Strawberry Update

Earlier this spring, I posted about how I've purchased the Mara des Bois strawberry plant, believing that it would not develop runners. Okay, so I believed wrong. It has produced numerous runners. This was what I wanted to avoid because it's a pain in the rear to try and keep the plants and its bedding under control. The easy solution is to cut off all those runners, but I hate killing off a potential strawberry plant. Aw shucks, I think I'm going to resort to that. I still haven't gotten any fruit yet, although I've gotten some flowers from the plants. I blame the lack of strawberries on the wild life roaming or passing through my yard.

Well, guess what? That unknown strawberry plant that I "saved" from the side of my house is producing flowers. To me, that's an indication that the plant is not a June-bearing variety. It could also mean that the weird weather we've had lately (it feels as if we're off by a month) is making the strawberry think that it's June. Hmmmm . . . . I will have to keep investigating.

Serene Sunset

Sunsets can be (and are often photographed) crimson and blazing, setting the sky on fire, even after the sun is long gone. Tonight I looked outside my window to see what was left of today's sunset: the the misty blue clouds, dark azure forms, and a faintly salmon tinged sky. Tonight's sunset was not a red-hued sunset, but a quiet blue sunset. How could I not try and capture the moment, despite not having the best camera and lens. Tonight's sunset was serene and left me reflecting on how blessed I am. It really was a beautiful sunset.

Hope all is right in your world. Take time to see the sun set and reflect on your own blessings.

Purple Plum Tree

[Taken July 12, 2011.]

Bluberry-Lemon Jam

This year, I wasn't able to harvest my own blueberries. The birds got to the lovely fruit once it began to turn a medium shade of purple. I, therefore, opted to purchase five pounds of blueberries. I gave about half away and still had about six cups of blueberries left. Of the remaining six cups, I made blueberry-lemon jam from the last four cups.

As I stated before, I still can't seem to find my pectin, so I did a little research. I thought that citrus rinds, like lemon, have a lot of pectin in it. Later, I reread the article and discovered that it isn't the rind, but the pith (the inner white part that's underneath the rind) that has a lot of pectin. (You can read more about making your own citrus pectin at this website: http://foodpreservation.about.com/od/Preserves/r/Homemade-Citrus-Pectin.htm.) Well, it didn't matter because my jam still turned out great and firmed up. By the way, blueberries have a medium amount of pectin, which isn't too bad. This may have helped to firm up the jam.

The blueberry-lemon combo is actually quite refreshing. I find that the lemon zest really brightens up the blueberry. I also made the jam with less sugar because I wanted the blueberry and lemon flavors to shine through. It is quite a yummy jam.

Low Sugar Blueberry-Lemon Jam

Yield: Approximately 5 half pint jars.

4 Cups of blueberries (if available, substitute 1/4 C of unripe blueberries for 1/4 C of ripe blueberries)
2 tsp of lemon zest (approximately the rind of one medium lemon)
1/4 Cups of lemon juice (approximately juice of two medium lemons)
2 Cups of sugar


1. Put blueberries, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a pan. Cook over medium or medium-high heat. Stir constantly. Bring to a rolling boil. Turn the heat down a bit.

2. Add the sugar, stirring until incorporated. Turn heat up to medium and stir constantly. Stir until jam comes to the consistency you desire (e.g. how firm or soft you want the jam to be). Turn off heat.

3. Let jam cool for a couple of minutes, can the jam, and hot water bath the canned jam.

Fresh Garlic

Two days ago, on Thursday, I went to the farmers market and purchased two bundles of garlic. I chose the biggest heads I could find among the many sellers selling their wares. I chose to purchase this particular garlic, not only for the size of the heads, but also because the sellers grew the garlic in Minnesota climate and gardens. The pictures are a bit misleading because the garlic heads are not as big as the ones you find in the store or as big as the ones that my mom grows. However, unlike the garlic found in the store and grown by my mother (which are use to California climate and planting seasons), I think the garlic I picked up may be hardy for me to plant in my garden.

I am taking the two largest heads out of the bundles to plant in my garden this fall. I will consume the rest. I've already added fresh garlic to my scrambled eggs and a pasta salad. I find the garlic to be very fresh tasting but not overpowering. The garlic also has a "buttery" taste to it. I can't really explain it, but it's really good. I don't know why I haven't grown my own garlic, but I will try this fall. A post about my foray into garlic growing will be forthcoming. Until then, I urge you all to go find your own sources of fresh garlic and enjoy.

