Showing posts with label Canning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canning. Show all posts

Thursday, August 13, 2009

a new commitment to home

I have taken a hiatus from the computer not because I had to but because my attention needed to be on my house. I find the best reward of a vacation is to come home feeling refreshed and ready to be home again. Making little changes to make things work better & feel better. The kids love their toys again, mama loves her dirty kitchen again and papa yearns for his shop. Everyone gets what they want. So here are some of my favorite views recently. I illuminated some artwork and hung this old straw hat in our hallway. I really like this simple calm moment before we head downstairs for our day.
Our newly furnished guest room ( no more futons!) Since we have people staying quite often this room needed a good bed. Its a great space to read tin tin before nap time too. I hope to re-upholster that chair this summer too.
Felix's tussled bed. I made this new cork board for the beginning of his school year, in hopes of hanging up his artwork & photo's. We're in heavy "big boy" phase these days.
The start of tomato's tomato's tomato's. Roast, De-seed, cook, puree, can & freeze, repeat.
Here are our new girls, 5 hens giving us 5 egg's /day. I love to just watch them. Oscar & I have a good post nap routine where we feed them the kitchen scraps for the day and wake up slowly.
This is the best part about my house & why I want to commit to being here fully. These gardens are so unbelievable, every hour of the day people are coming & going, growing, harvesting, visiting etc. The energy that is alive across the street is immense, it wafts over into our house all day long. So we get up and do something good, everyday.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Rhubarb Jam


The boys and I took a walk this week and picked almost 8 lbs of Rhubarb. A spring treat that I can't seem to get my fill of. So this year I canned as much as I could, to use for those all important ice cream treats, waffles or over granola.

Rhubarb Jam : ( from www.thatsmyhome.com )
2lbs rhubarb stalks
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
1 TBS lemon juice

Wash, peel & cut rhubarb. Toss with sugar & cinnamon sticks, leave on counter top for an hour and than set aside overnight in fridge. Strain Rhubarb and pour juice into pan. Heat juice over medium heat and dissolve the sugar & bring to a boil. Add rhubarb and cinnamon sticks, bring back to a boil & reduce heat. Low boil for 20 min. Add lemon juice. Test on a cool plate. Ladle into clean, hot canning jars. Seal in boiling water bath ( water needs to be above the lids ) 5 min.

note: if you've never canned before this book is a good start
the Big Book of Preserving the Harvest
by
Carol W. Costenbader


Hopefully this is the beginning of my attempts to preserve, can, freeze and root cellar a bunch of food this year from our garden. One recipe at a time.