We recently offered another installment of our Make It/ Take It series.  This month we decided to can blackberry jam and pickles from the garden.  Participants gathered together to make traditional low sugar jam.  As we warmed the berries on the stove everybody chopped cucumbers, peeled garlic and chopped peppers for our batch of home-made pickles. We didn’t have any dill in the garden so we actually used basil for our pickles (which I have done in the past… and love!).      Most of our group participants had never done any home canning.  I wanted to let them know what a fun and easy project jam making can be. We really had a great time in the kitchen that day! We were able to make a big batch of a nice quality product and everyone got their own jar to keep. 

Our next official Make It/Take It class wil be held in a few weeks and we will be canning tomato sauce and making an enormous batch of pesto to freeze. In the meantime we are considering doing another pickling class and using up some of our beets and the rest of our cucumbers.  We will surely keep you all posted!

Jam……..

Warming up the berries
Adding Sugar

Pickles…..

Wash em’



Chop em’
Pack em’
Pickle em’