The other day Charlie from Adele's mentioned the "C" word to me (no not Christmas) but canning. He said it's time to start thinking about a plan and a Sunday to get it done. I'll admit I don't want to think about canning in this heat but if you want all the goodies in the winter now is the time to start.
Two weeks ago I took a canning class in Oakland with my friend Sharon Fiori from a gal who owns Blue Chair Fruit. She makes about 500 jars a day to sell at the various farmers markets around the Bay area and online. It was pricey but it included dinner and, even after canning for more than 30 years, I picked up a few pointers.
She cooks the jam in small batches in these great copper pots. I'm saving for one right now and hope to pick it up on our next trip to the city. We made four different versions of strawberry jam. One with whole berries, sliced berries and for the third batch we added a few Santa Rosa plums. In the last batch we started with mostly plums and added a few berries.
She has a cookbook on canning coming out in September and I'm planning on getting an autographed copy. It's going to be 364 pages packed with recipes, info and insights.
The recipe I'm going to share is from the class and I'm assuming that if you are making this jam you know the basics of canning, processing and hot water baths.
If not come to the 3rd & Curry St. Farmers Market and sign up for a class because we are going to be offering a couple basic canning classes, probably for raspberry and strawberry jam.
Blue Chair Fruit Strawberry Jam
Low-Sugar:
Berries are hulled and halved
1 pound 13 ounces sugar to 4 1/2 pound fruit
or
0.4 pounds sugar to every 1 pound fruit
Higher Sugar:
Berries are hulled but left whole
2 pounds 11 ounces sugar to 4 1/3 pounds fruit
or
0.6 pounds sugar to every 1 pound fruit
On a last note I want to let everyone know that Dave Ruff from the Greenhouse Garden Center will be at the downtown farmers market at 10 a.m. July 31, giving a short talk on composting and then he'll be available to answer any questions you might have on gardens, lawns, trees, flowers, etc. I always have lots of questions for him but sometimes he's so busy at the nursery I hate to bother him. So here's your chance to have a one-on-one with Dave who is one of the most knowledgeable nurserymen around. While he's at the market I'll be at the nursery giving tips about shopping at the market and a cooking demo on grilling fresh veggies.
• Linda Marrone has been a Carson City resident since 1973 and together with her husband, Ralph, formerly operated Marrone's Restaurant in Carson City and Somethin's Cookin' Catering.
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