Four Berry Jam

 

Blackberry season is different every year. It is somewhere in July or August.  I guess the sun and the rain influences it somehow.

 

But it never lasts more than a couple of weeks.  First the berries turn red, then they turn dark purple.  You have to taste them, because they take a few days to sweeten after turning dark.  Then you have to race the deer and other critters to get them before they are all gone.

 

We have acres of berries.  They grow in most areas that have a lot of sun and that we don't mow or bush hog.  The best ones are always in the middle of a patch.  I prefer to drive and walk a long way to pick the easy berries on the edges of a patch. 

 

You can climb in to the middle of a patch, but the berry vines wrap themselves around you and getting out is a painful process.

 

So I drive around and get the easy ones first.

Lee and I went out picking one day after dinner.  It was coolish and a not too humid.  Perfect for berry picking.  We both picked for an hour or so, using small containers for picking and then dumping them into a large storage bucket.. 

 

We looked for the best of the easy berries.  Don't get me wrong.  You ALWAYS get stabbed by the thorns.  And you always get purple fingers.  But it was a nice evening and we had a good time.

 

I got rid of any bugs and leaves in the bucket and then placed the berries in storage containers and then in the refrigerator for the morning.

 

Wild blackberries have a fairly large seed.  I always run mine through a food mill.  This gets rid of most of the seeds, at least the largest ones.  I always rinse and pick through for any leaves.  Fortunately, I had gotten rid of the bugs the night before.  My father would have said something about a little protein in the berries never hurt anyone, but YUCK!

 

I followed the recipe on the Sure-Jell pectin and made a batch of blackberry jam.  A few years ago I wrote a more complete recipe for the blackberry making and you can see it here  http://shenandoahgatewayfarm.blogspot.com/2012/06/ripe-blackberries-already.html  

I had hoped to have enough berries for two batches, but I didn't.  I didn't want to go picking again, because now it was hot.  Lee brought in a small bucket, but after running all the last of the berries through the food mill, I only had about 1 cup of blackberry pulp.  (Do you know how long it takes to pick enough berries for one cup of pulp?  A berry long time!)  You need about 5 cups of fruit for one batch of jam.  It is a mystery how 5 cups of fruit and 7 cups of sugar ( I KNOW, SEVEN!) make about 9 cups of jam, but that is how it works!

 

Earlier in the week, we had made a Sam's Club visit.  I bought a large clamshell of blueberries and one of strawberries.  We were expecting B&B guests and I had hoped to use the berries for the breakfast, in addition to freezing the rest of the blueberries and eating the strawberries ourselves.  I still had all the fruit and the strawberries did not look as thought they would survive until the weekend, so they were fair game for jam making.

The Sure-Jell instructions had a recipe for Three Berry Jam.  It was different berries, but I decided it would work for me.  Oh, wait!  In the back of the refrigerator was a few raspberries we hadn't finished.  So I went for Four Berry Jam.

 

Four Berry Jam

1 cup blackberry pulp after you process it in a food mill.
3 cups strawberry pulp after you remove the stems and run them through the food mill
1 cup blueberries after mashing with a potato masher
a handful of raspberries mashed with the blueberries
7 cups sugar
1 package of Sure-Jell

 

Every package has instructions for a variety of jams and jellies.  Basically, you add the Sure-Jell to the fruit pulp in a large pan.  This particular mix of berries made produced a gorgeous color of blues, reds and purples.

 

Heat until a rolling boil.  Add the sugar and continue cooking until it comes back to a rolling boil.  Cook for one minute and then pour into very clean jars that have been in boiling water.  Screw on the two piece lids

Place the finished jars in a VERY large pot of boiling water that is at least 2 inches above the tops of the jars and boil gently for 10 minutes.  Time it.  Remove the jars and let cool.

JAM!

 

This recipe made 9 and 1/4 jars of Four Berry Jam.  Plus, I had 9 jars of blackberry jam.  I'm going to have enough to last us the year and still have plenty to give as gifts.

