Jam I Make

To go with the post about making your own jam, I thought I'd add to it. These jams are for sale, so if you'd like any, please contact me at BloomsBaker @ gmail.com for prices and availability. The most sugar I use is 1:1 fruit to sugar ratio. I also do a 3:1 ratio for the diabetics among us. It costs more to make, and therefore to sell, but is worth it. I try to keep my prices lower so folks can buy it and enjoy it for themselves. It's difficult when prices of fruit are very high and I have to add my labor in, but I do my best.

Rhubarb Jam I have few that I could eat exclusively, but rhubarb is one of them. The flavor holds its own against any amount of sugar. I love the stuff.

The picture is of young rhubarb, just emerging in the spring. The leaves are incredible looking.







Rose Jelly

I know, it sounds odd, but truly, it is delicious! I tell guys it's a girl thing. It tastes just like a rose smells and the flavor lasts so much longer than any breath could possibly try.
It's wonderful on biscuits, thumbprint cookies, or as a filling between layors of angel food cake.






Strawberry Jam

I'm not the fondest of strawberry jam, but it does epitomize the flavor of spring. It's best on a homemade white bread toasted for breakfast!

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam Yes, with rhubarb, I'm liking it. It's good for a change of pace for me, but many people consider this the ultimate jam. It's not quite as robust as just rhubarb, so I wouldn't try this on sourdough rye bread, but will do well on oat or whole wheat.

Raspberry Jam or Jelly

I tell people that if they pick the berries, I'll make the jam. I hate picking, I hate growing or buying them. This year, the price was $4.50 a PINT. I'd need a full 3 pints for a batch of jam, so this is a very cost prohibitive jam to make.
However, it is delicious and will hold it's own on any bread other than a sourdough. I'm not a fan of the two flavors mixing. And the dutch had it right - raspberry and chocolate are a match made in heaven!


Blueberry Jam or Jelly
Blueberry jelly ends up being a very delicate flavor, and should be reserved for biscuits, but will hold up to a white bread toasted.
Blueberry jam, made with the reduced amounts of sugar I use, is far more robust, allowing you to really know you're eating blueberry! I'd not pair it with anything stronger than an oat bread or a half and half whole/white wheat bread, but that's for you to decide.

Blueberry Rhubarb or Bluebarb
This is another I could eat exclusively. For some reason, the pairing of these 2 flavors is nearly potentiating - where adding gives you a multiple for a total. It will add to any bread, and is also incredible heated a bit and put on ice cream. Divine!

Peach Jam and Jelly
Peach is unique, I must say. I prefer it as a fruit butter, because it can be just too sweet as a jam. However, if you get them at just the right time and are willing to play just a little with your sugar - which is an experience thing - it is absolutely delicious on anything from biscuits to sourdough rye bread.
Peach jelly is very delicate, and makes you think of what a peach blossom must smell like. This is made when you are canning your peaches for the winter, using all of the over ripe, or bruised peaches and the skins/pits that are discarded. The color is a beautiful blush of peach, and the flavor is wonderful on a white bread toasted or on biscuits. I've not tried it in thumb print cookies, but would imagine it's very good.


Apple Jem
It's not quite jelly and not quite jam. Therefore, it's jem.
I began thinking that, with all industrial jams/jellies being watered down to half-strength, I'm guessing apply jam or jelly is pretty good. It, like all of the others in the store, is pretty flavorless, so I decided to try making some.
It's great! My first batch was made of green apples and I'd liken it to an apple pie. It's wonderful! From there, life was easy and GREAT. It does have a more delicate flavor, so it may not hold up to sourdough, but will be very good on anything else.



Quince Jam

Most people don't even know what quince is. That's sad since it's quite a cool plant and and even more cool fruit to cook. It starts out as this yellow/green, and as it cooks, it becomes a wonderful deep red. I would eat this exclusively, given the chance.
Unlike apple, it will hold up to any bread, and is also incredible in thumbprint cookies.

Of Rain And Apples

It's been a longer week, and I have to say I'm faintly relieved it's over. I sit here, staring out the door at the light rain falling, listening to it hit the leaves of the bushes nearby, and have to say I still am not minding it being a wet spring/summer so far. I know others are ready to riot over it, but I am enjoying it very much.

It seems as if, until the week, I've been going at full speed and never catching up. I'm still not nearly caught up, but am taking a breath anyway. It's allowing me to see what I really need to do and to gear up for the next round of chaos. This past week has really shown how much I've run myself down. My allergies have really taken over, making a trip to the doctor with prednisone and eye drops being necessary for at least a week.

However, blueberries don't stop ripening, the grass doesn't stop growing and the list of big projects isn't getting any shorter. So I keep doing. Today, however, was a different story. I decided to work on 2 very neglected apple trees. They're on our neighbor's property, but as long as I give her some of the apples in the fall, I can do whatever I want to the trees. Considering I usually don't get a chance to work on them until September, it's obviously a little earlier than usual.

It's been at least 20 years since these trees had any significant pruning, so a few years ago I began. Today was another one of those pruning days. I always start out working on the ground and hope that I've got the trees so I can back Dad's truck up under it to work higher in the branches. By taking many of the smaller branches out, it allows the tree to get much needed air circulation througout its canopy. Plus, those branches take valuable energy away from the tree, making it far more susceptible to diseases and low grade fruit.

While pruning, a bunch of the green apples fell. It always makes me mad - it seems so wasteful. I know I have to thin many of the apples to get larger apples, but I still get mad to see them fall. I decided to try making green apple jelly. It had started to rain, and I had a couple of quarts of the little green rocks, so figured it would be a good time to play.

I washed them up, got my handy dandy chop wizard out and ca-chunked them into little pieces. Fast! I then set them to cook for about 30 minutes. Sieved them through a fine screen to make a thin apple sauce and then cooked them according to general apply jelly directions.

It's nothing special to look at, but it tastes just like apple pie! Wonderful stuff! I'm thrilled! A way to take waste and make it delicious and useful. There is nothing better. Apple pie on toast. I'm looking forward to it!

Jam Making

I've been making jam. A lot of jam. For the farmer's market, which gives me a little cash flow, which is always nice. I can make jam - versus other far more perishable goods - when I have a little extra energy, rather than forcing the issue the day before the market. Like today!

I went and picked rhubarb at my aunt and uncles since my 2 clumps need a little time to recover. I've got enough for at least 8 batches, and probably more than that, if I really pushed the issue.

Since I hate regular store-bought jam, and since we've always made our own anyway, it seemed a natural thing for me to make to sell at the market. Sales are just starting to pick up, so I'm getting more hopeful about continuing to make it.

I always get angry when the jam doesn't set. Well, I have done a ton of research on the topic and have come to many conclusions...

Sugar is cheap. Fruit is expensive. Make jam with as much sugar as possible.

Pectin is a sugar, and needs regular sugar to help it set - it's a loose crystaline structure.

Pectin needs different cooking times with different fruits - whether you're using what's in the fruit only or supplementing with store-bought.

The sugar helps decrease cooking time as well as unify cooking times.

Rhubarb just coming up this spring.

By reading Meta Given's Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, I was able to see that longer cooking times might be needed - and won't ruin the setting. It gave the perfect visual que that the jam is ready - when the drops on the spoon suddenly congeal into one before they drop off the spoon. Ha! And that you can cook it too hotly. So if you have a longer cooking time, turn the heat down.

This also works with lower sugar amounts.

And while there are different types of pectin that will work better with high or low sugar or no sugar batches, you can putz around with it and make it work with just about any pectin. Which is why I bought a huge bag (10#) through Pacific Pectin. That'll be enough for roughly 80 batches of jam. LOL - I think I'll have enough. But still - at .80 v. 2.30 per batch, that's a huge price difference that I'd rather have in my pocket than sure jell's.

Last year's blueberries.

So right now, it's rhubarb jam and blueberry rhubarb jam. Very soon, the blubarb will be replaced with strawberry rhubarb, and strawberry. And very very soon, I'll be able to make a batch or two of rose petal jelly. The 7 sister's is getting ready to bloom, and so will use that. It's an old heritage rose that has gorgeous scent and color - perfect for jelly!

If you have a problem with your jam - cook it longer and at a lower temperature. It'll come together for you!

Pesticide Study

This is scary. Truly scary. The Environmental Working Group compiled the following list of foods (fresh fruits and veggies) harboring pesticides. It's just one more reason to really wash all produce very well before eating...

Every year, new research is published demonstrating the toxicity of pesticides to human health and the environment, often at doses previously declared "safe" by the pesticide industry and the government.

The wallet-size version

As acknowledged by the U.S. and international government agencies, different pesticides have been linked with a variety of toxic effects, including:

Nervous system effects
Carcinogenic effects
Hormone system effects
Skin, eye and lung irritation

Pesticides are unique among the chemicals we release into the environment; they have inherent toxicity because they are designed to kill living organisms – insects, plants, and fungi that are considered "pests." Because they are toxic by design, many pesticides pose health risks to people, risks that have been acknowledged by independent research scientists and physicians across the world.

1 (worst) Peach 100 (highest pesticide load)
2 Apple 93
3 Sweet Bell Pepper 83
4 Celery 82
5 Nectarine 81
6 Strawberries 80
7 Cherries 73
8 Kale 69
9 Lettuce 67
10 Grapes - Imported 66
11 Carrot 63
12 Pear 63
13 Collard Greens 60
14 Spinach 58
15 Potato 56
16 Green Beans 53
17 Summer Squash 53
18 Pepper 51
19 Cucumber 50
20 Raspberries 46
21 Grapes - Domestic 44
22 Plum 44
23 Orange 44
24 Cauliflower 39
25 Tangerine 37
26 Mushrooms 36
27 Banana 34
28 Winter Squash 34
29 Cantaloupe 33
30 Cranberries 33
31 Honeydew Melon 30
32 Grapefruit 29
33 Sweet Potato 29
34 Tomato 29
35 Broccoli 28
36 Watermelon 26
37 Papaya 20
38 Eggplant 20
39 Cabbage 17
40 Kiwi 13
41 Sweet Peas - Frozen 10
42 Asparagus 10
43 Mango 9
44 Pineapple 7
45 Sweet Corn - Frozen 2
46 Avocado 1
47 (best) Onion 1 (lowest pesticide load)

An EWG simulation of thousands of consumers eating high and low pesticide diets shows that people can lower their pesticide exposure by almost 80 percent by avoiding the top twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead. Eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables will expose a person to about 10 pesticides per day, on average. Eating the 15 least contaminated will expose a person to less than 2 pesticides per day. Less dramatic comparisons will produce less dramatic reductions, but without doubt using the Guide provides people with a way to make choices that lower pesticide exposure in the diet.