Rhubarb and Orange Marmalade with Jalapeno

Rhubarb and Orange Marmalade with Jalapeño (optional) (from Kathy)

8 cups rhubarb diced about 1/2 inch

4 cups sugar (I used organic cane sugar, but white sugar would work fine)

3 large navel oranges

1 lemon

4 to 5 jalapeño peppers (or more....I used 4 large) seeds removed and finely diced 

2 or 3 drops red food colouring if your rhubarb is more green than red 

Zest 2 of the oranges and the lemon. Thinly cut the peel off the third orange and cut the peel into small pieces. Cut off the white membrane from the oranges and the lemon and cut out the segments. Try not to get any of the white membrane (it doesn’t get any prettier after it’s cooked!) Combine all the ingredients and let sit at least one hour or refrigerate overnight. Bring to a gentle boil and then turn down to medium and simmer for 45 minutes to one hour or until as thick as you like. 

This will fill about 4 pint sized jars...have a few extra smaller jars just in case 

Rhubarb Jelly

RHUBARB JELLY

12 cups (3L) rhubarb pieces, 1 inch; 7 1/2 cups (1.875 L) sugar, 2 pouches Certo Liquid

To prepare juice, puree rhubarb in small batches in a food processor or blender.  Squeeze juice through a jelly bag.  Measure 4 cups (1 L) juice into a Dutch oven.  Add sugar and mix well.  Place over high heat and bring mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.  Immediately stir in Certo.  Continue to stir over high heat until mixture returns to a full rolling boil.  Boil hard for 1 minute.   Remove from heat and skim foam if necessary.  Pour into hot strilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch (6 mm) headspace.  Wipe jar rims thoroughly.  Seal and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Yield:  About 7 cups (1.5 L).

Chokecherry and Crabapple Jelly

8 cups ripe chokecherries

2 cups water

12 cups quartered crabapples

1 1/2 cups sugar

To prepare juice, combine chokecherries and 2 cups water in a saucepan.  In a separate saucepan, combine crabapples with enough water to cover.  Bring mixtures to a boil: reduce heat and simmer, covered, until fruit is soft.  Mash mixtures occasionally while cooking although I find that it is best not to mash the crabapples too fine (harder to juice).  Strain separately through jelly bags.

Measure 3 cups chokecherry juice and 3 cups crabapple juice.  In a Dutch oven, combine chokecherry juice and crabapple juice: bring to a boil.  Add sugar and stir until dissolved.  Bring mixture to a boil and boil rapidly until jelly stage is reached, about 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and skim foam if necessary.

Pour into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Wipe jar rims thoroughly.  Seal and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Yield:  about 6 cups

Nanking Cherry Jelly

These berries were very ripe when picked on July 21, 2017 at the cabin on Sylvan Lake.

16 cups ripe Nanking cherries  (4 L)

1 1/4 cup water  (300 ml)

1/4 cup lemon juice  (50 ml)

1 pkg. of Bernardin original fruit pectin crystals or certo crystals (57 grams)

7 cups sugar (1.75 L)

Step 1- Prepare the Juice
Combine cherries and water in a Dutch oven.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 35 minutes.  Mash mixture occasionally while cooking.  Strain through a jelly bag.  Measure 6 cups juice (1.5 L) juice into a Dutch oven.

Step 2-Make the Jelly

Stir lemon juice and Certo into juice.  Place over high heat and bring mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.  Stir in sugar.  Continue to stir and cook over high heat until mixture returns to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and skim foam if necessary.

Step 3-Preserve
Pour into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Wipe jar rims thoroughly.  Seal and process in  a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Makes about 9 cups (2.25L).

Very ripe-picked on July 21, 2017

Strawberry Jam

Out to Markerville this morning (July 12, 2017) to pick strawberries with Pat.  Before too long we each had about 20 cups  of strawberries.  Home to make jam.  I made two batches. For the first batch I followed a recipe I had. The second batch I made a few changes, just for fun, after looking at Pat's recipe.

First Batch

10 cups medium strawberries

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup water

5 1/2 cups sugar

Wash and pat dry the strawberries.  Remove the stems and place in a large saucepan with the lemon juice, sugar and water.  Warm gently, without boiling, stirring gently with a wooden spoon, trying not to break up the strawberries too much.

Increase the heat and without boiling, stir the mixture for 10 minutes, or until all the sugar has dissolved.  Increase the heat again and boil for 20 minutes, stirring often.  Skim any scum off the surface.  Start testing for setting point after 20 minutes, but it may take up to 40 minutes for the jam to be ready.

When ready spoon immediately into clean, warm jars, then seal.  

Second Batch

10 cups strawberries

1/2 cup lime juice (didn't have quite enough lime so mixed it with lemon juice)

no extra water this time

lime zest

6 cups sugar

Wash and pat dry the strawberries.  Remove the stems and place in a large saucepan. Smash strawberries with potato masher as much as you like.  Add the lime juice and zest.  Warm gently, without boiling, stirring  with a wooden spoon.  

Increase the heat, add the sugar, and without boiling, stir the mixture for 10 minutes, or until all the sugar has dissolved.  Increase the heat again and boil for 20 minutes, stirring often.  Skim any scum off the surface.  Start testing for setting point after 20 minutes, but it may take up to 40 minutes for the jam to be ready.

When ready spoon immediately into clean, warm jars, then seal.  

Each 10 cups of strawberries made about 8 small jam jars.

Gel tests
1) Temperature Test-around 220 F     
2) Spoon-Dip a dry metal spoon into boiling jam. Lift a small portion of juice in spoon above steam from the pot, letting it cool for a few seconds. Turn the spoon so the jam drips off side of spoon into pot. The jam is done when the syrup forms two drops that flow together and sheet or hang off the edge of the spoon to fall as one drop.
3)Frozen plate-Put a little juice on a frozen plate.  Put the plate back in the freezer for a couple of minutes and see if the gel crinkles.

 PRESERVING THE JAM IN GLASS SEALING JARS
(Alternate method would be to put in freezer jars and freeze.)
When jam is ready skim the scum.
Ladle jam into hot sterilized jars and seal using the following method.
To prepare the jars put clean jars in a 250 degree oven (filled with hot water to prevent cracking) until ready to use to sterilize.
Boil the lids for 5 minutes.
Fill the jars with jam, place lid on and screw on top not quite tight.
Put jars in boiling water in a canner, covering to 1/2 inch of water and boil gently --for 2 cups 20 minutes--1 cup for 15 minutes.

Crabapple Jelly

The Calgary Crew were visiting Grandmaman and Grandpa at their new house for their annual summer camp week and found a wonderful crabapple tree.

 All three kids took a trip up the ladder to pick the crabapples and then Grandpa finished the job.

  Once the apples were picked they needed to be sorted to take out the leaves and the ones that had bad bits on them.

  While Ethan continued to help Grandpa sort the rest of the apples Tristan and Reegan got the apples washed.

  We cooked the apples on Grandmaman's new gas stovetop and then began the slow process of straining the mush to get nice clear juice. (6 cups water/dutch oven of apples)

We tried cheesecloth (above) and a jelly bag (below). 

The next morning we went to Pat's house, Grandmaman and Grandpa's new neighbor, where Pat graciously demonstrated how to make the juice into delicious jelly and how to preserve it in glass jars.  

Here you see Pat measuring 8 cups of juice and adding 6 cups of sugar.

Next step was boiling the juice until the gel stage. Apparently if you lay a wooden spoon over the top the boiling liquid won't boil over.

 Voilà, jars of jelly ready to go in a hot bath.

 Here you see Pat putting the jars into the canner.

 A big thank you to Pat for sharing her expertise and another to Grant for showing the kids his collection of model airplanes.

STEP 1   PREPARE THE JUICE FIRST
Prepare crabapple juice by washing crabapples.  Fill dutch oven with crabapples  and cover with  6 cups water.  Bring to boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.  The crabapples can be mashed a bit during this process but don't mash tooooooo much.
Cool slightly then strain the juice.  I found it worked great to strain first through a colander, pushing down a bit to hurry the process but then to put that juice through the jelly bag.  Too much mashing and squeezing can make the juice cloudy.

STEP 2    PREPARE THE JELLY
8 cups crabapple juice
6 cups sugar
(1 cup juice use 3/4 cup sugar)

Boil the juice for a couple of minutes and then add the sugar. Continue to boil for between 10 to 25 minutes.  Do the gel test after about 10 minutes

Gel tests
1) Temperature Test-around 220 F    
2) Spoon-Dip a dry metal spoon into boiling jelly. Lift a small portion of juice in spoon above steam from the pot, letting it cool for a few seconds. Turn the spoon so the jelly drips off side of spoon into pot. The jelly is done when the syrup forms two drops that flow together and sheet or hang off the edge of the spoon to fall as one drop.
3)Frozen plate-Put a little juice on a frozen plate.  Put the plate back in the freezer for a couple of minutes and see if the gel crinkles.

STEP 3     PRESERVING THE JELLY IN GLASS SEALING JARS
(Alternate method would be to put in freezer jars and freeze.)
When jelly is ready skim the scum.
Ladle jelly into hot sterilized jars and seal using the following method.
To prepare the jars put clean jars in a 250 degree oven (filled with hot water to prevent cracking) until ready to use to sterilize.
Boil the lids for 5 minutes.
Fill the jars with jelly, place lid on and screw on top not quite tight.
Put jars in boiling water in a canner, covering to 1/2 inch of water and boil gently --for 2 cups 20 minutes--1 cup for 15 minutes.

STEP 4 ENJOY THE JELLY

Click crabapple  for a lots of good tips on crabapple jelly making.

Crab Apple Jelly and a New September Ruby Tree

Crab Apples are almost a tradition in the backyards of Canadians.  Most people have a luv-hate relationship with them.  In the Spring, the crab apple trees are beautiful and covered with flowers.  Come Fall, they are covered in small, sour apples and people are left wondering what to do with all the fruit.

The finished jelly...  Four jars of yummy!

This crab apple jelly was made with the crab apples from our backyard.  Since the trees aren't very big yet, the bounty was also small this year (4 jars of jelly).  Click on the above link to get the recipe from the Canadian Living Magazine Website.  It is the 'classic' recipe and it turned out very yummy.

I will always remember Grandma (Oma) Peterson's huge crab apple tree in her backyard and especially enjoying her crab apple jelly on buttered toast.  Hoping to recreate Oma's jelly, I made my first batch today.  Since I've never canned before (it seems complicated and scary), I bought freezer jars, in which you fill and freeze the jam, defrosting when needed.  Seemed simple enough.

The Crew has been loving butter-jelly toast for breakfast.

This summer also marked a special day as Grandma retired from teaching.  To celebrate, we bought her a September Ruby Apple Tree.  This apple tree is special as it replaced an old apple tree that needed to be cut down in their yard last summer.  The type of apple tree, a September Ruby, is also very significant as it is the name of Grandma's Art Studio.  Check out Grandma's art studio and blog.

T-man and the tree

Reegs and the tree

E-man and the wheelbarrow:  "Let's get to work already!"

The Calgary Crew and the tree

Grandpa and Mommy planting the tree

The Calgary Crew and Grandma's new September Ruby Tree

Love,
Twin B
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo