Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Sometimes You Win BIG!!

 Good Morning World!!  It's been fabulous weather each and every day.  Lows around 60 and highs of only 85 with breezes in the afternoon.  Not a bad summer so far ... not bad at all.

This is my view every morning.  This kid has me so well trained .... he scratches the bowl loudly, sometimes flipping it over, to let me know he's out of food.  


In no time, the bowl is halfway across the kitchen.  Truly, all he wants is snacks, not REAL food.  Unlike me, it's a challenge to get him to eat what he's supposed to.  Okay, I admit it's a challenge for ME to eat what I'm supposed to also!


That does NOT include jam or jelly ... but here we are.  You probably won't believe this, but I have had this berry crushing cone for 64 years.  I guess that makes it an antique, just like me.  Too bad I forgot most all I knew about jam making.  

At least I did remember the gloves to keep my hands from turning purple, but I forgot about donning an old T-shirt.  AND I completely forgot how much WORK it is too.  First off, I could not for the life of me find my old recipe, so I hit the internet.  That was my FIRST big mistake.  

No two recipes are the same, and sadly those that are out there now, don't seem familiar to me.  I apparently didn't exactly measure out the berries and juice correctly.  One recipe said 7 cups of fruit and 8 cups of sugar.  Yup that's a LOT of sugar!


Into the pot it went.  One recipe said to heat the berries first, the other said sugar first.  It went on like that until they were in a hard rolling boil.  One said add pectin first, the other said add it later.  Good grief ... 


Amazingly, I still had my funnel from the old days and remembered exactly how to fill and seal.  Into the water they went for a boiling water bath.  We never did that in the old days ... we just left the filled jars on the counter until the lids popped.  

I boiled them anyway for the appointed 5 minutes before lifting them out.  That was one thing I could not find ... the jar lifter ... so I used a long pair of tongs.  The lid popping began, and was music to my ears.  It means the lids are tight and sealed.


So here we are ... two different sized jars because I had MUCH more product than I had jars.  Of course later I found the jars I needed sitting on my washing machine.  A good place for them, no?

And then came the test.  Sometimes you win BIG!  And sometimes NOT!  I think I now have a good supply of boysenberry syrup!!  So far it has not set up.  I'm guessing I had too much juice and berries for the one packet of pectin.  I just could not make myself throw it away.  

One thing however ... there is absolutely NOTHING like the taste of fresh boysenberry syrup.  Oh my Great Aunt Carry ... this stuff is DELICIOUS!!

And SO ... better luck next time, which will be in two days.  I have yet another 6 boxes of berries to process when I receive the case of jars I ordered.  Hopefully I end up with JAM next time.  Oh there's still hope it might set up a little ... but I'm not holding my breath!


So to make myself feel better about my cooking skills, I threw together these bird biscuits for Jonathan.  


And I made another haul of tomatoes from the vines.  This gardening stuff is a LOT of work!!


Oh and WAIT ... I have yet ANOTHER batch of jam to make with the olallieberries that are in the freezer.  By the way, those were invented by the University of Oregon in 1949 and grow mostly along the coast.  They are even harder to get than the boysenberries.  

I hope everyone knows what they are getting for Christmas!  Next year I'll only buy ONE box of berries.  Oh, and I snuck onto my neighbor's porch, leaving zucchini and tomatoes.  They'll never know!!!!  Next time they are gone, I'll leave a couple jars of syrup!!



14 comments:

  1. Do I see some vanilla ice cream in your future for all the yummy syrup. You were a busy lady yesterday. My neighbors loved it when I left a care package of veggies. Bet yours do to.
    Sue

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  2. I have vanilla ice cream at my house!!! Bring Syrup! :))
    It's a balmy 83 degrees on patio at 6:30am~going to be warm.

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    1. Best "syrup" I've ever had. Remember Knottsberry Farm? That used to be the only place you could find it.

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  3. I bet that syrup is yummy! But yeah, that's a lot of sugar added!

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  4. Nancy the MCP package that I use has a berry recipe on it. I use it and it works great.
    Happy jelly making!
    Frances:)

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    1. I'll have to look that up. I'm guessing I used too much juice and not enough pectin.

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  5. I'm so glad you told us about the syrup! When I made my choke cherry jam from the fruit along the roadside here........one of our first years here, one batch was perfect and one was syrup! It would not set up either. So, I had it on my ice cream and oatmeal! Loved it. I'm not only Pioneer Woman Patsy, you are Pioneer Woman Nancy.
    I do believe about the sieve thingy......I have one too from Mom!

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    1. I called the "jam lady" ... I'll tell you what she said today.

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  6. Syrup for pancakes, waffles, french toast...there you go.

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  7. That's it! Berry crusher you say. Hmm. Why did I think it was called a ricer? I have one too. Exactly the same and ONLY 40 years old. I too use the pectin package insert for directions. Homemade jelly/syrup is like opening a jar of summer :o)

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    1. I don't think we used it for anything else but berries and mostly for pomegranates jelly. Weirdly, the Sure-Gel does not have inserts any more. You have to go online ... and it did not even list boysenberries.

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