Another Successful Bramblefest

The fourth annual Berry Weekend has come and gone.  This year we were only four: Emmy, my mom, and my friend KD, all others having weddings or school to attend.  This year, thanks to local Philly blogger and canner Marisa McClellan and her amazing book Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year Round, we really felt like we got into the swing of things are were finally comfortable with the entire process.

We were so comfortable in fact that we ended up making about 8 batches of jam, including peach lavender, peach spice, blueberry vanilla, and of course bramble jam, which was made using the juice from the wild berries that grow on Emmy's property.

It rained most of the weekend, but we still got a chance to do the things we like to do on Berry Weekend other than jam - go antiquing and shoot guns.  And after the rains, we were rewarded with this incredible sunset on Saturday night.

Enjoy the very end of summer, autumn is on its way!

- Erica

P.S. Posts from Bramblefest 2009, and 2010, I didn't document 2011 :(

Summer Inspiration!

Though not officially summer yet, it sure felt like it this weekend in Philly. We went to the Trenton Ave Arts Festival, hosted a porch crawl in our neighborhood and hung out at the community garden in the sun. AND I got my copy of Food in Jars by local author Marisa McClellan! Her blog of the same name is a constant source of inspiration. I can't wait to start reading and canning!

My Precious

Bramblefest 2010 was a success! We made six different kinds of jam: Bramble, black and blueberry, blueberry lime, plum peach, peach cinnamon, and low sugar peach.



As predicted, the brambles were not very fruitful this year, though we insisted on venturing into the thorns anyway. We managed to collect about 2 lbs of berries, which we mashed and juiced to add to the bramble jam.



My parents also came prepared with these adorable picking buckets that we tied around our waists.



And this year we had a new family member to help us pick: Maybelle! She's a tiny rough and tumble love bug farm kitty.

Here are some pics from the process:









And here's the haul!



We made 51 jars of jam, mostly in 1/2 pints. Next year we vow to make more 4 oz. jars because then we'll have enough to give as gifts. As it is, I don't want to part with my precious share.

P.S. We managed to hit up the antique store in town as well (two of them, actually!) and I'll share my incredible findings from that in another post.

Juicy Preparations

There's been a flurry of activity in my inbox recently, mostly centering around the topics of fruit, jars, kittens, and antiques. That all adds up to one thing: Bramblefest 2010!



The time has come to head up to E and T's house in northeast PA to harvest wild berries, eat amazing home-cooked food, gather wildflowers, laugh at chickens, play with the new kitten, shop for antiques, watch movies and of course, make jam. Lots of it.



We're a little worried about the brambles this year because E and T did some work on the property and the brambles took a hit. But they will bounce back. And while we wait we will supplement. Yesterday Chloe and I went to Mood's Farm Market in NJ for some pick-your-own goodness. It was raining but we stuck through, having a blast, stuffing ourselves with fruit, and harvesting over 5 lbs of blackberries ($1.40/lb) and over 20 lbs of peaches ($0.75/lb!).



My mom is bringing blueberries, so it Aunt E, and Katie is bringing plums. Good lord, I think a lot of it will go into our bellies before it goes into the cans and I can't wait. I'm particularly excited to try some recipes from Marisa McClellan's local Philly Food in Jars blog and to experiment with the spices. Mood's is her favorite pick-your-own and I've been wanting to go for a while.

So happy weekend everyone, and check back next week for the results of Bramblefest 2010!

ACGA in Hotlanta

I'm back from the American Community Gardening Association conference in Atlanta and I had an incredible time! I met some amazing people, I was educated and inspired, I saw many beautiful gardens, and I ate incredible food! Here are some highlights.


*A canning class with Miss Classie Parker of Just Food in NYC, where I learned how to pickle okra and boogie.*


*A great harvest table and weighing station in the Back to Eden Garden*

Scenes from the Taste of the South dinner:









*Genius bike racks at Pearl Academy Agriculture and Environmental Center*


*Goats at Pearl Academy*

And, last but not least, the Atlanta Botanical Garden:











I'm already excited for next year!

It's That Time Again

Time for purple-stained fingers and hours spent under a fruit tree. Or crouching in a strawberry patch. Over the last few weeks I have collected many yogurt containers full of mulberries, serviceberries, sour cherries, currants, and strawberries, and all of them have been foraged from street trees or the yard of my friend Katrina (sad news: Katrina and her husband decided to move out of their house on the corner and I will miss her so. Also, now I will have to beg and plead with the new owners to get access to the fruit trees and the strawberry patch!).





Most of the berries went straight into my belly and the belly of friends (I brought four pounds of fruit on the plane with me to St. Louis last weekend to share with Jaja). The rest I cut up, mixed with granulated sugar, and froze. It works quite well; the sugar keeps the berries from sticking together too much in the freezer and you can scoop them out to eat on top of yogurt or ice cream whenever you want!



I also made this incredibly simply biscuit recipe with the serviceberries. It was scrumptious, I suggest you try it out.

Serviceberry biscuits

• 2 c flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3-4 Tbs Crisco
• 1 c sugar
• 3/4 c milk
• 2 c berries

Mix together dry ingredients. Cut shortening into it with a fork, until course crumbs. Add milk, mix. Gently add berries, mix. Plop onto lightly greased baking sheet and bake at 450 degrees for 12 minutes.

Yum.

Saving my Spinach

Check out my latest entry on Farm to Philly, all about how to freeze your garden greens!

'Tis the Season

:: For a few more winter decorations (it says "Snowflakes," from funkyshique on etsy) ::



:: For handmade banana-chocolate-coconut bread for all of my coworkers ::



:: For Christmas cactus ::



:: And for handmade vanilla syrup for all of my family members (recipe from Food in Jars) ::

Have an amazing Christmas Eve!

Bartram Blackberry Jelly

Back in July when I was working at Bartram's Garden I foraged several quarts of blackberries from the blackberry bush (more like blackberry hedge) in the parking lot. I suffered sunburn and mosquito bites to harvest those berries, then I let them sit in the freezer for several months before getting around to processing them. Wild berries are notoriously seedy, so I decided to make jelly.


**thawed blackberries**




**straining the juice through cheesecloth**



When I squeezed all of the juice out of the berries I came up a little short, so I ended up using 4 cups of blackberry juice and 2 cups of peach simple syrup left over from the preserving I did earlier this month. The peach syrup thing was just a whim, I was shocked that there wasn't enough berry juice from all of those berries so I just improvised to finish the recipe.



In total, I used 4 cups blackberry juice, 2 cups peach simple syrup, 7 cups sugar, and 1 box pectin. And I found out that that is waaaaaaay too much sugar. So much that it almost didn't set (it did, but it's very liquidy). I would have thought that the more sugar you put in the better it would set, but that's not what happened.

I brought the juice to a boil, added sugar and pectin, returned to a boil, and poured into clean jars.


**Clean jars, fresh from the dishwasher.**


**18 cups final product.**



After pouring the hot jelly into jars, the last step is a 10 minute sterilization in boiling water, which is still very difficult because of a lack of jar lifters and rack for the pot (though I hear that that might change come Christmas :) ). I usually put a dish towel on the bottom of the pot and use tongs to lift the jars in and out.



A few of my coworkers at Bartram's took this jelly home with them, of course. It's only fair, considering they helped me pick the berries and they suffered the same mosquitoes and sunburn! Ah, what I wouldn't give for a little sunburn right now, it's been in the 40s and raining recently. We actually turned the heat on in the house, not a good sign. But eating this jelly on my toast every morning (in my new work space!) makes me smile. It gives me a little summer to start my day.