Tag: Jam

Canning Upgrade

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In my home, I have an old school stove, but it’s very old. I know when it fails I will be upgrading to a glass top. Because I do jam canning, I know I will NOT be putting those heavy canners on a glass top. Add to that, I have a really hard time dealing with such a large pot of water with my reduced abilities.

This led me down a rabbit whole looking for a solution. I found the Ball Water Bath Canner. (Not an affiliate link.)

I just happened to have it on my price watch and found it had gone on sale for $174. It’s normally $234. That’s $60 off. I am all about the sale. Camel Camel Camel price watches said it was the lowest price, so I scooped it up.

It’s very weird to be in a situation where I have a permanent home. I’ve moved so much in rentals that I was never able to justify owning something I only used once a year. We often lived in super tiny apartments to keep rental costs down. Owning a home means we are now buying the things we want because we have space. I would have never bought such a large item in a rental.

Initially, I was worried about this water bath canner because it’s electronic. You can toss your jars in, and it thinks out all the timing for you.

However, it worked just fine after I figured out how to do it. It was super easy, and for someone that’s partially disabled? Being able to use the pour spout to get rid of the water afterwards was amazing. No more trying to haul it up and over to the sink. That was always a dicey proposition for me.

Here she is, in all her glory.

My only real concern is that water spout sticks out a lot, and I was worried long term storage might be an issue, so I stored it in the box it came in to prevent accidentally snapping it off. I would not want to ruin my jammy investment.

Since I now had this, I decided to make some marmalade. My wife loves it, and I have never done it before.

I used this ball recipe.

It says it makes 6 (8oz) half pint jars, but I ended up with 9. My oranges were HUGE.

I prepped 8 jars, and just used the 9th straight to the fridge.

Marmalade!

My experience with the Ball electric water bath canner was good. Once I let go of my worry about the process it really did simplify things for me. I was impressed that my prepped jars just hung at the right temp indefinitely. Every little bit it would remind me they were ready, but it held them just fine.

I found it easier to deal with due to my disability than a regular water canner. Just being able to pour out water into a pan when done was so much easier. If you aren’t that strong, or have issues effecting your ability to haul a giant pot around, this is not a bad solution.

I have not tested the giant steamer option, but that’s an option too. Maybe someday I will make a stack of bao rolls in it. It’s sized well for steaming big batches.

The recipe was good too. If you’ve never made marmalade before, be prepare for lots of prep work. Chopping peals, removing seeds, and prepping the fruit. It takes a while.

The recipe is nice, but the jam is a little less stiff than I’d like, but still amazing. It is a little bitter? Not bad at all, but if you are sensitive to that, you might want to prep your peels differently.

Over all, this was a great purchase, and it worked really well. If you can’t lift easily, and this is well worth it.

Jam and Garden Update

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I managed to make Jam last Friday. I took it easy all week, so I could do it.

This is fifteen jars of strawberry rhubarb jam. I could not have done it without over six pounds of rhubarb my real estate gal brought over to me. I got up super early and hit the business version of Costco at 7am, and grabbed the strawberries. So far, in my area, Costco has better fruit than anywhere, and it’s cheaper in bulk.

I was up and jamming, done by 10:30am, and back to bed for the rest of the day! That’s definitely a success because I got it done. Baby steps!

As for the garden? See for yourself.

My garden is looking good. You’ll notice I am missing broccoli in the upper left bed. I harvested it, and then all it was doing was attracting cabbage moths like crazy. I decided to pulled it. It will compost it down for next years beds. My bush tomatoes are going crazy in the back. Even with careful pruning I am no match for them.

My cucumbers on the lower left are also doing amazing. I hope I have a lot to can as pickles!

This is my old broccoli bed. It was planted with beet seeds that I soaked overnight. I also laid out some of that Rainbird irrigation tubing so I can keep them watered with the rest of the garden.

I was using the dripper ends on the broccoli going to each plant, but honestly, I prefer the drip lines. They provide enough water, and may not go to each plant, but setting up individual drippers takes time, and is hard on me to hunch over and get it sorted out. This takes minutes and works just as well.

