Best Berry Jam

I have been lucky enough to grow up in a home with an amazing kitchen and a mom who isn't all that keen on using it... This lead to making my own birthday cakes from age 12 (I didn't fancy the one I got for my 11th birthday) and generally being free to make a mess and experiment. I have made many batches of jam under Ouma's watchful eye - she still makes marmalade and rusks whenever we're running low!

Over December I visited a berry farm in Swellendam (gorgeous place!) and bought a bunch of frozen berries... I didn't even think of making jam until I got back to Cape Town a week later - usually frozen berries get eaten in minutes but somehow these ones managed to escape!

I didn't have a recipe but stuck to the basics. Here goes:
 
Mixed Berry Jam Recipe

500g blueberries

500g raspberries

1kg youngberries

6 granny smith apples, grated

15ml lemon juice

2kg sugar

The method is quite simple. Place all the ingredients in a very large heavy bottomed pot over low heat. At the same time, place a saucer in the freezer for testing the jam to see if it's done. Once the sugar is dissolved in the berry juice, bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Stir constantly - the jam will bubble up to about double the original volume and could boil over if you're not careful. Once the colour of the jam has changed and it's looking like runny jam (15-20min) test a little on your chilled saucer - I made notes on testing jam with my strawberry jam recipe.

Bottle in sterilized, hot jars. I close the jars whilst still hot to ensure that they seal properly and have stored jam for over a year without a hitch (mostly, however, the jam only lasts a few weeks before it is devoured by friends and my hungry family)

Simple Knitting Project

Ever since I can remember (and my mom can rememebr, in fact!), my Ouma has been busy with either a knitting or crochet project (or ten!)... Since she lives with us and is quite an influence in all of our lives, a little bit of her rubs off every once in a while! I have shared a few projects which she's had something to do with and this one was no excpetion. Wonderful as she is, my dear Ouma feels it necessary to forcefully offer advice when it comes to my handiwork... Nothing major this time around and I managed to gently get her to understand that I needed my own personal twist on this one!  

My inspiration came from a trip to the yarn shop to buy supplies for Ouma to make blankets - she makes about 40 knee rugs for retirement homes every year which means a few trips to various wool shops! :-)

I think it turned out quite gorgeous!

I found the most divine cotton knitting yarn and couldn't resist buying enough for a few projects! My motivation for making a baby jersey is nothing exciting I'm afraid... It's just that making a jersey for a big person takes so darn long and I'm prone to making mistakes along the way - I figured a baby was less likely to notice the errors than an adult would and they certainly wouldn't be in a position to put my jersey in the back of a cupboard to be forgotten! I searched online for a pattern I liked and this was the second one I tackled... The first one is about 50% complete but I decided I didn't really like the shape of the jersey so I started on option 2. I will finish the other one now that this one is done and post pictures shortly! This jersey is called the "bellflower baby hoodie" and is available free on Lion Yarn's website which you need to sign up to gain access. I didn't use Lion yarn but the cotton is double knitting. I used size 3.5 needles for the ribbing and size 4mm for the rest.    

How cute is this hood?! I'm in love!

The buttons came from billabong pants and shorts I've bought through the years - I thought they added a little character!

With most of the family home from the annual river holiday the kitchen and garden have gotten busy and some interesting and yummy meals have been prepared...

First and foremost though I feel I should brag a little about the food whilst on holiday... :-) We spit Roast a lamb every new years (well every one for the last 18 years or so!) dad once again did it to perfection! It's quite a process, you see... The coal maker gets taken out and dusted off by the boys (it's a 44 gallon drum that da put a door in the bottom and a grate inside to allow the coals to fall though and transferred to the spit pit with a spade - he's very clever...) next the lamb is tied to a frame (which dearest daddy made too!) and placed 1m above the coals. The cooking process starts early in the afternoon so we're talking SLOOOOOOW roasted lamb here. Dad and uncle Brian are in charge of the carving when the lamb's ready. Whilst it's cooking we make a variety of yummy salads and pot bread in the fire... desert is mom's christmas cake with custard (for those who have a separate pudding stomach - I'm not blessed with one of these!)

The next day is a generally lazy affair... There's an anything that floats race down river at mid day but we didn't compete this year. Instead, we started making dinner! There was plenty of left over lamb (part of the plan) which mom and Susan skillfully and thriftily removed from the bone. The outdoor kitchen turned into a whirlwind of activity and all the veggies in the fridge were sliced and diced for a giant stir fry... It's a tradition in our house but very different every year! We ate lamb stir fry for the next two days and no one got tired of it!!

