One advantage of living in southeastern Virginia Beach, Virginia, is the many local farms one can visit to pick up various fresh fruits, vegetables, and berries that are in abundance this time of year, and we did just that. Saturday morning, we rounded up the kids, got all the house work done, piled into the F-250, and headed a few short miles south of our small time Urban Farm in search of some of the sweetest berries we could find. Pungo Blueberries is the stop for PYO (pick your own) blueberries and blackberries. With all three kids toting buckets, the score was quickly absconded. We had our bounty in a matter of twenty minutes or so, then headed across the dirt road by foot to gain a score on the blackberries.
We yielded roughly five pounds of each variety for Scisssors’ jam canning urge. She spent the whole trip thinking about the many varieties of jams that are possible with this small harvest. There’s nothing better than fresh home-made spiced blueberry jam hand crafted and picked fresh by the ones you love. She even made blueberry maple pecan conserve with raisins, and from what I tasted during canning, I can’t wait to get it on a piece of toast tomorrow morning.
Shortly after paying for our buckets of black and blue gold, we headed up the road to our favorite farm, Cullipher Farm. The Cullipher’s have been around for years and always offer the best produce at the best deal. Although we grow our own, we usually stop through to pick up ugly tomatoes for canning. I mean twenty-five pounds of ‘maters for eight bucks is a deal to us. This also helps jump start our canning season that kicks off this time of year. Stewed tomatoes, sauce, and salsa are atop the requirements in our cabinets, especially for those busy days when we need something quick.
As you can see, we spent darn near all day in the kitchen breaking out all our canning gear, thumbing through recipes, and hoppin’ straight to it. Scissors dove straight in on the blueberry jam, then I pulled up the rear by blanching, peeling, and cutting tomatoes to get them ready for our first batch of stewed tomatoes with fresh basil, oregano, and garlic. Sunday morning was a repeat of sorts, using the other half of the tom’s for salsa. Yep, I have my own recipe, and ain’t heard no complaints yet.
Earlier in the week we scored some fresh cucumbers and various peppers from a neighbor and a family friend. I whipped up a small batch of pickled cuc’s and peppers to keep them from spoiling and tossing them into the compost heap in the back quarter. Although this canning session yielded small quantities we were able to concoct:
- Blackberry Jam
- Blueberry Maple Pecan Conserve w/Raisins
- Spiced Blueberry Jam
- Black Bean and Corn Salsa
- Corn Salsa
- Cucumber Pickles
- Pickled Peppers
- Stewed Tomatoes w/fresh Basil, Oregano, Garlic
Of course we’ve have already shared some of our bounty with neighbors and friends. So, this spread is short a dozen cans or so.
We have found that when people of any mind get together on a task, it usually turns out to be enjoyment for all. The girls weren’t too thrilled after a short while in the orchards, but they gained an experience nonetheless. Once the radio is on and Scissors and I get moving in the kitchen, the dance begins and love is made, one jar at a time.
Nice.
Your family has been busy! Great photos and thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Stacey. Because of the business, we have been neglecting the blog. We’ll have more posts next week. Thnanks for stopping by.
Wow. I am impressed. Every year I say I am going to work on canning but I never get around to it. Most of my excess gets passed on to friends, coworkers and family for fresh eating. Canning kinda scares me.
Katherine-We’re impressed with you sharing your bounty with friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family. That is always better than canning. We can because we have found that we work well in the kitchen together and help each other out with our individual recipes. Canning can be a slow process for some. But once all the pots are boiling and the tools are layed out, it really goes by quickly and easily.
Just this morning we whipped up a batch of peach butter (recipe tomorrow! 07/28/2011). Took two hours out of our morning. Don’t be scared of canning. If we can give any advice it would be to keep mindful of the temperature of everything involved. Your mixture, jars, lids, water bath all need to maintain temperature, and the rest is easy.
Thanks for joining the conversation!
[...] Well, tonight we had a healthy dinner consisting of Asian Chicken & Cauliflower with a side salad. Healthy? Yeah, unfortunately. Why is it so hard to be rich and skinny, but so easy to be fat and poor? Anyway, I decided to seal the healthy deal with something fried. ‘Cause that’s how I diet. Something fried sounds divine. These donuts were pretty flipping delicious and easy….and all 8 were gone in 60 seconds. The filling? Our homemade Blueberry Jam that we canned last summer. [...]