Neighbor's Dog

[He's always in my 'hood (a.k.a. my yard).]

Plum Jam

I garden in zone 4 (you can find out more information about the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's zones and what zone you're in at this website: http://www.garden.org/zipzone/). Since this is the only gardening zone I know the most about, there are certain things that I can expect to occur at this time of the year in the garden. I have an idea of what occurs outside of my zone but I don't have a definite knowledge as to what's going on. Well, I didn't know that plums were ripening in zone 8 at this time of the year. I thought that with the early spring and summers that occur in zone 8, plum season would have already been over.

Through my family (my mom's neighbor's have a tree that's laden with fruit), I acquired some cherry plums. I don't know the variety, but I do know that the fruit has a light magenta skin with a peachy colored meat and are quite sweet. I got a big bowl worth of fruit and I really wanted to preserve as much of the fruit for the upcoming months. So, I decided to try making plum jam.

Due to so much of my stuff being in storage (or in storage like conditions), I couldn't find my pectin. I thus searched on the internet, did some reading, and decided that I could go ahead with making plum jam without pectin because the fruit already contains a moderate amount of pectin. I also added a lot of lemon juice too, just in case. I came up with the recipe below to make my plum jam. I think the internet recipe I found used one tablespoon of lemon juice for every two cup of plums, but as I was cooking, I found that my jam was too runny, so I added more lemon juice instead of more sugar.

PLUM JAM RECIPE

Yield: 5 half pint jars.

4 Cups of plums (pitted, quartered, but not peeled)

2 Cups of sugar

4 Tblsp of lemon juice

1. Put plums, sugar and lemon juice into a pan. Cook on medium heat until the plum mixture comes to a rolling boil. Remember to constantly stir the mixture.


2. Test jam for the proper consistency (I like my jam somewhat firm and not runny). Once it's to your liking, then can and hot water bath the jam. You can go to this website to learn more about canning (http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/348/348-594/348-594.html).

Now, I cooked my plum mixture for a longer time. Various recipe authors stated that they cooked their jam for only thirty minutes or so, but in testing my jam, I found that at thirty minutes, it was too runny. I used a cold white plate to test my jam (e.g. put a white plate in the freezer for at least ten minutes, take the cold plate out of freezer, throw a little hot jam onto the plate, and see if the jam becomes firm or wrinkles if pushed on the plate). I cooked the jam probably for a total of fifty minutes, which is too long in my opinion, but I hate runny jam. I just think these plums were very juicy and I just didn't want too much sugar in my jam.


Anyhow, the end result is beautiful and tastes wonderful. I just hope I didn't overcook my jam so that it's too firm for spreading on my toast.

Bouquets of Squash Blossoms

Happy Fourth of July and "Hello World"

I hope everyone who celebrates the Fourth of July is having a wonderful three day weekend. I am finally taking time for a breather and just trying to relax before having to go back to work.

This weekend has reminded me that I often take for granted how "connected" I am to the world through the internet, especially in this day and age of technology, and my heavy reliance on electricity. People, a huge storm came through my neck of the woods this past Friday and I (along with many of my neighbors) were without electricity for two days and two nights. The county I lived in fared a lot better than other counties (at least we didn't get a tornado warning after a severe thunderstorm warning); however, I still found the whole experience a bit scary.

There was lots of rain (which was nice to have after the last several hot days), thunder, lightening, hail (see the golf ball size hail in the picture above), and ferocious winds. I didn't mind not having electricity that Friday night, but the next day I realized that so much of my home used electricity in order to properly function (e.g. refrigerator, stove, water pump, etc.).


Looking at my yard, I was pretty lucky, especially compared to my next door neighbors. I had lots of debris (e.g. tree branches, leaves, sticks) thrown into my yard and one of the limbs on my maple tree got torn off, but that was it. One of my neighbor's very mature (but healthy) pine tree was uprooted, but it's a good thing it didn't fall on anyone's home or garage. In retrospect, I'm so glad that I took out my dying red oak and dying maple tree earlier this spring. Who knows what could have happened had I left them on the property for another year.


Well, I hope you all had a safe and wonderful weekend.