Garden Huckleberries...some jam and a dessert

I have a nice plot up in the community garden about a block from my house. Last year someone started growing bushes of Garden Huckleberries. I watched as they grew into a beautiful dark almost black berries. I wanted so much to pick the berries as I have a fascination with berries that you don't see regularly in the stores. I had heard that Wild Huckleberries are delicious but difficult to find. So when I saw that someone was growing Huckleberries in the garden I was envious. 

Well lucky for me...last week I was up covering my small space with leaves for the winter and walked past the plot that had the Huckleberries. The plants had been pulled from the ground and stacked to the side with other discarded shrubbery from the plot. Why would someone spend the summer growing something only to toss it out? The berries were on top and they looked fresh. So I went home and got a large bowl, I went back and picked all the discarded berries I could. 

I was a little afraid of how to use these precious berries. I had bought some local made huckleberry jam this summer to see what it tasted like and though I like it...it was a little tart. So I was not sure what to make with the berries...Did I really need more jam? After some research I found that Garden Huckleberries are a little sweeter than the Wild Huckleberries. 

 

I looked at a couple of recipes to use the berries in. Everything I found said that Garden Huckleberries have to be cooked before you can eat them and I wanted to make a pie or other dessert of some kind. I found this recipe for Double Ginger Huckleberry Cobbler. It was on a hiking web site and called for one cup of Huckleberries. You put a Bisquick mixture on top and let it cook in the pot with the lid on for about 12 minutes. I of course added some whipping cream and had a wonderful dessert. It was sweet but not too sweet, the flavor had a soft almost floral taste. I fell in love with this dessert.  Since it had a wonderful soft sweet taste I decided to make some jam. 

I was able to get 3-8oz jars and 3-4oz jars of jam. One jar broke when I put it in the water bath. That is only the second time I have had a jar break in the water bath in 30 years I have been canning. Though I was a little upset it had to happen to my Huckleberry Jam. I can't wait to try this on an english muffin or maybe a sauce on some salmon. Either way...I think next year I will try to grow my own Garden Huckleberries in my community garden plot. 

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. 

Winter is here

When the weather starts to get cold and rainy I start to think about nesting and hibernating through the dark months of winter. I go to my studio and sew or I bake. The last couple weeks I have done a little of everything. I bought some nice pink burn out tissue jersey at mill end. I liked the drape and it was inexpensive so I bought a couple yards. I made a shirt from a pattern that has proven to be the best t-shirt pattern I have made so far. It's the Jalie 2805 shirt pattern that has a few different neck line varieties. I tend to like a nice v-neck but with the cold weather I decided to try the jewel neck line.  From this adventure I realized I do not like working with tissue jersey...it takes forever to get the pattern pieces to meet properly. I fussed a lot with this material. I did add a neck band to the pink material because it seemed very loose and I thought it would help keep the neck from stretching out too much. After my struggle with the tissue jersey I cut out a basic black shirt. I found a black cotton jersey sheet at the Goodwill and thought it was a decent material, very soft. I made the same jewel neck shirt, it's wonderful. It took me about 1 hour to make, no fussing to meet the pattern pieces it all went together beautifully. I decided not to add a collar band to the black shirt and instead finished the neck with a rolled hem stitch on the serger. I think this it my new winter shirt, its soft and warm. I had enough to make another shirt so I made a v-neck with long sleeves (the other shirts are 3/4 sleeve's). I really really like this pattern. I did a rolled hem on the v-neck shirt too, but it puckered a bit more than I wanted. It's a warm comfortable shirt and I'm already planing a few for more.

It was also time to get the last of the peppers from the garden. One of the gardeners in our community garden pulled all his pepper plants and left them in the garden to rot...so I took some more peppers and pickled the last of the vegetable from the garden. The peppers are great on sandwiched and in salads. I also found a recipe for Salted Cantaloupe Jam. I had made some Cantaloupe Jam from the book "Food in Jars" and I loved it. I thought the Salted Cantaloupe Jam sounded great. I bought a cantaloupe but it had to sit and ripen for a couple of days as it was very hard. I made the salted jam in my FreshTech Jam maker and it came out quite nicely. I was surprised at how different it tasted because of the salt. It really changed the taste, it was more of a woodsy and slightly sweet taste. I think it would go nicely on chicken or pork as well as on toast. 

Lastly I made another pair of pants for my husband. He wanted some wool pants. I found this nice balk wool at Scrap. It was about 5 yards of material for $10. I used 2 for the pants so that is a cheap pair of wool pants. I finished the pants this evening and my husband tried them on, he did not like that the pockets tended to stick out on the sides. Not sure why this happened or how to fix it with out taking the pants apart. I told him the flair to the pockets it has a slimming effect. We will see if the believes it or if he sends them back for me to "fix" the pockets.

I also had to go to the dump the other day and I found a box of photos. It's always sad to see someones life in photos tossed. Most of the photos were from a remodel of a 'Mary's Kitchen", but there were also several other remodel projects photos. Along with the remodel photos were several family photos, and photos of what looked like high school parties from the mid to late 80's. 

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. 

Preserving!!!

I love to can, mostly I like to make jam. Sometimes I have too many tomatoes and I make tomato sauce.  I have found that my husband does not always use the tomato sauce so this year I caned whole tomatoes. I have a lot of tomatoes. Today I preserved 7 pints of whole tomatoes and garlic. I still have a lot of tomatoes to preserve. 

Later in the evening I used my Ball FreshTECH Automatic Jam and Jelly maker to make a quick batch of jam. Blueberry and Strawberry jam in 30 minutes…It's wonderful, some of the strawberries are from our garden. I'm still getting strawberries this late in the year. 
  

I also pickled some Onions from my garden and some beans that a neighbor gave us. The beans are called Dilly Beans. 

There is something rewarding about preserving things that you grow yourself. 

Homesteading

Last week on vacation,  I spent the week making jam, dyeing fabric and sewing. What is it about making things for yourself that is so satisfying? I have always felt better wearing clothes I make…even when there are mistakes in the construction. I love having home-made jam on toast in the morning and I love the process of putting fruit and vegetables up for the winter.
It's something that my mothers aunts and my great grandmother instilled in me, the ability to provide for myself, the feeling I get when I have just completed a quilt or put up a batch of jam is one of the most satisfying thing that I can think of.

The 10 batches of Jam I made on vacation with a friend.

The quilt top I made before I left for vacation…this is the next project that I want to complete.