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Thursday, Jun. 17, 2004 - 5:45 p.m.

Early harvest is in full swing, so I have almost more ripe fruit than I know what to do with right now �

Yesterday was just too busy to even think of sitting in the chair and putting together an entry.

Even though early hours started on Wednesday, I needed every minute I could get to do all I wanted to do. I left work at 3 pm (after the 156th rain shower of the past 7 days- it�s beginning to smell like the tropical forest room at the St. Louis Zoo around here), and headed out to Temporary Mohall #1�s bottomland farm property. I picked plenty of ripe black raspberries there last Friday, but he convinced me that it would be a shame if all the now-ripened fruit went to waste.

It didn�t take much to make me agree.

I picked fruit for about an hour in 99% humidity and 90� heat. I was wearing a black t-shirt and dark blue jeans (great planning, I know), so I was soaked to the bone by the time I left.

Some of the fruit had past the perfect level of ripeness, so it took a little bit of effort to avoid adding the mushy ones to the bucket. I worked my way further back into the creekbed, finding areas that had been left untouched by human hands.

By the large number of droppings on the ground below these canes, I would say the local wildlife had been enjoying these berries as much as me. By the looks of these scats, ripe berries were about their entire diet for the past few days. If you get my drift.

I was working a large section located in what must have been the old farmstead�s junk pile area. Broken slabs of concrete mixed with rusted-out hulks of the finest appliances money could buy in 1936.

Since I couldn�t see where my feet were located in the thick undergrowth, I was carefully probing my way forward, inches at a time, to make sure I had good footing. I was concerned that I might stick my foot into a raccoon�s hole or something, setting myself up for a batch of rabies shots.

At least I thought I was being careful.

I wasn�t taking the wet ground into consideration as I moved forward.

My left foot slipped out from under me and entered a washout hole that was so deep I didn�t hit the bottom with my foot. I caught myself as I fell and somehow rolled my body weight enough to land on the other side of said hole with my right hip, rolling myself to the ground. I ended up covered with smashed berries on my jeans from the knees down.

Nothing snapped anywhere on my body, which is a good thing.

If I had injured myself badly, I might have been there for a long time�


These berries are now frozen on a large cookie sheet. I need to pry them loose and bag them up.

I froze them this way because they were so ripe. Even minor handling of the berries caused them to bruise and leak out their juices. If I didn�t spread them on the sheet and just shoved them into large Ziploc� bags, they would have ended up big frozen balls of mashed berries.

They will make great deserts sometime over the next 12 months, so any damage that happened processing them won�t be a problem.

I�m thinking black raspberry iced cream (seeds removed) next February sounds pretty good?


The other task for me yesterday involved my pitted ripe tart cherries.

I decided to experiment with them. Already had one batch of jam, didn�t need two. I have frozen enough for Lease to make plenty of deserts all winter (3 full gallon bags reside in the freezer)

So how about a jam completely different? How about tart cherry-rhubarb jam?

After all, people have made strawberry-rhubarb jam for years. Both cherries and strawberries come ripe at the same time. Surely someone has made this combo before, right?

Well, yes and no. I couldn�t find a recipe on the Internet that used fresh tart cherries. I did find about 100 that used either canned cherry pie filling or boxed cherry Jello�. But nothing that used fresh fruit.

So I improvised.

I used the strawberry-rhubarb recipe to get proportions (equal parts of each fruit, 2 cups finely chopped), along with the directions for one box of pectin (5 � cups sugar, � cup lemon juice).

Then I played with it.

I increased the fruit to 3 cups each, and doubled the pectin. I figured the cherries were so juicy, if I didn�t increase the pectin it wouldn�t gel.

I used lime juice instead of lemon (my personal preference, flavor-wise. But you already knew that, right?). I also added a little cinnamon. That spice and rhubarb just go together, IMHO.

Cooked it like I do all jams (bring to rolling boil, cook one more minute), then canned it up and water bath processed it for 10 minutes.

How did it turn out?

Well, it set up real good.

It is sweet, but not overly so. You can taste both fruits, along with the hint of cinnamon and lime.

I put 10 jars in the canner, and had enough left over for 5 or 6 small sample jars (baby food jars and the like- maybe 4 ounce each?) which I handed out at work today.

They will try anything, but most of the guys are quick to tell me what they think of my experiments, too. Which is what I want them to tell me- is it worth making again?

I had it on an English muffin this morning, and I thought it was pretty good. But then again, I like both fruits (rhubarb is technically a vegetable since you eat the plant�s stalk, but play along with me).

I�ll know if the jam recipe is a keeper in a few more days. I should have my feedback by then�..

Antique - Futuristic


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