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I have been busy with the first berries of summer. I have frozen 4 gallons bags of strawberries, made 3 batches of strawberry freezer jam, made 20 jars of canned strawberry and raspberry jam, and made some strawberry/kiwi fruit leather for kids' lunches come fall. I have to manage my space well and keep us fed so alot of what I do is the pattern I have developed over time. For example, my primary use of strawberries that are frozen is in yogurt since other berries are better for baking so I know 4 gallon bags will be enough. I can't do a lot of freezer jam (even though it is so yummy) because I know I need my freezer space for other items as we move thru the summer. However, the freezer jam I made will be for summer eating keeping the family out of the precious strawberry and raspberry canned jam until fall. Strawberry and raspberry our are most "precious" of berries and fruit because we pay for them. Blueberries a friend lets me pick at her house, same with cherries, while blackberries, apples, and pears all grow on our property. These are the items that we can put up in greater quantities. Late summer I will also purchase peaches for canning.
My jam recipe uses Pomona's pectin which allows you to use less sugar or alternative sugars. I use honey in mine because with jam we like a little sweetener in it as it is our primary source of sweets and we use it sparingly. For strawberry and raspberry I made double recipes - 8 cups of berries mashed and heated on the stove with 4 tsp of calcium water (from pectin package)and 5 tsp of pectin mixed into 3 cups of honey and then added when the berries are hot. This is one more teaspoon of pectin than the package calls for but I wanted to make sure mine set up well, which it did. When it does not set up well the kids seem to use more. I then canned it in various jar sizes from 8 oz jelly jars to pint jars. An 8 oz jar will only last one or two days in our home but sometimes the smaller sizes lets us switch flavors more often. I will also make blackberry and peach jam later in the summer as well as apple and pear butters. I will also make jellies like green tomato and lemon which are used on roasts and cooking Sunday dinners.
Blueberries are being picked already here so I need to get some and start freezing. I will put up 6 to 8 gallon bage of blueberries. I use these for baking in muffins and scones, making homemade yogurt, and still frozen the kids munch on them for a snack. Cherries will also be ready soon and so I need to work on picking and canning them. My mother always canned cherries with the pits in them, which I will do for the first time this year. I have not had a good source of cherries but this year I hope to get some from friends.
The garden is coming along and I expect to can peas over the 4th of July weekend. I just have to keep everything well watered over the next week while the temperatures get into the high 90's. There are some items that we are concerned are not doing well. I have to have faith because I know we really need the produce out of that garden. It is so easy to give up when you don't see it growing as fast as everyone elses.
DH has been building our new barn over the past week. He has spent every day from 7 am to almost 9 pm outside working on it. I know he wishes it would come along faster, but it is looking very nice. It will be a lovely looking barn when it is done and will meet our needs nicely. Today we will do a walk thru and talk about the space inside and what will go where. Once the barn is nearing completion all of the tools can come out of the new chicken coop and go in the barn and the chickens can move to their new coop and the old coop can be a bon fire. That will be a lovely sight! It is kind of an eyesore.
I continue to be concerned about inflation and the rising costs of food primarily. Despite my canning, gardening, and raising our own meat and eggs, we are still spending $900 per month on food and household items. Another $900 is spent on gasoline. This is far beyond our budget. Today I will work on some ideas of how to bring our expenses down. I am thinking of trying to make some soap that we can use for laundry and bodies.
Hope you are having fun on your little homestead - we are loving living the good farm life!
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