Little Susie Homemaker

Tag: pomona pectin

  • Strawberries

    (This post contains affiliate links which means if you purchase from my link, I will make a few cents)

    It’s strawberry season here in the PNW. I’m very thankful for a u-pick farm nearby that has a variety of things I can pick. While they aren’t certified organic, they practice clean farming practices which we appreciate. 

    I picked about 8ish pounds and brought them home, cleaned them up, sorted them and got to thinking about all that I going to do with them. 

    First up, EAT them! Strawberries are do delicious. Growing up, I wouldn’t touch them! I’m so glad my tastebuds changed in adulthood, and I tried them again. 

    I sorted the berries and separated the ones that are the ripest. (Some are almost purple, they’re so dark red!!) We’ll eat those tonight or tomorrow morning and whatever is left of those will go into jam. 

    Next up, make jam! 😛 I use Pomona Pectin which is a no-sugar/low-sugar pectin and uses calcium to activate the pectin rather than sugar. I tend to use a bit of honey for just a hint of sweetness (½ cup for the whole batch of jam). 

    Mashed Berries
    Adding honey w/pectin
    Bringing to a boil
    Water Bath

    I love this set of canning tools (see picture below) which helps when it comes to not burning fingers on boiling hot items!! You’ll also need canning jars. You can buy brand new with lids & rings. Or you can buy the jars, rings and lids all separate.

    Every time I can, I LOVE that ping of the jar sealing when it comes out of the water bath. I took a video and you can hear the ping, but it’s more of a ‘pong’ because the phone must have been a bit too close. LOL

    Third way to use them, freeze dry them. As I’ve previously posted, we have a Harvest Right freeze-dryer which I use to make shelf-stable, dried foods that are ultra-lightweight for backpacking. Freeze dried strawberries are delicious. They work great to break up and throw into oatmeal but are also great to eat by themselves as a snack. I love having freeze dried fruit on hand. 

    (I store a lot of my freeze-dried food in mason jars as I’m not doing this for long-term storage. There’s less waste with not throwing out a mylar bag every time I need to repackage something to take backpacking. I love these half-gallon mason jars! I use these jar sealers that I use with our Foodsaver accessory vacuum sealer)

    Lastly, I’ll freeze some that we can use in smoothies or other things throughout the winter. (Nothing like a taste of summer in the cold of winter.) Last year, we bought a stand-up deep freeze that we keep in the garage. I have loved having fruits, vegetables and meat in the freeze to ‘shop’ from when it’s time to think about what to make for meals. I have one bag of raspberries left from last year and about a half bag of diced apples from last season. 

    As it is still early in strawberry season, I’m sure I’ll go out to the u-pick farm at least once more. (The farm has about 7 varieties of strawberries and only the first two were ripe when I went today.) 

    Happy Strawberry season!

  • Raspberry Rhubarb Jam

    Rhubarb – how I love thee and how I hate thee!!!

    Rhubarb causes so much excitement because it’s the first thing to harvest in the spring which means it is almost the start of gardening season. (Here in the Pacific Northwest, that season starts late and ends quick!!!)

    I also hate rhubarb – what in the world do I do with it all????

    Rhubarb isn’t one of those veggies that you just take a big ole stick and munch on all day. There’s the usual Strawberry Rhubarb pie, jam, scones, cakes, etc., rhubarb sauce (think applesauce but with rhubarb) and……what else????

    Last year, I made strawberry rhubarb jam. It’s yummy, but it turned out to be my least favorite of the jams I made, and the color is rather unappetizing. (Strawberries lose their color when you cook them, so the jam is a lovely shade of…brown.) I still have 2 small jars of it left from last year.

    Earlier this spring, while visiting a garden shop, I saw a jar labeled Raspberry Rhubarb Jam. Lightbulb moment!!! I have frozen raspberries that were given to me. And I have frozen rhubarb that I harvested and had no idea what to do with.

    The other day, while my husband was out mountain biking, (I tend to my messiest kitchen stuff while he’s not home) I decided it was the day to make the jam.

    Out came lots of pots and pans – the pot to cook the jam in, the pot to put jars in hot water while they were waiting and another pan to put the rings & lids in to boil while the jam was doing its thing. (Oh, I was also making a batch of pancakes for the freezer at the same time – the kitchen was A MESS!!!)

    Last year, I found Pomona Pectin which is a no/low sugar pectin that uses calcium and pectin to gel jams. (that is an affiliate link) I still use some honey in my jams, but no sugar! (I used 1 cup of honey for a double batch.)

    *Interesting tid bit – do you know the difference between jam and jelly? (I’ll tell you below)

    I followed the raspberry recipe in the pamphlet inside the Pomona Pectin box and doubled it. (Their recipe calls for 4 cups of berries and since I had both berries and rhubarb and 4 cups of each, I doubled the rest of the recipe)

    I put the berries, rhubarb and calcium water into the pan and then mixed the pectin with the honey. I brought the fruit to a boil and then stirred in the honey and brought it all to a boil again.

    Time to fill the jars. I pulled the jars out of their hot water bath and put them on a towel on the counter (hot jars, cold granite counter – towels help!!).

    I ladled jam into the 6 jars I had out. The handy-dandy funnel helps keep things much cleaner. You need very clean jar edges to ensure a good seal and the funnel helps keep those edges clean. (That funnel comes in this canning set which is fantastic and helpful when dealing with VERY hot jars, contents, lids and rings!) (that is an affiliate link)

    The jam was now ready to get its water bath. Since I only had 5 full jelly jars (the 6th was only partial so I didn’t ‘can’ it, it went in the fridge to use right away), I cleaned out the pot I had made the jelly in, filled it with water, and brought that to a boil. Once it was boiling, the jars went in to boil for 10 minutes. (Please use proper canning procedure to ensure you don’t have spoilage. Ball has a great book on canning basics that is a fantastic resource to have on hand.)

    *tid bit – jam is made using the whole fruit, jelly is made using just the fruit juice

    When they finished their bath, they dried off on the towel on the counter. (again, hot jars, cold counter, good idea to have something to buffer between the two.) And I waited (not for very long) for that satisfying ‘ping’ that lids make when they seal. The first ping was before all of the jars were out of the pot!

    awaiting the ‘ping’

    I let the jars cool for a good 9+ hours before I moved them. I wanted to ensure everything was sealed well.

    After making the jam in the morning, I made a loaf of sourdough bread that evening and then had a slice of bread with the jam for lunch today. YUM!!! I think strawberry rhubarb is something in the past for my tastebuds. The raspberry rhubarb combo is DELICIOUS!!!