This right here? That is the first tomato of the season. Getting the 55 day tomato seeds from botanical interests really allowed me to hedge my bets. I got a version called Glacier from Botanical Interests which is a semi-determinate, whatever that really means is up in the air for me.

I have ordered seeds from a few different places, but I find Botanical Interests has way better packets, and has information on the plants inside the packets too. Plus, I feel I get a higher germination rate on their seeds. One of the guys who runs that business has a Youtube channel called Epic Gardening. He has good videos, and tutorials, and explanations on there, with a generous side of sales. That’s how I learned about Botanical Interests, so I guess it worked out.

I am in zone 8b, and am closer to the coast. I am in a weird little microclimate that is always breezy too. Like you could be blocked on either side, but our little valley is constantly just a little breezy to outright windy. In this heat, that is a bonus.

While I am not a fan of temperatures above 70F, my garden is loving it. I have been in the Pacific Northwest my entire life, and we hit record temps all July, and are looking to do it for August as well. I figure since this is happening, my beets may get a good bit of sun and warmth to grow up.

This is the first time I have ever had this much space, and a lot of the plants I am growing are first time plants. I am shocked and pleased at how well it’s all going.

Disability and Jam Making

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My real estate gal, who sold us the house we are in, is an absolute hero. She got the sale despite multiple bids, by telling the seller our history. We are first time home owners, and we’ve both been homeless as kids. That we’ve fought our entire lives, and now that we can buy a house, we didn’t have enough to win a bid war of any kind.

The owner was older, and he chose our bid because he wanted to give us a chance, and even left us a lawn mower, and extra light bulbs, and fridge filters. The guy was a saint.

She still comes and checks in on us from time to time, and last weekend she brought me some rhubarb. My rhubarb plants are tiny, and won’t be ready for harvest for a year or more and she’s a gardener too, and had enough to spare. I was very touched by her gifts.

6.5 pounds of cleaned and cut rhubarb!

My plan was not to do more jam canning until this coming Friday, but with the lovely gift, I felt I should probably do it Sunday anyways. So I went to bed Saturday night fully intending on getting to the store in the morning.

Unfortunately for me, my body was not cooperative. Standing all day and jam canning on Friday, after a full work week was already as much as I could do. I woke up Sunday, and that was it. I was done. I was already sore upon waking. I would have liked to be able to just go go go, but I have a disability and sometimes I just can’t.

Then, I remember I could process the rhubarb by freezing it, and could do the jam this weekend. That gave me days to rest up in preparation for this.

Processing rhubarb.

I cleaned, and cut up all the rhubarb. I peeled the bigger stalks, but left the smaller ones whole. I laid them out on cookie sheets and froze them in batches.

I then packed them into freezer ziplock. I packed two jam bags with the exact amount I need for the jam I am making, and I still have pounds of it leftover. My wife is thinking of making a pie out of some of it. This is honestly garden gold right here.

Sometimes you can only do what you can do. I do have a physical disability, but it would be the same if my disability wasn’t physical in nature. Sometimes you just have to slow down. I have to remind myself that it’s okay to slow down.

I am trying to give myself the grace I would give someone else. If someone came to me and said I can’t do this today. I am already sore, and it might push me into a painful situation where I will go to work the next day and struggle? I’d totally give them the out.

But I think it’s harder to give ourselves that same grace. It’s easy to tell ourselves we can power through, that everyone else is fine, why not us? It think that is a hidden struggle with disability, especially if you have an invisible one.

When I first started having problems with my joints, I did that all the time. It ended up with me in pain, flat on my back. Now, if I slow down, and just do what I can? It just works out better.

I am still going to get that rhubarb jam made, but it will be on my timeline, when I am able. That’s okay.

Blueberry Jam and Syrup

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Yesterday was blueberry canning day. We got up super early, and went to the business Costco that is open at 7am. We bought 8 flats of 18oz blueberries. We only needed 6.5 flats, but that meant we could have blueberry smoothies, and my wife can make a blueberry cobbler later. We paid under $40 for all of them.

As an aside, I have purchased canning berries all over town. Trader Joes, Fred Meyers, QFC, and some farmers market stands. They don’t hold a candle to the quality and price of Costco where I am at.

