Preparing for the Holidays

There is nothing more messy in the world than making jam. Oh does it splatter. My husband complained that night of the floor being sticky. I even had to bring out the big pot for this recipe from the Food in Jars blog. I usually make small batches of jam in my 3 quart pot. But there was no way that a recipe that calls for 12 cups of fruit was going to fit into that pot. For those in the world that use a reasonable measuring system, 12 cups equals 3 quarts.

My husband was suggesting that I make gift baskets for the neighbors again this year. I might. But if I did, I'd need some jam. Now I should have made enough strawberry jam for this as that would be the prefect gift as it would have been from my garden. I do have apple trees and cranberries in the garden, but the apples have not yet produced anything and the cranberries really are struggling without a bog and with a very dry summer. I'm thinking they need a bog if I want them to produce even if they were sold as bogless cranberries.

I did do some preserving of things actually from the garden. I froze some rhubarb. It too is for the holidays. I'm going to bring a strawberry rhubarb crisp to Thanksgiving this year. This year I've preserved rhubarb two ways, by canning and by freezing. I'm going to see if there is any difference in their taste in the final product. Freezing is much easier, but it also takes up precious freezer space.