Summer in Jar Revisited
I have spent many hours in the woods trying to harvest enough blueberries to make jam. This is the summer that will allow for more of the berries to be there for the bears. I have a zip lock quart bag but there are too few berries ripe and they are smaller than normal.
Last Sunday I stopped at a farm that advertised in my local shopper which is a buy or pick you own place. These blueberries are not the same as those wild berries that I bend over for hours but when you want to make jam for holiday gifts you have to decide where to get your berries. Of course, the store was closed on Sunday so this week when I go up to the lake on Friday I will try again to them again. I need my berries!
Most of the articles published this year on canning where printed in early June. I am not sure who was ready to start canning at the time. I warn you that lots was made or said about food safety. My own hints are never reuse lids, always sterilize your bottles before your start and make sure all the utensils that you will be using are sterilized too. Keep the area clean, use a new sponge to wipe counters and a clean towel to wipe off bottles.
One thing missing from their articles was that you should write a story about the women and men in your families kitchen canning while you were growing up. At my house it was my grandmother and my mother. Oma made her jam all in the oven rather than on the stove and I am not sure why she did that way but her strawberry jam was great. Mom used the cooked cherries for her summer soup with floating egg white islands on them. I am sure they could not been seen as healthy today. I loved it as a kid and they were are real sign that summer really was here.
You may want to have the stories accompany the jars if they are gifts. You make them look special by adding art from a scrap booking store or just add them to your cookbook. I think adding family stories really makes your cookbook an heirloom for your family members. Stories can be just a paragraph or they can be pages. It is all up to you. But the hints should be part of the recipes or the stories too.
Last Sunday I stopped at a farm that advertised in my local shopper which is a buy or pick you own place. These blueberries are not the same as those wild berries that I bend over for hours but when you want to make jam for holiday gifts you have to decide where to get your berries. Of course, the store was closed on Sunday so this week when I go up to the lake on Friday I will try again to them again. I need my berries!
Most of the articles published this year on canning where printed in early June. I am not sure who was ready to start canning at the time. I warn you that lots was made or said about food safety. My own hints are never reuse lids, always sterilize your bottles before your start and make sure all the utensils that you will be using are sterilized too. Keep the area clean, use a new sponge to wipe counters and a clean towel to wipe off bottles.
One thing missing from their articles was that you should write a story about the women and men in your families kitchen canning while you were growing up. At my house it was my grandmother and my mother. Oma made her jam all in the oven rather than on the stove and I am not sure why she did that way but her strawberry jam was great. Mom used the cooked cherries for her summer soup with floating egg white islands on them. I am sure they could not been seen as healthy today. I loved it as a kid and they were are real sign that summer really was here.
You may want to have the stories accompany the jars if they are gifts. You make them look special by adding art from a scrap booking store or just add them to your cookbook. I think adding family stories really makes your cookbook an heirloom for your family members. Stories can be just a paragraph or they can be pages. It is all up to you. But the hints should be part of the recipes or the stories too.
Posted by Hella at 7/21/2009 10:19 AM 
Categories: Cookbook Writing, Adding More than Recipes In Your Cookbook, Create a Family Recipe Cookbook, Kids in the kitchen
Tags: gardens canning recipes cookbook writing hints for your cookbook family memory cookbooks creating a cookbook
Categories: Cookbook Writing, Adding More than Recipes In Your Cookbook, Create a Family Recipe Cookbook, Kids in the kitchen
Tags: gardens canning recipes cookbook writing hints for your cookbook family memory cookbooks creating a cookbook
While catching up on my food reading I saw an article in the NY Times talking about gardening on your duff that was set up to be a lazy gardener. He has panted raspberries and waits for them to grow and just picks them. I want to up him once and double down..I just go into the woods. It land owned by the County and State and no one plants but nature. The only competition for the fruit are the wild creatures.Yes, I am left to the good nature of the weather but so is the home gardener. Frost can be the enemy and too much rain. This year everything is late to the cooler temps in Northern Wisconsin but the blueberries finally ripened after I bought my organic ones for canning. I spent a hour picking for dessert yesterday. So just call me the truly lazy gardener. But I agree on the asparagus planted as well as the rhubarb that are my first signs that spring has really come.
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