One thing I love to make more than anything in the world is jam and jelly. I have these really cute jars that I get from the Specialty Bottle Company and I even had some friends help me make labels for some of them. I named my jam Hohlberry, which has more significance than you would think because my Grandma Berry taught me how to make raspberry jam which started this all. She died a few years ago and we really miss her! Her spirit lives on in my jam though and I hope she's hanging out with me in the kitchen while I cook. The jams in the photo are, from left to right, sour cherry jam, peach, sugar-free peach, grape, and pomegranate jelly. I'm making some more sour cherry jam tomorrow. It's the best of all the kinds. Yum!
I don't really have any special methods for making jam. I just do what they tell me on the box of pectin. I do, however, use my rice cooker to process my little jars and since I've been making jam so often, I can whip out a batch of jam in about half an hour from start to finish. I can even make bread at the same time and have hot fresh ground multi-grain, wheat bread with my hot cherry jam. Now if I could just learn to make the butter, I'd be set! Have any of you ever tried to make butter? Someone please tell me that it's really easy and I should start making it too. I'm going to make a batch of yogurt this week for my guests and we'll see how it turns out. I can mix it with my jam and serve it for breakfast. Yes!
9 comments:
Wow, that sounds delicious! I'm sorry I'M not your guest this week! :) And sorry, I have no idea how to make butter. Good luck!
save some jam for us, sounds yummy! Gabe and I have been reading Little House in the Big Woods and there is some information in there about making butter but you may want to research a more modern method :) You may want to think about getting a cow.
Hey Amelia! You might be interested in my cousin's wife's blog-- mommadeit.blogspot.com. If anyone knows how to make butter, it would probably be her :) I miss your jam this year!
Yum! The sour cherry sounds great. Where do you get your cherries? Are you going to do a post on your bread? I'd like to see your recipe. Also, what kind of grinder do you have?
Have you made yogurt before? I've been wanting to try that. Please let me know how it goes and if it is worth it!
The jam and bread sound yummy! wish we could be there next week with you guys.
sour cherry jam sounds amazing! and I agree with your friend, Sarah, you should post your bread recipe. sounds amazing!
Oh, I will have a cow someday and I'll make poor little Bea go out and milk it every morning. I get my cherries from Michigan. I ordered them from a farmer's market that distributes them. It was a great deal at $58 for 30 lbs of cherries in their own juice. I've seen a bottle of cherry juice for $25 at the store. Such a rip off! I'll post about my yogurt after Christmas.
How to make butter: get raw milk (the difficult part is finding it, I've seen it for sale in natural food stores for upwards of $11/gallon, if you make friends with the right dairy farmer it is much, much cheaper).
Refridgerate the raw milk overnight in a wide-mouth jar/jug, then carefully ladle the cream off the top the next morning. Put cream into a blender and blend on high/whatever it is until it is a VERY pale yellow and is thick and smooth. Add butter or not, depending on what you are using it for.
Do not put the cream into a big jar and instruct your children to start shaking unless they have been very bad and you want sub-par butter.
*add SALT, not butter to taste. D'oh!
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