How To Make Your Own Blueberry Syrup

I've been trying to find a replacement for this terrible food...

but haven't found anything we really like until we discovered how to make our own blueberry syrup. It's quite easy and if you've ever canned veggies, fruit or jams/jellies, you'll have no problems. The ingridients are simple, nothing is genetically modified, you can make it organically if you like and there's no high fructose corn syrup...hooray! :)

The directions can be found HERE.

Avonlea and I had a blast making our own and taste testing too!

Let me know how yours turns out if you try it!!!

Has anyone noticed how cute the Walmart canning section has become in their canning supplies? I picked up some "way cute" tags, labels and jar tops today. Can't wait til the elderberries come in, are plucked and make it into our jars!!!

Green Beans, Green Beans! Oh, How We Love Green Beans!

Green beans here,

and green beans there,

big ones, small ones,

we love green beans yes we do!

What do we do with all these green beans?

Canning, freezing and someday we'll invest in a dehydrator. :)

Any guesses as to what our NEXT project is?
(This is an old photo as it is already in "the works".)

Jam Making 101

Thought I'd share today on my latest hobby, canning. I promise you that if you've never canned before, you'll be hooked once you start. It's cheap, fun and what a great way to give a sweet, homemade gift to someone you care about.

First things first. You need equiptment.

1. Some canning jars with lids and rings. I use Ball which can be found at Walmart for around $7.00 for a pack.

2. A large pot with (preferrably) a stainless steel basket that can be lifted in and out. However, I've heard that just using a regular gallon pot will work as well. As long as your cans are submerged 100% in the water, you're fine.

3. Some canning tongs. I've tried using regular stainless steel tongs before, but wound up losing grip on my jars and they slipped out, splashing boiling water on my arm. Not fun. Splurge on the canning tongs that have rubber on them. I got mine for $9.00 online, but you can find them at Walmart too.

4. rags

5. water

6. a knife

7. a potato masher

8. a regular pot to mash the fruit, lemon juice, sugar and pectin in

9. a ladle

ingridients:

10. 4 cups of fruit

11. measuring cups

12. a lemon

13. 8 cups of raw, organic sugar (I use turbinado)

14. a box of Pectin, each box contains 2 packets of pectin (Found at Walmart and most grocery stores.) Know that there is MSG in Pectin, so it's not the healthiest. I've seen jams made with using natural pectin (the yellowish-green on the bottoms of strawberries), but it takes much longer and your fruit has to sit out awhile and set.

Step #1: Pick your produce

We're going to use organic strawberries today since they're easy and most everyone likes strawberry jam. Cut up your fruit in no specific way. Just so they can be mashed well in your pot.

Step #2: Get your water boiling in your large pot and place clean jars (not lids or rings) into the water to bring to a boil.

Step #3: Squeeze a lemon and place juice aside.

Step #4: Place strawberries and lemon juice in a pot to mash together. Then mash with your potato masher. When it's well and mashed, you're going to add your 8 cups of raw sugar. Yes! 8 cups! (I know. Not the healthiest, but all in moderation right?) Stir and mash until it comes to a complete boil to where even when you're stirring it, it's still bubbling.

Step #5: Using your canning tongs, remove your hot jars from the large pot and set them on a surface that is covered with a rag that you don't mind getting stained.

Step #6: Add the 2 packets of pectin.

Step #7: Let it boil for another minute or so, scraping out the excess foam off the top.

Step #8: Remove from heat.

Step #9: Use a ladle to pour into jars to where there's only 1/8 inch left at the top. Just enough to expand a bit when boiling. If you don't fill it high enough, you won't get a good seal on your lids and your jam will go bad. After wiping your jars, place on lids with rings and seal them tight, but not too tight or you won't be able to open them. :)

Step #10: Using your canning tongs, place full jars back into boiling water and boil 30-40 minutes.

Step #11: After jars have boiled 30-40 minutes, lift your jars out and place them on the counter to cool for 24 hours. You'll know you have a good seal when you press your finger on the center of your lids and they don't pop back at you. Store in a cupboard until you want to use them. I've heard that they can last up to a year! Enjoy!

I've found it to be about half the price of purchasing store-bought jellies/jams and twice as tasty. Especially if you're going to use organic ingridients, it's well worth it. Remember that to save extra money, buy fruits that are in season and are chaper. Organic strawberries can be found for as low as $2.99 a pint, but when out of season, up to $6.00 a pint!

Happy Canning!

