Homemade fruit preserves, jams and jellies bring summer home all year long
As a person living a lifetime with chronic disease and dependent on many lifesaving medications, I do my best to control the food I put in my body each day. That doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy a Portillo’s hot dog or Campbells’ Tomato Soup from time to time. That does mean that I have chosen to make more of the things that I consume by hand. My goal is to decrease the amount of chemicals I have to consume each day.
Last year, I rediscovered truly eating seasonally when I joined Rustic Road Farm’s community supported agriculture share. My world was reawakened to things I grew up with from my parent’s garden – fresh kohlrabi with salt, delicious heritage green beans and red wattle pork. For many years I have always had a backyard herb garden. Last summer, I decided to begin canning my own foods. Not only was it a ton of fun, but I had amazing little homemade gifts to share through the year with friends and family. One yummy recipe I want to share is Peach, Lavender and Blueberry Preserves. I will admit it is shocking to see the amount of sugar that needs to be added to make the jam “jammy.” If you don’t want to use sugar, you can experiment with chia seeds to avoid sugar altogether. Either way, just make sure that you can safely.
Buy this book from Ball Canning and you will learn everything you need to know! I also get all of my canning supplies here online.
Looking for more breakfast ideas see our warm oatmeal bowls.
