Seeds, Strawberries and Rhubarb

This winter I have purchased seeds from two companies. My first choice is the Sandy Hill Preservation Center this group provides heirloom seeds and work to preserve genetic diversity. They are a very interesting company from whom we have bought seeds before and been successful. I also support their philosophy and where their seeds are coming from. The second company I purchase from (when Sandy Hill doesn't have one I am looking for) is Johnny's Seeds, they are a traditional large seed company not quite as embroiled in the GMO madness that is out there. The final company I have purchased from this year is Gurneys. I went to them to get the plants I wanted, strawberries and rhubarb. I have found it difficult to find anything other than mainstream items at the local stores and there are very few actual nursery's around any more. 

This last week my package of strawberries and rhubarb arrived. I also ordered some of their strawberry food, a fertilizer designed specifically for strawberries. I selected two types  of strawberries Eversweet and Everbearing. Both should be successful in this climate. I have not had a huge amount of success with the strawberries I have purchased from stores, most have died.

One type of strawberry has been growing but I do not remember what type it is. We did get several small strawberries last year.

The strawberries are under the rose bushes, while some are growing I want to fill this area in and have some diversity.

Each package of plants had about 25 strawberries, so all together I planted around 50 plants in this planter.

Rhubarb is something I have wanted to try to grow, I have heard it will grow out here and there are a lot of foods that can be made with it. I planted the plant between my new peach tree and the pomegranate. If successful these plants can grow fairly large.

In other planting news I did pick up some succulents to replace what was lost this winter. I have four different plants that I have put into pots. I will be keeping them close to the house till the last freeze has passed just to be safe.

Jam

I have been wanting to make some jam for awhile. A little over a week ago I made some strawberry freezer jam that Andrea recommended and had me sample when I was down in LA. That recipe came from here. When in LA I also got some boxes of glass canning jars from my mom. There have been some really good sales on strawberries to I had plenty of those sitting in the refrigerator. Mike however has been talking about picking blackberries and that sounded like fun. The week the three of us headed out to a local regional park and picked a big bowl of berries. That night I made a blackberry pie which went fast and was very yummy. Yesterday I decided to start some jam, blackberry and then strawberry rhubarb based on the recipes in the pectin box. I started with the blackberry yesterday and made the strawberry rhubarb today, the pictures will be of both since I forgot to take many yesterday.

First the berries had to be mashed, I needed five cups.

The set up needed three pans, one boiling with the jars, one boiling with the lids and one for the jam. I used my candy thermometers to make sure the jars and lids were staying at 180 degrees.

The fruit and any lemon juice goes into the pan.

Next the pectin is stirred in and you turn the heat all the way up.

Bring it to a full boil and add the sugar, it takes a lot of sugar!

Return it to a full boil and cook for one minute, you stir constantly through all of this. I noticed at this point I had to turn down the heat a little since it came close to going over with both jams.

After the minute turn off the heat and skim off the foam. The blackberry jam hardly had any, the strawberry had a lot.

Pull a jar from here.

Fill it.

Put the hot lid on it then a band just till there is resistance.

The jar goes back into the water and repeat with the next jar. When you are done put the lid on and gently boil the jars.

They need to cool for 12-24 hours. Here is the finished product.

Blackberry Jam

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam (not sure why the solids went to the top here)

We tried the blackberry last night and it was really good. Not too bad for my first try I think.