Jam & Pies

This year all the berries have been ripened very early. The Strawberries were ready in the middle of May. That is almost unheard in my area of the world. I think I got a little too excited and bought a flat of Strawberries. Than I bought a flat of Blackberries (though they might have been Marionberries). I made several jars of Strawberry Jam because everyone loves Strawberry. I also made some Mango Strawberry Jam that is wonderful. The last batch of Strawberry was Strawberry Mango Mojito....very nice tasting jam if I do say so myself. I then froze about 3 pints of strawberries so I can have some later during the summer. 

Next up Blackberries....a batch of plain Blackberry, some Blackberry Lemon Jam, Blackberry Cardamon Jam, and some Blackberry hand pies. I also bought some raspberries becasue they are my favorite, froze a couple of pints and made some Raspberry Chocolate Sauce (though it looks more like jam). I used my Fresh Tech Jam machine...this machine makes jam in about 22 minutes. The nice thing is you can make small batches of jam, 2-3 cups of fruit will make 3-5 half pints of jam. I like to make small batches of interesting jams instead of large batches, it gives me room to experiment with spices and flavors.

Finally the Cherries!!! My neighbors have a Sour Cherry tree that the cherries were falling off the tree. So I got out the ladder and picked enough for a Cherry pie. I shared some of the Cherry Pie with friends because we had too much pie in the house. Everyone was happy with the results. 

I want to get some peaches or mangos this year and make some chutney. The last time I made chutney it turned out delicious and was devoured quickly. I haven't made it in a couple of years and I think it's time to make some more. 
Of course there is going to be a lot more canning this summer as I have purple beans, cucumbers and tomatoes planted in the garden. Last year we had an abundance of tomatoes and I finally figured out how to can a decent tomato sauce. So I'm looking forward to a lot more tomato sauce this year. 
Lastly...We went up and got the Trophy Wife yesterday. It's running OK, but it needs some work. I have to talk to my mechanic and see when he's available to help me get the car in tip top shape. 

Jam & some Churn Dash Blocks

When all of our guest had left we found that we had a lot of cherries left over from their visit. I like cherries but there was a lot of cherries left at the house so I decided to make some jam. I also had some strawberries so I added those to the mix. A friend had given me some funky scissors last summer that she was using to chop herbs. I was able to use these scissors to cut up the cherries for the jam. I used my FreshTech Jam Machine and came up with 4 half pints + of Cherry, Strawberry Vanilla Jam (I gave away one of the half pints before I was able to take a photo). I think it used a little  too much vanilla in the jam, I used 2 vanilla beans and really I should have used only one. Then luck struck again...my neighbor Jessie pointed out a Golden Raspberry batch in the community garden (I thought it was just a bush of unripe raspberries), it was FULL of ripe raspberries. I picked a lot to make jam, but ended up eating some so I did not get as much jam as I had hoped. The golden raspberries if you have never had them are wonderful. They have a very fresh raspberry taste and are oh so sweet. The only down side that I found in the golden raspberries is they seem to have more seeds then red raspberries. I strain about 1/2 of the raspberries when I make jam so I don't get a seed filled jam. I think I strained about 3/4 of the golden raspberries before I made the jam. I had to add about a pint of red's to this jam to get the 3 cups needed to make the jam in my FreshTech machine. I think the red's helped make the jam a lovely golden rose color. I also added 1/2 a vanilla bean, this gave the jam a lovely flavor.    
I have been working on the churn dash quilt block. I have seen the block in older quilts and it seems to be on a lot of quilting blogs lately. So I decided to take a stab at making a churn dash block. I messed with different ways to use the squares and I really like making a red cross on the center. I think I will make a few more and see what they look like mixed together. It's a fun block but a little fussy which is not my style of quilting. I'm a pretty messy quilter...I hate having to match up points. This block really needs the points to match....so I may only make this as a test to see if I can do it.