I wasn't sure if my invented batch of jam would be good.  I love the blackberry jam.  I waited for the next day and opened the 1/4 jar.  It was so good.  The best jam I ever made.  I wish I could offer this jam to our B&B guests, but the county won't let me.  I guess I could mess up on the whole sterilizing thing and poison a few, but I have made a lot of jam over the years and haven't poisoned hardly any one, yet!!!

 

One really nice thing about this recipe is that it is mostly strawberries.  Right now these are plentiful and not too expensive.  And no thorns, bugs, humidity and purple fingers were involved in the collection of said strawberries.  We did have to drive to town, but we were going anyway!  Store bought, seedless blackberries would be easy to get, along with the blueberries, so anyone that doesn't own massive acres of berry filled property could easily make this delicious jam.  Just throw in a small clamshell of raspberries and buy a bunch of sugar and you are in business!

 

We still had enough ripe, easy access berries for Emily, our most recent B&B guest to get a fast quart of berries.  I drove her around in the Mule until we found a likely patch and left her to her own devices.  Lee had cut the thumb and first two finger off of a pair of old gloves and she borrowed them to TRY to keep from getting stabbed too many times.  She seemed happy, so I was, too.

The berries are still ripe and I can't tell you when the berries will be ripe next year, but guests are free to get in a bit of pick-your-own-berries time while they are here.  A great breakfast and all you can pick berries seems like a good deal to me!

Sausage Ricotta Frittata

I am getting ready to go on a trip and trying to clean the fridge out of things I know Lee won't fix.  When faced with bits of this and that, a good choice is a frittata.  And that is what I made.

 

Sausage Ricotta Frittata

Oooh.  That is even fun to say. See?

1/2 cup onion, diced
1 small yellow squash, diced.  You can use zucchini, but that is what I found in the garden .

2 Mozzarella Roasted Garlic Chicken Sausages, diced.  I had these from a Sam's Club shopping trip.  Use any sausage you like.

 

2 Roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced The ones in my garden have very thick skins, so I remove them.  It is optional.  Any tomato will work just fine.

5 or 6 Thinly sliced basil leaves, also from the garden.  Parsley or cilantro would also work.  What are you growing?

salt and pepper
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon Italian Herbs seasoning
butter
EVOO

6 eggs, whipped with a fork and
3 Tablespoons milk

1/2 cup ricotta cheese
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

 

Preheat the oven to 375°.

 

 

 

Melt a few Tablespoons butter with a bit of EVOO in an oven proof pan over medium heat.  I use cast iron.

 

Sauté the sausages and onions until the onions are soft.  Add the squash of choice and cook for about 2 minutes more, then add the garlic, Herbs and s&p to taste.

 

Place the Parmesan and ricotta in the pan and stir a bit until it starts to melt and add the egg/milk mixture.  When it starts to set, sprinkle the tomatoes and basil and stir one more time.

 

Put the pan in the oven for 15 minutes or until the eggs are set.

Cool a few minutes then cut into wedges and serve with fruit or a salad.

MOSTLY planted

Whenever I use the word MOSTLY , I think of The Princess Bride where Wesley was MOSTLY dead all day.  Love that movie!

   

I prepped the garden last week.  It is amazing how much better the soil is each year.  Now we even have worms!.  Every time I cleaned up after the horse on a rainy day, I would throw a bunch of worms in the bucket to add to the compost.  Then the composted horse droppings were added to the  next garden.  Now the garden soil is soft and wormy. 

   

Check out who is watching me work this morning.  Perhaps she is scoping out where she will steal the fruits (vegetables) of my labor.  Can you see her?  How about now?

   

Today I rolled out the weed cloth and staked it down.  I didn't have quite enough for the whole garden...I guess I got cheap when buying it and didn't get enough. 

   

I hate it when that happens.  Rather than going all the way into town to buy more, I decided I could weed the areas where the soil isn't covered.  Chances are I won't weed that either, but it won't be a lot of weeds and they don't scare me!  The open spot is where the rhubarb will go.

   

I usually shop for my veggies at Sharin' Flowers.  It is a collection of greenhouses on Highway 11 and is just down the street from us.

