I wake up to the sound of bird song and the warmth of the sun. As the day progresses the wind picks up and the sound of the birds is harder to hear, but they are still there, busy doing their thing. As am I!
I have been making a lot of jam recently. @movingman has been baking some wicked bread and what better that strawberry jam to go with it. I usually buy a kilo of strawberries each week, which cost me 2.50 euro. (I cannot wait until the ones in my garden begin to fruit and I can pick my own).
By the time I get them in the pan though, I am already down to 700grams as my girls are very good at grabbing some when I am not looking.I just chop them roughly and in they go, (the strawberries that is).
Strawberries are quiet low in pectin, so I add the juice of one lemon. Pectin is needed in order to thickened the jam, you could add lemon peel instead as you cook the strawberries, to help increase the levels.
After that I added some coconut sugar, I don't give my girls much sugar, I would be happy to give them none to be honest. But when I do, I use coconut sugar, I added two tablespoons to the pan as it is needed alongside the pectin to thicken the jam. Otherwise I would leave it out altogether.
Then I mash all the strawberries and leave them simmering for about 15 minutes and enjoy the rich aroma that fills up my truck.
After that, I turn off the heat and let the jam sit for about an hour or more in the pan, to cool down and gel. Longer than an hour would be good, but my girls are a bit impatient as the smell really tickles their taste buds and mine too.
Then it is time to jar it. This fills a 650g jar and will last us a week. I can't wait for cherries to come into season, because they are next on my jam list.
@movingman has been making some awesome bread, which goes perfectly with my jam. Especially when it is hot out of the oven, yum.
After that, it was time to get outdoors and plant out some more tomato plants. These are planted in my top garden, where the soil is mulched over with avocado leaves and looks and feels very healthy.
I also needed to cut some canya,to support the tomato plants. Canya is similar to bamboo, only not as strong, but it does grow like wild over here and can be quite invasive. I like to use it in the garden to make fences and to support my plants.
I am using one pole of canya per plant, but as they are planted opposite on another, I will join the two poles together at the top and in the future I will also run another pole midway down for extra support.
My top garden has tomatoes, Kale, Calendula, peppermint, nettles, Artichoke (as seen in my first picture above) and this beautiful mullein Plant growing in it. I am waiting for it to flower so that I can harvest some of the flowers and infuse them in olive oil that I harvested from the land.
I will also be infusing calendula flowers in some oil. Oh how I love mullein though. The leaves are great for respiratory problems and the flowers work wonders for ear infection, something every mother knows about.
All in all, today was another productive day, the weather is heating up now, but i do hope that we get some more rain before summer really hits.
Hope you all are having a great day!
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I loved the jam! I make to diferent way but wow this look so delicius!
thank you xxx
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OMG this made my mouth water and my pizza suddenly seems a lot less appealing lol. You-re growing calendula? That's great! I got into soap making last year, and have yet to make a calendula soap, but t's on my to do list =) Hope you're well!
Hey Eve, thank you, I have seen some of your soaps they look great, I'm doing good all things considering, hope you and your beautiful family are well xxx
It's been a long time since I made jam. I used to have a lot of blackberry bushes in my yard, so mostly I made that. I had only a few blueberries, strawberries and raspberries, not enough for jam. I used coconut sugar for a while, but sooo expensive. I've wound up going to smaller quantities of non-gmo cane sugar when I must use sugar at all. Really finding stevia works for most situations where I need sweet. Have you ever tried it in jam?
Thanks for sharing your jam journey. I can almost taste it with that fresh bread. Mmmm.
I still have to try stevia, I do have some, so next batch I will. Yeah coconut sugar is expensive, but I use so little. I would love some blackberries, it is too dry here for them, but oh I love blackberry jam. I hop you are well my friend xxx
Wonderful to have that abundance! The bread and jam looks delicious!
That plant you shared as the mullein plant looks quite different from what I knew as mullein - Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) that has the rosette of fuzzy leaves with a tall flower spike out the center.
That is looking more like the wild oregano
hmm you are right, I was going mainly by the velvety leaves as they are so big at the bottom, but of course the flowers are all wrong on this, thanks @porters xxx
Your artichokes are lovely! It will be strawberry picking time here by the end of May.
they are such beautiful plants for sure, thanks for stopping by @goldenoakfarm and i hope you are well xxx
Strawberry jam!!! Honest to goodness girl, you are living the life!