 

Fabulous Family Outing

 Once a year we rally the troops and head out to Klondike  farm outside Ceres in the Western Cape to pick fresh cherries... We were introduced to this fabulous outing a few years ago by one of dad's friends who has celebrated his dad's birthday every year with cherries. As you can see the farm is beautiful and well worth the drive! We picked about 15kg as we always share the juicy red love with friends ans faily who are unable to join us on the day...


As far as a reasonable day out goes it's pretty good value: R15 entry fee per person and then we paid about R600 for cherries and juices for the drive home... 


We've dished out the gift cherries and still have a giant coolerbox-full to make preserves for deserts for the year to come... Someone suggested freezing them to eat on hot days as mini icies so i'm going to chuck 2kg into then freezer for that! 


But enough of the blogging - I've got cherries waiting to be tasted :-)

Happiness Is...

Heading into the garden with my cup of tea yesterday morning I couldn't help but feel like the luckiest girl in the world! How can you feel anything else when you share your morning cuppa with the chickens, bunnies and such pretty flowers and exciting new seedlings? 

After the upheaval of moving the garden from one suburb to another, the veggie boxes are finally installed in their 'forever homes' and filled with straw and chicken litter and potting soil (the idea is that the chicken litter breaks down and the veggies on top grow like they're on steroids!)

The beans are 4 days old and looking strong

The bath full of carrots is looking so promising!

Lettuces just showing their faces in the first veggie box

Lettuces and Beans in the first veggie box

Creative Pasta

So, after the longest of creative droughts I am finally writing about something yummy AND meaningful once again :-)

The pictures were taken on my new toy: a Nikon D90 which has made me ecstatically happy and takes the most amazing pictures. Unfortunately the pics were taken my an over-zealous fourteen year old who is only starting to learn about composition and the like (you understand when you see them)

Fresh pasta is something that happens often in our house. I've got it to such a fine art that I can make, roll and boil it in under 45 minutes! I haven't had a wedding so I can put a KitchenAid KSM150PSWH Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer, White on the registry list so the dough still has to be mixed and kneaded by hand (the fourteen year old is really good at this part so we share the duty when he's feeling cooperative) I bought the pasta roller when I did a pasta making course a few years back but it's only started being used regularly since we got the chickens ;-)


The recipe is very simple: 


100g flour per egg - use 1 egg per person (I always make extra as there are ALWAYS unexpected guests and if it doesn't get finished on the day it makes for the best lunch or freezer meal) Mix the two together and knead into a dough. If it's too hard, add another egg or water and if it's too sticky then add a little more flour. I divide the dough into manageable balls to knead and roll out or else it's a real challenge...

This time around I decided on Raviolli with butternut and Ricotta and another with spinach and feta.

So it's been a while, a very long while since I've managed to post anything, let alone something valuable or interesting... It's not that there's nothing happening in the kitchen or urban farming project, it's actually that there's been too much on the go!

I dealt with an infestation of lice in the chicken cage - I was away for the weekend and got a pannicked phonecall  from my little boet saying I had to come home immediately... I told him to relax and I'd deal with it after my mini break :-) The solution to lice isn't a fun one and neither is it particularly environmentally friendly... I cleaned out the cage completely and then dusted the ENTIRE thing with some chemical concoction called Karbadust (which nurseries no longer stock as it's a nasty insectacide - I found it at the farming co-op agrimark in phillipi). My internet research said that I'd need to dust the chickens too - the instructions suggested putting the chickens in a plastic packet with their heads sticking out and shaking a little to get them covered in the dust... I laughed out LOUD when I read it. I then called my mom and read it to her and we laughed hystirically together... you see, there is absolutely no way to get a chicken into a bag without injuring it and yourself, not to mention that it'd have to be one flipping sturdy bag not to get shredded by the chicken's kicking claws!!! I worked out a much more efficient method: I simply sprinkled powder onto the chicken's back which resulted in a flustered chicken who kindly ruffled their feathers, thus distributing the dust all over their bodies... I also got covered in the process (and I seem to have read that it's toxic to humans on the instructions) but I had a ball and was absolutely certain there could be no lice on me by the time I was done :-)

We're busy building a compost heap system - three divisions as there's quite a lot of composting material coming out of the garden and chicken cage... I'll post photos and designs once I'm done :-)

There's so much more to share but I haven't put the photos onto my computer yet and somehow photos tell a much better story than my less than colourful words :-)