Todays abundance

Today's abundance was pears!! Yummy, sweet, juicy, delicious, pears. I answered an ad on a local online selling site. This person had unsprayed pears ready and we could come pick them for $5 a bag.

I took one of my twins... I like when I am able to split the kids up and taking one of them with me. Even when we are doing mundane things like shopping and errands.. I feel like I am able to connect with them and we enjoy lots of laughs doing almost anything. A lot of great talks happen in those times. Plus lets face it.. the extra help is always nice!

I am not sure who ( yes, sadly it was me ) decided picking them at noon on a hot day was a good idea! Phew were so red faced and thirsty by the time we were done. The lady ended up only charging us $10 for three bags. What a great deal!  I am going to give them a couple days to ripen a bit more before canning them.
We will be enjoying this bounty through the winter!

Jammin

I was oh so fortunate to be able to pick raspberries at a friend of mine's Mom's place.. plump juicy berries.. with nothing yucky sprayed on them.
My girls love raspberry jam. well lets be honest. .who doesn't love raspberry jam!?!
My friends Mom told me how she was making her jam.. with no pectin. Sounds good to me, so I gave it a try this round and was very pleased with the results.

• 8 cups berries
• 6 cups sugar (I have seen online there are recipes calling for equal amounts of fruit to sugar, I didn't think it needed that)

How easy can that be?? Seriously!

Get your jars sterilizing and the lids and rings in a pot heating.

Heat your berries and give them a good mashing.

Add your sugar and bring the whole mixture up to 220 degrees.

Fill your jars.. then put them in to the canner for their water bath. 5 Min after the water starts to boil (time from the point of boiling)

and voila

 

What to make next?... hmm stay tuned to find out :)