I used two recipes:

  • Blueberry Syrup – Ball complete Book of Home Preserving – page 193
  • Blueberry Jam – Ball Back to Basics – page 63

I only use ball or USDA recipes. I follow them religiously, as if my life depended on it. Which it kind of does with canning, because botulism is not how I want to end my time on earth.

The first thing I did was prep the syrup blueberries because they have to drain for like 2+ hours. I used one of those jelly bag rigs that you can buy on amazon, (not an affiliate link) and just set it up on a bowl to drain. It was a rather macabre scene, and I felt like a witch making a potion.

This actually took more like 4 hours and it probably could have been left a few more.

There are recipes like Ball’s 2-in-1 that lets you make blueberry butter with the solids that remain, but honestly, I tasted the solids after I let it drain. They taste flat, and are all the flavor is very reduced. I just composted the solids that were left in the bag, which was quite a bit more than I expected. My compost bin now looks like a murder scene.

Once that was set up, I then started with the blueberry jam. My jam recipe was small, so I had to do it twice to get the yield I wanted. That was fine. I was expecting to take the day for this.

The biggest amount of time was the water bath heating up. I had to toss the water and start over between the second jam load and the syrup because jam got into the water, and crystalized sugar on all the jars.

Syrup on the stove, and jam cooling on the towel.

The syrup took longer than I expected because my recipe called for heating it to 230F. My wife kept assuring me it takes a while because she’s a candy maker and baker, but this took FOREVER. It was also getting into afternoon and my house was already hot. I am not a patient man when I am sweating.

My jam turned out perfect, but the syrup was very thick. I think between how long it took to boil, and the pectin in the fruit, it ended up thickening up. I basically ended up with 8oz jars of blueberry syrup concentrate.

To remedy this, I made up a simple syrup of 1/2 cup water to 1/2 cup sugar, and added that to my 8oz jar of syrup for the fridge. It did not dilute the blueberry flavor at all.

Costco restaurant squeezie bottles for the win!

Just listening to the canning jars POP when they sealed was cool as hell. Every time a jar popped I ran to my wife and told her. She apparently thinks I am cute when I do this. It’s the best part of canning. It’s when you know you did it right.

We tested the syrup out this morning when I made waffles.

WAFFLES!

These were great. Like the raspberry and strawberry jam, the flavors are through the roof. I cannot buy jam that tastes this good. You just can’t. It’s not blueberry flavoring, but real blueberries. It’s tart and sweet, and so fresh tasting.

I don’t know if I can go back to buying jam. It’s just not the same.

Canning Jars Have Arrived

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All my canning jars have arrived. I have some more 8 oz and 4 oz ones, but I have a plan for this next month that will be canning heavy.

My canning list is as follows:

  • Blueberry Jam
  • Blueberry Syrup – for pancakes!
  • Blackberry Jam
  • Raspberry Jam
  • Strawberry Jam
  • Marmalade
  • Pickles – from the garden.
  • Tomato sauce/paste/in general – from the garden. I don’t know what form this will be in, but boy howdy! will there be a lot of tomatoes this year!

The raspberry and strawberry are on the end of the jam list because I still have some from the last time.

We eat a lot of jam, though. We have it on toast, with peanut butter, and on waffles and pancakes. It’s also good with crackers on a cheese plate. Discovering home canned jam was like a doorway into accelerated jam use. From my estimate we have probably doubled how much we eat now. I’m cool with that. It’s easy and fun to make.

My plan is to maybe do some this weekend, and then try for two jams at a time until we are done with the jam and syrup list for the year.

Marmalade is new to me, so I have to figure that out. My wife loves orange marmalade. I have a recipe and will figure it out. I use pretty exclusively Ball recipes because there are some very dangerous canning directions online, and I am not really okay with sources that are not Ball or the US government preservation sites. Botulism is not the end I want, so I am going to stick to safe recipes.

I have never done pickles or tomatoes. I just have them growing in my garden, and wanted to water bath can some for the year.

That’s super ambitious, but I am into it. We will see how far I get on my plan, but I am all set up and ready to go.