Just Thursday

Ho, hum. It's Thrusday and I'm just rambling today. We've had a little of a rough week this week. Our family has been under the 'stomach bug'. We've been waking up in the middle of the night to poop and vomit. We've had to change our eating to the B.R.A.T.T. diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast and tea) and all things fatty (yep, fries, mac-n-cheese, anything with 'gerth' I guess). It's been lovely. However, every morning that I wake up, I am thankful for our Heavenly Father's provision of a roof over our heads, food on the table and physicians, should we need them. The kiddos have stayed pretty hydrated, given the circumstances.

Rain

We've received a bit of rain here and there which has been nice.

Chickens

Chickens are continuing to lay eggs. We collect anywhere from 4-6 per day. It's halarious where they find places to lay their eggs. We have a bike trailer in the backyard and one hen has made her nest there. Another hen likes to lay her eggs in the shed amongst the bale of hay we keep for their coop. It's too cute.

Caterpillars

We're in the midst of watching the metamorphasis cycle take place with our Monarch caterpillars. We do this every year...buy a few Milkweed plants, place them in our yard for butterflies to lay their eggs and observe them until they are butterflies and are ready to enter the 'big world'. We release them after a few days and look forward to the next May when we get to do it all over again.

Still No Camera

Still no working camera. We have two cameras and neither of them work. It's sad that sometimes, I get 'camera cravings' to snap away at neat exeperiences or happenings around the house/yard, but alas, I remember that I have nothing to capture these memories with. Darn.

United States Unit

Avonlea has really enjoyed learning about the United States for the past few weeks. It's our summer goal to get through all 50 states, learing a little about each one, Mastering The 50 States That Rhyme song (we're almost there!), reading books about our country and creating a 50 States notebook. We're just coloring the states and doing a few odds and ends here and there with it now that she's only 4, but as the years pass, we'll be able to add more to it. Gotta love binders! :)

Here's the song that Avonlea almost has down pat...

Summertime

I've been really contimplating what to do over the summer. I know many fellow homeschooling moms have suggested keeping their little ones 'doing school' over the summer (light, nothing crazy) to keep them in some sort of schedule so that when fall hits, you're not teaching them all over again. I did that last year and we only took a break when we had company. Still contimplating though. We're really pulling for some Brittish company this summer though...hint, hint Drydens! :) Grandma will be here from China NEXT WEEK! Avonlea is already counting down the days. We all know that Grandma LOVES blueberries, so we have some blueberry farms that are local here in which we are planning on visiting. We'll definately be buying some in bulk blueberries to eat and can. Which leads me to my next area of topic...

Canning

I'm so excited to share with you all that I had my first successful canning adventure last week. I found...get this...organic peaches at our local health food store. Organic peaches! You can never find organic peaches!! They're the #1 thing you should always eat organic (the soft skin allows for all pesticide to pretty much enter the fruit) and I can't even find them already in the can at the grocery store. Anyway, I found organic peaches last week and bought 7 pounds of them. I brought them home and started canning. They taste so great and it's one of Avonlea's favorite fruits. Hooray for canning! I can't wait to pick blueberries soon.

Birthdays

Lincoln and Norah's birthdays are coming up next month and I get giddy around birthday time. It's a time when we celebrate not only their birth, but Rob's and my accomplishments as parents. I still can't believe my son will be THREE and my baby girl will be ONE. We've already had their birthday photos taken and if I could just get my scanner to work (see, I think my computer just has this thing against me sharing photos/videos with you all), I would share them with you. Patience, patience.

I know that this is a shlew (my new word) of things all at once, but just thought I'd catch everyone up. There's so much more I want to share, but ahh, never enough time in the day.

I'll leave you with this verse today...

(This verse has kept me going when it got tough this week. Yes, cleaning up poop and vomit!)

"My grace is sufficient for you , for my power is made perfect in weakness."

II Corinthians 12:9

Blossoms and Canning

BLOSSOMS

The correct answer for the blossoms is.......Anne Apple blossoms. Apples don't grow well here in Florida, but apparently there are a select few (like 2) that will. Well, I was at the nursery the other day looking for blackberry bushes when I came across these trees. The owner told me that they would definately bare some fruit this fall, so I thought I'd try one. I got the the checkout and she told me that Anne Apple trees need (like a lot of fruit trees) a cross pollinator. I was afraid of that. So, I bought two trees instead of one. More apples right? :)

CANNING

Today, I'm canning blueberries for the first time. We went down to a local outlet mall yesterday and I got a steal of a deal on a canning stock pot (it's huge) and it came with a rack for canning. I've always wanted to learn how to can things. When we have an overabundance of things from the garden, I usually freeze it. Now, I can can it and if the power were to go out or something, we'd still have food! Cool huh? I found this video today and am getting ready to follow it step by step. I did purchase this book...

...and have found it to be helpful. Now, I'm just waiting for garden produce to ripen so I can get some major canning done. :)

I also found this insanely cool video about pickling.