Mmmmmm.... I LOVE Jam!!

Yes, I made more strawberry jam!! Cowboy and L bought me 4 more quarts of strawberries at a local farm market. I prepared them and put them in the freezer until I had time to make the jam. I followed the recipe in the Ball pectin package again and got 9 jars! (one went right to the fridge when cool to eat!)

When I went to buy the case of jars I also picked up the book from Ball, their Blue Book Guide to Preserving which I checked out from the library many times last summer and for a very

reasonable price it was a good investment for me!

Garden Progress: 6/21/2010

HAPPY SUMMER!! Today is officially the first day of summer so we got out the kiddie pool and L splashed and played for a couple hours!

Not a full update on the garden, but a partial update of 2 of the boxes in the backyard. We've been enjoying lots of spinach, lettuce and radishes. The radishes and spinach have almost reached their end but there are plenty more vegetables come in!

I have 6 big tomato plants all blooming! The onions are coming along nicely. We've been picking some here and there to use in cooking already. And the carrots are hopefully coming along since all I can see are the big tops!

My one big mistake this year, the yellow squash plants on the left were not suppose to be a bush variety, then were planned to climb the trellis, so I planted a couple more lemon cucumber plants to grow up the trellis with the ones I had started earlier. The lemon cucumber are sending out their first "climbers" and wrapping around the trellis. What is the name of the little things they send out to wrap around things anyway??

Garden Harvest 6.1&2.2010

The first couple harvests out of the garden weren't photo worthy, just a few spinach and lettuce leaves here and there and a few radishes. Yesterday I was able to harvest enough spinach and lettuce to have a salad along with a bunch of radishes. Today brought another bundle of radishes!

This was today's bundle, one odd white one in there!

I know that I can let them get a lot bigger, but my husband prefers them when they are smaller.

And yesterday's harvest:

Canning and Preserving: First batch of 2010

For the first time last year I attempted canning and it went great! Since last fall when I did my first canning, my mom passed my grandma's canning pot onto me so I couldn't wait to do more!!

The first canning of the 2010 season: Strawberry Jam

It would be even better if I had grown the strawberries, but I bought them. I just used the recipe in the Ball's pectin box. I think I might try a lower sugar recipe because this is super sweet, but it's REALLY good!

One thing I learned is that the 8oz. jars set up better... so we're just going to eat the bigger jars first! I cracked one open this morning to put on toast and it was delicious!