Homegrown Country Goodness

HELLO all & hello JUNE! Most of you know that this was my first ever winter in the Midwest! I sincerely LOVED everything about it. But I have to be honest and say that I was curious to see how I would do. A Texas girl doesn’t usually have to worry about winters back home, especially since they’re pretty much non-existent. Somebody was worried about boredom during the cold, shut-in days that I got slightly carried away. ~~In a good way~~… in a very good way! Aside from loving the cold, the snow, the quiet days at home, I also loved the homegrown country goodness all around!

What I mean by that is that I had no idea until I started loading the last batch of jam in the pantry that I realized I was darn busy this past Fall & Winter! Thinking that I had to keep myself super busy in case the wintry days started getting to me… I ended up with five varieties of jams & jellies! I throughly enjoy canning jams & jellies y’all. But I mostly love that people are willing to share their bounty with others. That is HOMEGROWN COUNTRY GOODNESS to me!!

Apple Jelly, Jalapeño Peach Jelly, Jalapeño Pear Jelly, Pear Vanilla Bean Jelly & Strawberry Jam!

All of these were made with “yum” from local people’s gardens. The pears, jalapeño’s, peaches and apples were grown locally by my daughter’s friends that were more than willing to share and I was un-shyingly willing to go pick or gather them.

The strawberries were the only fruit that came from the market.

So much to love about this, right?

Lots of slicing, peeling, mashing, and freezing took place. Canning is definitely not for wimps. It’s a process of love and patience but the reward of a heaping spoonful of sweet jam on a hot, flaky -monster biscuit… well, no words. It’s also a process that is perfected over time an practice. There are some things I’ve learned along the way in my canning journey that I would gladly share with others. Things like heating up your oven and storing the empty (sterile) jars in there until ready to fill, is so helpful. As well as keeping the lids in a hot water bath until ready to seal the jars is a definite plus! Buying the best canning tools and supplies will keep you from going insane during the whole- tedious process. The end reward…priceless.

There are mysteries that remain unanswered and it’s when your jam or jelly doesn’t set. Why? What causes it? It’s frustrating when it happens cause you gotta re-do the entire process. Like I had to do for one of my strawberry batches.

Another stinkin’ mystery…and the one that bothers me more is why I can’t have cute labels! Seriously, I hate all of the ones I have— especially after taking all the pictures above! LOL

I’m to the point that I am going to design a style I actually like and have them custom printed. Wouldn’t you agree?

There’s some things I wish I could change about myself and one is not being so anal about little things. (Such as labels!)

However, one thing that I wouldn’t change, is that I do love to share. (But, I don’t ship!) lol. Meaning I’ll have to come see you or you’ll have to come see me 😀. Either way… casa GCC has an ample supply of jams & jellies for future homegrown country goodness, the b&b, or for the apocalypse!