   

They don't usually have everything I want, so I go to the greenhouse at the other side of Buchanan.  Support your local gardeners! They weren't open yet, so I went home and planted what I had.

   

I bought two big tomato plants.  I try new kinds each year and can never tell you from year to year which I buy and which is the best.  Don't ask, don't tell.

I also bought a Roma...that I know for sure.  Then I bought some yellow squash and some herbs.

I always buy basil and it does very well.  My lavender is coming back after a cold winter,  so I don't need any more of that this year.  It makes for some nice lavender bread and cookies.  I may try to make some sachets for the closet in the B&B this year.  That way it will smell nice and not all closed up when it isn't being used.

Next I bought some Rosemary for cooking with meat or potatoes and some cilantro.  I don't hold out much hope for the cilantro.  I have grown it before and after the first time I cut it, it got all leggy and bloomed and that was that.  But hope springs eternal, so I will try it again.

Sharin' Flowers was out of zucchini and didn't plant any rhubarb, so I went home and planted what I had.  It is supposed to rain all week and I wanted to get the first batch of plants in the ground.

   

I cut an X in the weed cloth and dug a hole for each plant.  Here is where I have to confess.  It is so late in the year, that I didn't buy the wee tomatoes in a 4 or 6 pack.  Oh, no.  I bought the tomatoes in the gallon pots.  That way I won't have to wait until summer is over to have some garden fresh tomatoes.  So I had to cut a BIG X and dig a big hole and now I will have to remember to check the plants for fruit.  Now that I don't have to go past the garden to feed the horse, I may forget it is there!

   

Later in the afternoon I bought three zucchini and planted them.  The rhubarb she planted won't be ready until next week.  I am thinking about rhubarb pie and bread and maybe some muffins.    I might get a big box of strawberries from Sam's Club and make strawberry rhubarb jam.  Doesn't that sound good?

I better hurry up and lose weight.  I need to start baking again. 

Pralines

We are having company for lunch tomorrow.  It always gets me worked up when we do.  I want things to be perfect.  How will we have a B&B????

I plan to make a Strawberry Puff for dessert.  I have never made this dessert, so I am worried.  Just in case I make a terrible Strawberry Puff, I made some pralines.  They are my fall back dessert for tomorrow.  But because they are sooo good, I may just serve BOTH.  Lucky guest.

I have a recipe I got from Emeril.  No, not personally from Emeril, but it is his, nonetheless.

Pralines

1/2 pound light brown sugar, (1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons) 

OK, I only had the dark kind and I used it.  It's a bit darker than yours will be.  Don't worry about it.  That's MY job.

pinch of salt
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons evaporated milk  I have no idea what to do with the left over.  Feed it to the cat?  In your coffee?  I tossed it.  But I made a double batch to lessen the waste.

1 1/2 teaspoons butter

1 cup chopped pecans.  I bought pecans in bulk from Costco when we had a card.  They are now a bazillion miles away, negating any savings, so now we buy them from Sam's Club.

                                  

Mix sugar, salt, milk and butter in a large, heavy sauce pan.  If you have a Le Crueset french oven, use that.  I used my Martha Stewart version, which is way cheaper and works great. Stir constantly (OK, that is the lawyer talking.  Stir most of the time and keep an eye on it.) with a wooden spoon until the sugar dissolves.  Then add the chopped pecans.

                                    

 Cook over medium heat until the temperature is 234-340, or soft ball stage.  Use a thermometer.   I try to guess soft ball stage and it is always wrong.  Just buy the stupid thermometer and go with that.  It will start to pull away from the pan.

                                       

Remove pan from heat and stir rapidly until it starts to thicken.  Drop the pralines by the teaspoon onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.  Or do what I do and use the Silpats right on a granite counter top.  Easy peasy.

                                     

Store in an airtight container.  Yeah, or throw them in a Ziploc bag.  Both work.

I made a double batch, so I hope she likes them.  Or I will be eating these for, well, maybe a day???  I could stretch it out to two days, but I doubt it.  Maybe I need to go to the library and give them some pralines.