Sometimes you have to make a purchase

I love to home process (can) foods. Can it be a bit of work? Yes, but to my way of thinking nothing beats being able to go to the pantry and grab a jar of food when you want it. 

This is the year I wanted to can cherries. I'd love to have a cherry tree that produces fruit, but the cherry trees I have are wild and don't fruit. I started calling around to the various orchards in my area and what a shock! If they had cherries available, it was at an astronomical price - $5.00 for a PINT. You'd need four pints to make one cherry pie!  I hated to do it, but I went to a grocery and got frozen cherries for my project - Spirited Cherries. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. My preference was for local produce, but it was time to be financially responsible to my budget. 

Spirited Cherries is a recipe found in the big Ball Book. It's very simply a tablespoon and a half of "spirits" (alcoholic beverage) per half-pint jar. And while I was in the frozen section, I got a big bag of blueberries and made Spirited Blueberries. 

The finished product cost about $1.00 per jar. That's a little high, but it shakes out to $.50 a serving. I'll be putting the fruit over ice cream or even yogurt if I have that in the evening instead of ice cream. That's thirty-six times I won't have to prepare anything. Open a jar, or the fridge, and enjoy. 

I think it's well worth the three hours it took to can both fruits. And considering the cost differential to local fresh, I don't even feel bad about that. I may even get more and make a second batch. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, home canning, cherries, blueberries, rural living, country lifestyle, budgeting, buy local, Ball Book

Acquaintances and grape jelly

Yesterday, I decided to make a run through the Walmart grocery store to stock up on a few things and obtain an out-of-season produce item. The Lord of the Manor needed... okay he didn't NEED grape jelly, but he wanted it. I knew my local grocery didn't have Concord grapes, but a quick online check said Walmart did. We do prefer to buy locally, but asking him to wait until fall for his next peanut butter and jelly sandwich would have made a grown man whimper.  

So I'm roaming the aisles at Walmart and encounter an acquaintance. Upon learning I'm on vacation and looking forward to retirement, the old gal dissed me. SHE is never going to retire. SHE likes working (i.e. living under the rule of another). SHE will never "bother" with a garden as long as she can shop at Walmart. 

Well, excuse ME! 

I have two takeaways from that meeting. One, don't shop at Walmart at 9:00am on a Friday because she may be there, and two, I'm not the crazy one. 

I was happy to get home, restock the pantry, and make a batch of grape jelly with no additives or preservatives. I followed the Sure-Jel recipe and the jelly set as it cooled. Sure-Jel has never failed if I've used their formula. I do need to get a canister of pectin for "rebel" recipes, though. 

It wasn't until I lined up the jars I'm putting in the pantry for a picture that I realized I'd lined them up like bowling pins. Subliminal? Yep.

The lids I used are the Tattler lids. Tattlers are reusable lids made in the USA. I like the idea that they can be used over and over for as long as the gasket is okay. If the gaskets start to wear out, you can purchase a bag of them separately. Tattler lids seal just as well as regular one-use metal lids. The initial investment sounds like a lot - $11.00 for a dozen lids and gaskets, but it's a one-time outlay of cash. Metal lids that are used once and discarded, which can't be found in any store around here in June of 2021, need to be purchased time after time. It just makes sense to me to buy a few boxes of Tattlers as I go along. 

The day awaits. We have a market not too far away called Ivy Hill Farm. We're coming up on cherry season and I happen to like cherry jelly. Maybe I can convince the Lord of the Manor to take a little drive today if they have some available. It may be time to order another box or two of lids. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor