Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

With the month of May comes the strawberries and rhubarb here in Hickery Holler. This is actually the second picking of rhubarb. Remember I canned rhubarb in jars a few weeks ago. But that was a small picking. This was a really large picking although I think there may actually be a small picking again later in the season. We will have to wait and see what happens with the temperature and rainfall. Saturday afternoon I picked rhubarb, strawberries and spinach. Once I get this all canned then I am going to pick the first row of mustard that I planted which is also ready to pick and can.  But for this post I am going to make strawberry rhubarb jam. 

First wash, drain and remove the stems from your berries.  Also wash and chop rhubarb in 1/2 inch pieces. I am following the recipe on page 35 of the Ball Blue Book (100th Anniversary edition) . If you would like to follow along.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam

2 cups crushed strawberries

2 cups chopped rhubarb

1 package powdered pectin ( SureJell)

1/4 cup lemon juice

5 1/2 cups sugar

Yield : about 6 half pints

First mash your strawberries until you have 2 cups 

Add your mashed strawberries to your two cups of chopped rhubarb in a large saucepan

Now add 1 box Sure Jell and 1/4 cup lemon juice to sauce pan

Put your jars in water bath canner about half full of water and bring to boil. Place lid on pot and turn off heat to keep them warm. 

Also put your lids and rings in a small saucepan of water and heat just until warm then lower to lowest setting. 

Now bring your strawberry rhubarb mixture to a full boil over high heat.

Add sugar

Stir until all sugar is dissolved

Return to a FULL rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute stirring constantly.

Remove from heat!

Skim foam if necessary. I usually add 1/2 teaspoon of margarine to my jam and it reduces this foam greatly. I forgot : ) So I skimmed off the foam and sat the bowl on the table. As soon as my family found it they started putting it on small pieces of bread and eating it. Needless to say the foam did not go to waste....

Remove hot empty jars from canner and ladle hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace..

Wipe rims  

Put hot lids on jars

Adjust rings and tighten finger tight ( Do not over tighten)

Place hot jars in canner and process for 10 minutes in boiling water canner

After your water has boiled hard for 10 minutes remove jars immediately and place on towel and allow to cool. As they cool the lids will make a pinging noise as they are pulled down and seal. I allow mine to sit until the next day then remove the rings, wash jars good with a soapy dishcloth and dry well. Label with contents and date and store in pantry. 


Isn't that a beautiful ruby red color? I made 14 jars to add to my jelly and jam shelf in the pantry. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter  


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Freezing Rhubarb

In between rains last week we managed to get the rhubarb picked. Remember earlier in the spring I canned some in jars. Last week I put up 14 jars of strawberry rhubarb jam. I saved some for strawberry rhubarb pies and I wanted to freeze some for my rhubarb cake during the year. Since the cake calls for 1 3/4 cup of chopped rhubarb I wanted to package my frozen rhubarb in 2 cup quantities.   

First I washed the stalks really well and cut out any bad spots and insect damage. Then I chopped my rhubarb stalks in about 1/2 inch pieces. I was real careful to peel any of the larger ones that I thought might be tough or stringy. Then I let the rhubarb dry real well.

Then I placed the rhubarb pieces on cookie sheets and put in the freezer to freeze overnight. 

The next morning the pieces were frozen solid and I placed 2 cups in food saver bags.

Then sealed the bags. I ended up freezing 9 bags of rhubarb ready to make cake or add to pies during the year. It was really simple just wash, dry and freeze. No blanching or cooking required. 

Blessings from The Holler 

The Canned Quilter

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Strawberries

They don't call them June bearing strawberries for nothing! Right on time the first few strawberries are turning red.  Grandson Hank has been watching these and checks them every time he comes. It has been so cool that they are ripening really slowly and many are trying to rot with all the rain. But we do manage to salvage enough for the grandchildren.  

These poor berries have been snowed on and hailed on 3 times just in May. I don't think we will have a bumper crop but any will be a blessing. 

The one hundred new strawberry roots out in the garden that I just planted have struggled after that late snow but are doing okay. They will make very little this year and I have actually pinched some of the berries off trying to encourage the plants to develop roots rather than fruit. Next year will be the year for them to produce.

Strawberries are one of the fruits that my children and grandchildren look forward to most. (last years harvest pictured above)

Nothing beats the taste of a homemade strawberry rhubarb pie....

Unless maybe it's strawberry rhubarb jam....

Or strawberry shortcake with strawberries fresh from the garden and homemade whipped cream....

Or maybe strawberry trifle...

What's your favorite strawberry recipe?

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Baking Bread

Tuesday Evening I mixed up a new bread for my gang to try. It was a wonderfully easy bread to mix that is mixed up the night before and left to rise for 12 to 18 hours then punched down for a second rise and cooked in a dutch oven on very high heat. Wednesday morning we got up to overcast skies and a drizzling rain.  What a perfect day to make bread. The great thing about this bread is that it is no knead requiring very little handling at all actually. With a batter of simply flour, water, salt and yeast it is more of an artisan bread.   

O Wise One loved it but found it rather bland so next time I am going to try adding some cheese and herbs to it. I also think that it is better with a coating of melted butter on the crust and it was better the next day in my opinion. Loved the texture though and that old cast iron dutch oven really did the trick. 


There is a wonderful tutorial for this bread over at Frugal Lliving NW
The only complaint I had was that this used 6 cups of flour and made a huge loaf : )

My next time making this loaf I am going to try this recipe over  at Simply So Good Blog

I like that this recipe is a 3 cup flour loaf and that she adds cheese, herbs and even whole grain flours to hers.  A smaller loaf is definitely more manageable for my family. 

Anyway a great bread and thanks to both these ladies for great recipes.  Check out both their blogs.  

Pardon me while I go stuff my face with some homemade bread, butter and strawberry rhubarb jam. I'll save you a bite..

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Grits For Supper

My family loves breakfast food and there are times when things get rushed around the homestead and homemade/homegrown breakfast foods make a healthier alternative to fast food. This is my husbands favorite way to eat grits and his holiday morning favorite breakfast. Every so often I make it for supper as a treat. He will eat slices of this straight out of the fridge cold!! Leftovers of this casserole never go to waste and warm in the microwave beautifully.

Cheesy Sausage Grits Casserole

4 cups water
1 tsp salt
1 cup quick cooking grits
4 eggs lightly beaten
1 pound pork sausage browned and drained
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese divided
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine softened

In a saucepan bring water and salt to boil. Slowly stir in grits. Reduce heat and cook until done.  Remove grits from heat and add a teaspoon of hot grits at a time to beaten eggs while beating eggs to temper or slowly heat the eggs. Return eggs to grits pot and stir well.

  

While grits are cooking I browned my sausage

Add milk, butter and 1 cup of cheese and sausage to grits pot and stir well. Then add sausage and stir until combined. Pour into a buttered 13 X 9 baking dish. Sprinkle 1/2 cup remaining cheese over the top.    

Bake uncovered in preheated 350 degree oven for 50 to 55 minutes or until top begins to brown. Remove and allow to cool for a few minutes. As it cools it thickens. 

Serve warm with a skillet of flaky hot buttermilk biscuits, strawberry rhubarb jam  and a mug of hot coffee.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Planting Strawberries

My 50 new strawberry plants have arrived. I ordered them from Stark Bros. They are a Missouri based supplier of fruit trees and berry starts. As the number of grandchildren increases I find that the size of the strawberry patch must increase also. If not Pawpaw and I don't get any : )

When I lived in the south strawberries were planted as an annual meaning that new plants were planted every year. My father grew strawberries commercially when I was a child and they were planted in raised rows under a black plastic. Now that I live in the North strawberries here are planted more as short term perennials. I replant my strawberry patch every 4 years or so with completely new plants as they start to naturally thin out. The existing bed of strawberry plants are 1 year old. 

They were cleaned out and weeded last week and a thin layer of rabbit poop was spread over the soil as an organic fertilizer. They are coming back nicely.



So this weekend we extended the bed with the addition of 5 more old railroad ties and filled the area with compost and rabbit manure. The railroad ties were free from a neighbor. They were in pretty bad shape but will work for what we need them for.

We then tilled, raked and watered the soil to pack it good and we were ready to plant. Now maybe with triple the strawberry plants there will be enough plants for the grandkids to get fresh berries and grandma to have plenty left over for jam and let's not forget that strawberry wine.  We had an extra few feet at the end of the bed so we divided a rhubarb plant and trans planted it there. With all the compost and manure we added they should grow there nicely!

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Dealing With Bumper Crops

With a drought in full swing through a great deal of the country I read a great deal from small farmers, gardeners and homesteaders bemoaning crop failures. I grew up on a farm and have gardened most of my life and there is one thing I have learned. No matter how great your soil or how great a gardener you are, there are going to be crop failures. This goes along with hail storms, droughts and bugs. 

The one thing that I will try to impress on you though. When it seems that God has taken away one blessing many times he replaces it with another. Here is a perfect example. This spring my fruit trees were loaded with blossoms. 

Early in the spring the young fruit just hung from the branches and a bumper crop seemed imminent. We dreamed of crisp red apples, juicy plums and sweet peaches. Then about the end of April the rain just seemed to stop. The late spring weather heated up and before spring was even over we were enduring 100+ degree days. Usually we have a few of these days in late July and August. Those beautiful fruit, no matter how much we watered seemed to just wither and fall right before our eyes. The trees already being stressed were easy picking for the numerous insects that seemed to be everywhere. Eventually we faced the facts that there would be very few fresh peach pies. That those beautiful red apples would be rare this year. And with the drought so widespread we knew that fresh organic fruit would be at a premium in the marketplace. 

But we take heart that this is a cycle and next year may be the year of bumper crop fruit. It seems that we have those every few years. 

So mother nature in her wisdom sent different blessings. We struggle to grow grapes many years because of humidity and rainfall. The fungal diseases seem to love all that moisture. But in a hot dry year those grapes just hung in beautiful clusters. Indeed we had a bumper crop. So instead of apple juice in the Hickery Holler pantry we have an abundance of sweet grape juice.   

Instead of crisp apple pies adorning our holiday tables this Thanksgiving and Christmas it is more like to be laden with butternut squash and sweet potato pies. Sweet potatoes struggle in our cooler climate and shorter growing season many years. But this drought year we look to have a bumper crop of those heat loving tubers. 

Our corn this year was plagued with not only drought but also several wind storms that blew through to lay it down several times. We managed to get a large portion on the first planting and a marginal harvest on the second. The third planting was a complete bust. But in it's wake we had bumper early crops of cabbage, green beans and tomatoes. I have already canned over 60 jars of tomato sauce alone and continue to can till frost. This will help to rebuild my tomato stock because for the two years prior to that we had very cool and wet growing seasons and the tomatoes were very slow to set fruit and ripen without the summer heat. My stock of tomato products was drastically down.  

Instead of peach and plum jam this year we will be enjoying strawberry rhubarb, blackberry and grape jam on our hot biscuits and peanut butter sandwiches. 

And in the 15 years that I have lived on this farm very rarely have we been able to grow large juicy melons. It seems that with a lack of heat and a short growing season we truly struggle to get them ripe before frost. This year I will be making watermelon rind preserves and enjoying those fresh juicy watermelons and cantaloupe in the place of peaches and plums. What a refreshing change.  

So you see despite our drought we continue to produce fresh and healthy produce. Diversity is the key and this is the one piece of advice I will pass on to all you gardeners out there. 

By the way I always can as much as possible of my bumper crops because it may be a few years before that blessing rolls around again.

But the most important thing is that our freezers, pantry and table will continue to be full of homegrown, organic and tasty food..

And if food prices increase as much as they are predicted to, this will indeed be a blessing. 

So I would love to hear what your bumper crop this year has been and also your biggest bust !   Until next time....

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter