Homemade Strawberry Jam

It's June and that means strawberry season here in Eastern Washington!!  On Saturday Andrew and I braved the rain and went out to Carver Farms to pick strawberries!  We were soaked by the time we were done but it only took us 20 minutes to pick 4 buckets of berries.  One of the most favorite fruits in my household for eating fresh and making jam.  I make enough strawberry freezer jam during a week or two in June to last my family all year, it's a lot of work but totally worth it.  Want to know how I do it?

First let's talk about the ingredients.  Strawberries!  Berries should be ripe, firm, and a nice red color, I prefer to use fresh strawberries but frozen will work as well.  Sugar, granulated white sugar, whatever brand you choose.  Fruit pectin occurs naturally in fruits and is used for gelling, pectin occurs in very small amounts in strawberries, you therefore need to add some in order for your jam to set up.  You have to cook some pectin, be careful when cooking pectin it can be over cooked very easily and your jam won't set up (which is probably okay, you'll just end up with more of a chunky syrup.)  I've also found some no-cook pectin, eliminating the cooking step!  Or so I thought, turns out the no-cook pectin didn't help my jam set up very well.



You cannot double this recipe, it just doesn't work, your jam won't set up.  But that's okay, I've found a way around that, I didn't have all week to be making jam, so I made 3 batches at a time.  Using 3 separate bowls with a single recipe in each bowl, I was able to complete 3 batches of jam all at the same time.  Okay, I think that's about it, it's pretty simple.

Sarah's Strawberry Freezer Jam

4 Cups fresh, ripe, red berries, sliced in half
4 Cups Sugar
1 packet fruit pectin

Crush strawberries, I have done this 2 ways, using my potato masher and crushing them by hand or chopping them in the food processor.  The food processor is by far faster, and saves my hand from the strain.

Stir in sugar and allow to sit for about 20 minutes, or until sugar is dissolved.  Stirring every few minutes.

Prepare the fruit pectin according to package directions and slowly stir into the strawberry slurry.  

Ladle the slurry into freezer safe containers (I like to save margarine containers for things like this).  Set your jam in the fridge for a few hours to allow it to set up, then transfer to the freezer.

This method yields about 6 cups of jam.

We picked about 20lbs of berries and I did 11 batches of jam and we age quite a lot besides that!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I just made my second batch of laundry detergent this morning because I love it!  I don't know how long the first 5 gallons lasted me, but it was a long time, it's now November (I just ran out) and I believe I made my first batch in early summer.

This is a variation on the liquid laundry detergent recipe posted at www.duggarfamily.com.  I've made changes to this recipe due to the VERY hard water where I live.  You can adjust this recipe to suit your needs by adding or reducing the amount washing soda and borax that you use. 

4 Cups - hot tap water
1  bar - Ivory soap (or Fels Naptha)
1 1/4 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
3/4 Cup - Borax
1 - 5 gallon bucket with lid

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser 2/3 full with soap and then fill rest of way with hot water. Shake before each use.
-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.
-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes abiout 7 gallons.
-Top Load Machine- 1/2 Cup per load
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load

*In my top load machine I also add 1/4 cup white vinegar to the fabric softener spot.  No,  my laundry does not smell of vinegar when it is finished washing and I don't need to do extra rinses either.  The vinegar just leaves my clothes and towels so soft, it also prevents/eliminates any detergent build up.

*Arm & Hammer "Super Washing Soda" - in some stores in the laundry aisle or may be purchased through several online retailers. Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent - It must be sodium carbonate!!

Painting the Sidewalk

I know I don't have many followers, but I thought it would be fun to share some of my crafty fun with those of you who do follow!  As you may have noticed, I'm rather crafty, I love creating fun things and my daughter is following in my footsteps.  She loves to paint and color!

So last night we decided to chalkpaint the sidewalk.  The paint is simple to make, cornstarch, water, and food coloring.  There's no ratio of cornstarch to water, just put some cornstarch and food color into your container, I used a muffin tin, then add water and mix.  My mixture was pretty wattery, which made it really easy to paint, but it took a while to dry.

You'll want a fair amount of food coloring, several drops, because the paint dries with an opaque chalky look, if you don't use enough coloring you won't have nice colors once the paint dries.  It washes off easily and I don't think it will stain, but we decided that we don't care if it stains, because she's only this little once, so we might as well have fun!

Have fun painting!!