Rathbone: Eggs for Hatching, Eggs for Eating, Eggs, Eggs, Eggs

[framing fowl]

I mentally decided to embrace the idea of dying of botulism and simply DO IT.

Love it!!! Sounds like you fit right in! Just be careful because before you know it, you'll have gone from canning to goats and just about everything in between! Once you start, there's no going back :bun.

 

[rathbone]

@ Bubblingbrooks - I will certainly check out the pectin since I really would like to use less sugar. Also hoping to use honey in place of sugar? I will have to go look for some recipes.
@FramingFowl - concerning goats...I WISH! Goats are a long time wish of mine but I live in town - right on the corner across from the post office so definitely no goats and goat's milk goes for $5 a gallon here. Totally out of my budget.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

You might enjoy using Pomona's Pectin for making jellies and jams. It is low/no sugar pectin.

this is what i use too. sometimes i can be hard to find but you can order it on line:
http://www.pomonapectin.com/

The price per box is $5.75 which includes shipping and handling for US addresses! And you can make several batches per box so I think its a better deal then some of the other pectins.

I think each batch is 4 cups of crushed berries....and I found that for us, 2 cups of sugar gives a great product. and you can sub honey (i did this last year with blackberries and used about 1/2 cup of honey).

and...heh...heh...heh.... might as well surrender now and go and get some goats. Resistance is futile! we've all fallen victim to their charms!

but really - its the best SS thing we've done - we've saved a ton of money and they've paid for themselves a couple of times.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Here is my mothers blackberry honey jam recipe.
http://seedsofnutrition.com/?p=6391

 

[big brown horse]

Hi Rathbone, welcome to the forum. Babysteps is right. I took a bunch of them to get where I am today. Not as far as some others though and I'm ok with that. These days I'm having trouble staying motivated as far as SS and organization goes. (Phase I'm going through.) Plus, I've been riding too much I think.

 

[rathbone]

Hey SS Mediators...I really wish there were FB style "like" buttons so I could like comments without writing out a reply for each one ...

Regarding the pectin link - THANKYOU!
Re: the honey/blackberry jam recipe - THANKYOU...gonna go check it out.
Re: BigBrownHorse - I think phases are normal. I simply couldn't stay this animated about anything forever. Hopefully one by one the new things I am learning will be tucked neatly into my daily routines enough that they move from challenges to being those thoughtless little things that I do without pausing to ponder.
And now...I wander off to check those blogs some of you have listed in your signature.

 

[rathbone]

Holey Shlamoley -if any of you have not yet perused...head over to OhioFarmGirl's blog and check out the "Epic baked salami sandwich".

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

aw shucks, Rathbone...thanks!

its a great recipe and easy peasy to make

 

[rathbone]

Last night was a slight change to my new routine. Plum jam again, red plums this time.

This time I followed the directions exactly only I added in two extra plums. (Yes that would mean I DID NOT follow the directions exactly). Will I ever learn? :/ I just kept thinking how the recipe made 4 and a HALF jars of jam and surely if I just added 2 more plums it would come out to EXACTLY 5 jars of jam (Ball blue book of Preserving says "do not seal half full jars as the dispersment of air blah blah blah , something, something...will mess it up). So I pondered deeply the amount of natural pectin found in plum skins and my intense desire for 5 full jars of jam and I went ahead and I added two extra plums. I made sure I did it while DD wasn't looking so if it failed she wouldn't smile her I-told-you-so smile.

The jam did not jell. I cooked it for 55 minutes and gave up. However...I hear from a friend that jam perhaps will jell in the next week or two if I am lucky?

Highlight of the evening? While my jam boiled endlessly, I took a bit of half and half and some milk, sugar, and vanilla and made a dab of ice-cream for the boys. I spooned a bit of hot sweet-tart plum jam on top and we sat around the table eating melty ice cream and laughing.

 

[big brown horse]

Hey SS Mediators...I really wish there were FB style "like" buttons so I could like comments without writing out a reply for each one ...

Regarding the pectin link - THANKYOU!
Re: the honey/blackberry jam recipe - THANKYOU...gonna go check it out.
Re: BigBrownHorse - I think phases are normal. I simply couldn't stay this animated about anything forever. Hopefully one by one the new things I am learning will be tucked neatly into my daily routines enough that they move from challenges to being those thoughtless little things that I do without pausing to ponder.
And now...I wander off to check those blogs some of you have listed in your signature.

My farm animals have been revolting lately, I'm ready to ring some necks. My porch has turned into poopapalooza. My fresh clean linnens dropped off the clothes line and blew away~partially landing in the yucky duck pool. That was yesterday. Today, after lots of homemade chocolate ice cream I feel better.