bounty

i bet you thought of the chocolate bar! i'm talking about berries and other goodies that the earth gives us. the strawberry season is almost over, so i figured i better get some to freeze (now that there is some empty space in freezers). although some would say i'm borderline neurotic about certain things, organizing comes to mind first, i never seem to remember how much i froze berries, how i made jams and how much, etc. this year i did/will remember to write down the amounts in my calendar (now, will i remember where the notes are, is a totally another matter!)

since i mentioned the neurosis i've had, well, i have, i must tell that i'm totally aware of them and that i'm working on them, honestly. i'm not going into details (see!?) but the old me would freak out of amount of dust all over at the shack, not to mention all the dog hair, how the books aren't alphabeticized, or even organized by color, how there are clothes all over (in piles, i might add) and that i never find anything because, well things aren't always where they were the last time i found them. ok, i'm going to stop now, back to berries...

i got these from anttilan marjatila, the variety is "bounty"







how clever am i! i used the pastry blender to mash the berries, got the right amount of juice but there is still some shape in berries







just a touch of sugar and these are ready to be frozen







i had my doubts when planting peas in a round tin planter, but look how juicy they look! the planter is only approx 0.25 m2 so there weren't too many pea pods to pick







these carrots are in a same kind of planter. there won't be many but they taste great, already pulled one out to taste







sage







last year i made vanilla flavoured plum preserve that i decided try to duplicate this year. i started by pitting the plums, that goes easy by quartering them and then just picking out the pits







i boiled the plums with jam sugar the box comes with instructions. after removing the pot from the stove i added 4 tps of nomu vanilla paste but i'm sure any natural vanilla will work (do not recommend any artificial vanilla flavourings)







my bamix came handy when mashing the boiled concoction, i wanted this to be quite smooth







i have quite a collection of glass jars, these had mayo in them. these are perfect size for jams and i love the fact that the product info just peels off the jar and there is no sticky, yacky stuff left behind, even the lids are nicely just one color







tucked under for cooling before storing them in the fridge







blueberries and raspberries, need i say more..







right out of oven, such a shame we didn't have any vanilla ice cream at the shack