Baby Harvest

If there is one thing that I'm not known for, it's having a green thumb.  If you've been reading this blog, you already know this.  My kale grew like crazy...only problem...I can't get anyone to eat it.  We've had a ton of it so far.  A rhubarb plant that I planted last year, and witnessed it's death, resurrected itself this year.  Before I even turned the water on to the garden this little plant was growing.  A couple weeks ago I cut some stalks off and it surprisingly grew more.  I'm beginning to think that if I give my garden the cold shoulder, it may actually grow some stuff.

Ethan came running in the house this morning yelling that we actually had "real" peaches growing on our tree.  Last year I had a tree full of  teeny tiny ones that all blew off in a wind storm.  This year I have about 10 that size on the tree.  We picked 2 to see how they would ripen on the counter.  I have about 20 apples growing on my tree this year, which is a new record.  Hopefully they get a little bigger.

Now I had to decide what to do with my rhubarb.  I had chopped some up and threw it in the freezer until I could figure out what I wanted to do with it.  I really love strawberry rhubarb pie.  Problem is, no one else in my family does.  As much as I would love to solve the problem of eating an entire pie, my butt and thighs begged me for mercy.  So, I decided that the next best thing would be to make some jam.

I found a recipe using apples instead of pectin on my favorite pinning site and gave it a try.  I ended up only using half the amount of rhubarb and substituting extra strawberries.  The main reason for this.  I didn't have enough rhubarb.  I thought it would also raise the odds of someone in my family actually being willing to give it a try.

There is some prep time in making this specific recipe.  the rhubarb and the strawberries need to 'juice' in sugar and lemon overnight.  I am a freezer jam girl, so this was a new experience for me.  I also don't like "chunks" in my jam, so I took the hand blender to it before I canned it.  It seems like every time I can anymore, I end up with 1 broken jar.  Don't know what's up with that.  I think the glass isn't tempered very well these days, so when I'm on my second plus use of the jar, one inevitably breaks.   At least it was one of the baby sized ones.

One of my favorite things about canning is the symphony of sound the lids make as they seal.  The plink, plink, plink.  It is an added feeling of satisfaction because you know you did it right and they are perfect (unless, of course, what you put in the can is horrible haha) because of that little sound they make.

For lunch today, I felt like a real bonafide farmer as I ate my kale salad and had some toast with my partially home grow/ homemade jam.  The jam was seriously good.  I could taste more of the apple than the recipe said, but I thought it mellowed out the bitterness of the rhubarb.  Now, if I can just get my family to try it.  My husband doesn't know where this "Molly" girl came from.  I like to think of myself as more of a doomsday kinda girl, but I'll take "molly."

Now I'm off to finish making "comic book" buildings for the stake dance on Saturday.  It's gonna be wicked awesome!  :0)  Ooh, and on Thursday (weather permitting) I am going to make some fish in my sun-oven. I'm a little nervous about that because I need to trust the kids to chase the sun so that the fish will cook.  I wont be home most of the day because it's my volunteer day at the temple.  Seriously, who am I?  I don't even know sometimes! lol

BTW on a funny side note.  I noticed in the picture with the harvest on the counter, there is a carmel syrup bottle.  On the bottom of that bottle one of my children apparently tried to claim possession of it by writing their name in sharpie.  Hilarious!