no comparison. Occasionally you can pick up a great quality jam at a farm market or specialty store, but I am addicted to made-in-my-kitchen fresh fruit jam.  And I have the ability to add a pinch of this or that to design it to my exact taste.

Traditionally, home cooks would cook fruit with sugar till it would reach a thickened state when it coated the back of a cold spoon.  Unfortunately, some fruits have less pectin and it would take so long that the fruit would loose its beautiful bright color, turn brown and have an over cooked taste.  

I simply follow the Certo brand pectin directions which come in every box. Here is a beautiful pdf booklet you can download or print out for all jam, jelly and marmalade recipes from Certo. Find your fruit and follow the directions.  You can mix fruits as well,  peach with strawberries,  fig with plum or rhubarb with strawberries or figs. It's your choice.  Often when I have mixed fresh fruit salad left overs, I will measure and place the fruit in a saucepan, add sugar to the same measurement of fruit, place a pat of butter and bring it to a boil.  Add my Certo packet and place in sanitized jars.  Mixed fruit jam!  And I've done this with pineapple, kiwi, oranges and the like.  They all make beautiful jam when mixed together.

This jam was made with 5 cups of peaches and 1 cup of strawberries all cleaned and coarsely chopped, 7 cups of sugar, Tablespoon of lemon, 1 Tablespoon of butter (cuts down on foaming), pinch of cinnamon.  Mix all till completely blended and place on high heat and bring to a boil.  Once the jam is at a rolling boil that does not stop when you mix it, add your packet of Certo quickly.  Stir and bring back to boil.  Boiling for a full minute.  Turn off heat and ladle hot jam into sanitized jam size jars.  Wipe the glass rim and side rim of the jar with a clean wet towel so any drips do not interfere with the seal.   Cover with sanitized sealing lids that you are heating in boiling water off to the side.  Tighten lid and place up-side-down on a towel in a safe place on counter.  Jars will be very hot.  After 15 minutes turn your jars up-right and wait to hear the lovely sound of the seals popping on every jar.  It's a symphony!

You can use any jar that has a rubber seal on the lid.  Be careful that it is sanitized in very hot water and I use a little bleach to be extra careful with bacteria and a very hot rinse.  Then I place them upside-down until ready to fill.

I recycle these jars over and over but always careful that there are no scratches on the inside lids and that you sanitize and boil them before use.  The great thing about canning lids is that you can purchase just the round seal without buying a new lid band.  These seem to never wear out...unless of course they are old from a yard sale or your grandma's collection.  Walmart carries canning jars and supplies as well as Ace Hardware.  

Making jam is not hard...just takes time and diligence to follow the steps.  

“I'm sure I'll take you with pleasure!" the Queen said. "Twopence a week, and jam every other day."
Alice couldn't help laughing, as she said, "I don't want you to hire me - and I don't care for jam."
"It's very good jam," said the Queen.
"Well, I don't want any today, at any rate."
"You couldn't have it if you did want it," the Queen said.
"The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never today."
"It must come sometimes to 'jam today'," Alice objected.
"No it can't," said the Queen. "It's jam every other day: today isn't any other day, you know.” 
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“Jam on a winter day took away the blues. It was like tasting summer. ” 
― Sandra Dallas

Garden Canning

316.  Canning tomatoes is a must each autumn.  My tomato plants were great producers with constant tomatoes on the vine from May through November.  I purchased the plants in March at a plant distributor in Brooklyn, NY.  It was very early but I brought them home and kept them warm and watered till May.  These plants were significantly hardy and healthy as opposed to plants that I would buy locally in town.   Along with tomato plants I purchased flowers and herbs, which were also good quality and productive.

Each week would produce a basket full of tomatoes and cucumbers.  There are only so many tomatoes you can eat fresh.  The rest were destined to be sauce, salsa and marinara.  Towards the end of the growing season, when the temperature stayed below 70degrees, the tomatoes that were green were very useful for green salsa.  And can I say, the green salsa turned out "magnificent"!

 I still use some of the old canning jars my mom gave to me and others purchased at flee markets and yard sales.  My funnel was purchased in my first year of marriage when we lived in Seattle, Washington.  We loved to go to Remlinger Farms, pick apples and enjoy the beautiful scenery in Carnation, Washington.  Here is the link:  https://remlingerfarms.com/wholesale.htm

I was able to put up 3 batches of tomato sauce and marinara as well as 2 batches of salsa in pint jars.  This was the best tomato growth I can remember in many, many years.  Not to mention the great fresh basil, parsley and oregano growth as well.  Ahhhh, homemade sauce, nothing like it!

"There ain't nothin' better in life than true love and a home grown tomato."

-Old Saying