Jammin'

Look at the funny way Azure shipped my Rhubarb!  It was SO long! Longer than my huge sink is deep!  Crazy, huh?! :)


Ok, so I'm sure by now you all know that I buy a LOT of my goods from Azure (whatever I can't get thru my CSA & our new Organic Pastures Co-Op!), on my very first 'shopping' adventure with them, I stumbled upon Pomona's Universal Pectin.  Never heard of it!  So I read up on it & you can make jams & jelly's with honey!  And low sugar!  It's AWESOME stuff!  Each purchase (you can buy a small packet or a pound - thru Azure is the best price) comes with a recipe sheet, but if you lose it (like I always manage to do!) it's also on their site as a PDF.  It's so easy to do all kinds of concoctions with this stuff!  Here are some of the combo's I've done:

Peach, Ranier Cherry, Blueberry w/Lemon Zest, Blueberry Rhubarb, Peach Rhubarb, Peach BBQ Sauce (recipe from Ball's Jam Book).  Today I'm going to try Orange Plum & Orange Peach.  After I get some more Rhubarb from Azure I want to try Strawberry Rhubarb!

Look at all the gorgeous blueberries, we are getting 2.5 pounds for 10!  I got 2!  The catch?  They come in a baggie & many still had stems on, so I carefully sorted them, I literally put a very small handful into the compost, the rest we gorgeous!  I sorted into 'soft for jam' & firm for freezing.

I have made a LOT of Jam in the past few years.  I started out with my Aunt Dor making microwave Jam, her thing is that every year, the day after Thanksgiving she'll make about 4 batches of her famous Pear Raspberry Jam for Christmas gifts for all her co-corkers.  If we were lucky she'd have  a few leftover for our Family's White Elephant game & 2-3 lucky lucky family members would get a small jar to last the year....She also made a microwave Jalapeno Jelly.  Although I will no longer use the microwave, I am really glad to have learned from her,it was so easy & that is still one of my most popular flavors & I add Jalapeno's to it now, for a spicy twist!

What kind of canning do you do?