Another day dawns. In the stifling heat, cicadas sing their mournful tune alerting all to summer’s fate. But, bursting with joy and flavor are still more delectable blueberries…waiting for me to seal their fate.  The familiar cast of characters take the stage…jars and rings – stainless steel pot and extra-large measuring cups.

Lime zest from a small lime – two tablespoons of vodka – one tablespoon of fresh lime juice – one-half teaspoon of coriander, all come together to create this refreshing jam.

 

 

The recipe comes from Saving the Season (http://www.savingtheseason.com/journal/blueberries-with-coriander-lime.html)  and couldn’t be easier. I did macerate the berries in the sugar to start and pulped them by hand to avoid the initial heating step.  The yield was four 4oz. jars, two 8oz jars and a full jam pot.  Pretty impressive for such little work.

I’m so blue…

 Blueberries as far as the eye can see…one of my favorite fruits!  Plump, tender morsels warmed lovingly by the summer sun – waiting to know their fate. Will they be eaten from eager little hands? Combined with lemon juice and zest, flour and cinnamon – enrobed in a flakey overcoat to create a sinful dessert? Or, encased in a glass jar to be opened at a later date…full of summery goodness to be enjoyed on a cold and snowy Wisconsin winter day?  That’s the question that plagues me as I wait for my fresh flats of berries…

As I pour over canning cookbooks and saved recipes I grow anxious to can again…forgetting jam burns and scorched fingers. And…twenty pounds of blueberries in hand (well, in-car)…I embark on a mission to start the 2012 Summer Canning Season (almost like it’s a official thing).  Gingerered Blueberry Jam lovingly calls my name (http://www.foodinjars.com/2011/07/urban-preserving-blueberry-ginger-jam/) I followed the recipe and ended up with 5 1/2 4oz. jelly jars – the lemon I had was a pretty good-sized fruit as the end result is more of a Lemon Blueberry Ginger Spreadable Fruit.  But…it’s oh so yummy…begging for homemade biscuits or a flakey cream scone.

…and without further ado…photos of the ordeal…

Everything is better with candied ginger, right?

Just ready to release their inner berry.

The aftermath.

Sarah’s probably thinking, you want me to do what with this?

This is what happens when you roll around on the floor, trying to get a shot of your cat and your jam, when you unknowling have jam on your arm.

Sarah’s not so sure she likes jam…

It’s all about perspective.

The fuzzy jar shot.

The notsoartsy shot of the jam pot.

So…I’m not really a blogger…

Basil Tomato Sauce.

Red raspberry jam.

Garden salsa.

So…I know this to be true. Why? Because I just spent about a bajillion minutes uploading and cropping photos for this ‘recap’ post and then deleted all of it on accident…even with the post being saved every few seconds. How can this be? Ah…the wonders of the cyberworld. So…without further ado…and without a lot of editing, downloading or otherwise – a little recap of what I canned (a very very small glimpse into the last year…maybe 10% of what I canned.)…and because I’m essentially, not a blogger…I’m not going to go back and reupload everything…so you are getting just a few unedited photos (probably from my phone…in bad light…fuzzy and all)…because that’s just how I roll…not being a blogger and all! So…enjoy the uncropped, unedited, overly LARGE photos…and I promise, when I post about my blueberries…I’ll try to do better…

Red raspberry-peach jam.

Victorian (rhubarb) BBQ Sauce.

Dilly Beans. 

 

Drunken Peaches.

Let there be greens…

Wisconsin in the Spring is a wonderous thing – full of fat robins, tulips gently pushing their way into bloom, kids outside playing in the crisp air…but not in March…and not over eighty degrees.

And, so…it’s March…in Wisconsin…and it’s over eighty degrees…and I’ve been pulling weeds…in shorts. I can honestly say that I’ve never, ever (ever ever ever) worn shorts and pulled weeds over St. Patrick’s Day weekend. It’s been a very unusual winter (and now spring) here in Wisconsin and it’s probably only going to get more interesting if mother nature has her way. And, with that in mind…I’ve started the garden.

The garden is six, very handmade, 4×8 beds that my dad and I made last year…very late in the year. Most of my seedlings that I started died a sad and lonely death because the beds weren’t in (and done) yet. Chalk it up to a first year ‘gardener’ that was winging it. This year we decided to wing it just a little bit less. The seeds have been ordered with the last frost date in mind and will be started soon – despite the overly warm temperatures now.

But, I digress…back to the greens. So, on Sunday, I planted: red salad bowl, seed savers mix (both cutting lettuce), tennis ball and red leprechaun (both head lettuce), renegade and samish spinach and dwarf grey sugar peas. I’m beyond excited because my gardening style (such that it is) is very much of the mindset ‘we’ll see’…I’m not going to be upset if something doesn’t come up…I’m more excited IF something comes up!

So…we’ll see.

Hello world!

Inspired by my millions (quite possibly), dragged kicking and screaming by one, I started canning last year.  To say that I was bit by the canning bug might be an understatement – chewed on by a nest of mosquitos might be more apt. Previously, nothing said botulism to me like a jar of canned whathaveyou…well, not anymore.

My first foray into the formidable world of canning was with peaches and raspberries, fresh from our CSA share. We (the ONE and I) went shopping for jars and a cookbook (THE cookbook)…and planned a canning date. I rounded up the things I needed, grabbed my fruit (and my husband) and took off with dreams of drunken peaches (aka peaches with vodka), raspberry jam and a mixed-fruit jam.  Hours and jam burns later…I was drained, and hooked on canning.

The summer of 2010 passed with more canning dates, a Craig’s List find from a UW professor selling fourteen boxes of jars (about twenty-some dozen), a water-bath and a hooch jug (his words, not mine) – pickles and salsas…and an obsession for this resurgent process.  Canning has seen a come-back from the 20-30 somethings that long for: the way it was, the way it should be, the way it could be, the sustainable way…you name it, people are back to canning in droves.

And, so this canning season begins, with rhubarb…and a blog.  The blogging will suck – run-on sentences, lots of commas, and sporadic thoughts. The photos will be blurry, the recipes from books and the reviews, non-existent.  But, it’s mine – a place to document my canning trials – like it or not!

So, hello world of blogging and canning…my you both succeed.