Berry monday: jam (sauce)

September 2, 2013

Happy labor day!

Today is the last installment of berry Monday. Heading into fall it seemed appropriate to save the jam recipes for last. This is great way to preserve that summer taste in the months to come. I opted out of actually canning the jam since I don’t have the proper equipment and chose instead to use sterilized jars, that once sealed, I put into the fridge where they can stay fresh for a few months unopened.

I made tayberry jam and boysenberry jam. I didn’t want a super sweet jam so I added way less sugar and ended up with more of a berry sauce. It is still marvelous on toast. Here are my recipes:

Tayberry Jam

2 1/2 cups berries
1/4 cup + 1 TBSP of cane sugar
(makes 2 small jars)

Boysenberry Jam

3 cups berries
1/2 cup cane sugar
(makes 2 small jars)

For both recipes put berries and sugar into a sauce pot and stir to break up some of the berries. Heat mixture over low heat to dissolve sugar. Turn up the heat and bring to boiling. Scoop off any foam that forms. Once mixture is fulling boiling turn down to medium and cook for around 5-7 minutes longer. Turn off heat and pour sauce into jars, let sit at room temperature overnight, store in fridge, and enjoy when you’re ready. I couldn’t wait long to try mine so it was open almost right away.

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My farmers market finds

August 30, 2013

If you’ve been following me for any amount of time it’s probably pretty apparent that I love the farmers market. Love it! If you didn’t know, then I’m guessing you do now.

Whenever I make it to the market I try and stretch my money as far as I can making sure I get a wide variety of produce that is organic. Here are finds this week purchased for $21.35.

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I purchased:

-cherries, pickling cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, corn, tomatillos, tomatoes, ground cherries, and 3 pds of potatoes.

My tips for stretching your money:

-I always walk the entire length of the farmers market before purchasing a single thing. (This might be hard if your market is huge but maybe you could do it in sections)
-Make sure to note the prices of the items you are looking to buy, scoping out what might be the best deal.
-I will usually look for a cheaper by the pound price and avoid the per/unit prices. I like to control how much of something I get.
-If you keep your prices low on most items you can splurge a little on something unexpected.

Have fun! I always love looking at all the colors and the pretty flowers and seeing what’s newly in season. Let me know how you do!

San juan island

August 29, 2013

I promised a video, well maybe I didn’t promise but at any rate I don’t have one to share. It’s not looking the way I want it to so I’ll play around with it and hopefully share it soon. Instead I’ll share our day on San Juan Island.

We were staying on Orcas Island so in the morning we had to hop on another ferry to San Juan Island where we were meeting a friend of his dad’s. While we waited for her to arrive Walker and I stumbled upon the farmer’s market where I found the San Juan salt I was hoping to get!

We had lunch and explored an outdoor market and then we set off around the island. Our first stop was an alpaca farm. They were all so cute but my favorite one was the one who seemed to have a love for cameras. See how close he got?! So funny! I would have loved to buy some wool but I already have too much without projects in mind so I figured I had better not.

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Next we drove to a park with a seriously amazing view! This is also a spot where whales can be seen but we headed down the road to another location.

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The next stop was a little hike in to a lighthouse on a cliff where good whale watching can be had. I didn’t have high hopes for seeing whales so I was pretty shocked when someone said there! A whale! And sure enough there was the unmistakable white and black body surging up out of the water. Even though it was a ways off and looked really small it was amazing. We sat and watched a while longer and Walker let me use his binoculars to see a little better.

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Then we headed back to the ferry and back to Orcas Island for the night. Where as you may remember Walker and I were chased by a deer.