When I think of rhubarb, I always think of my grandmother. Like many gardeners of her time, she grew this large, old-fashioned, perennial vegetable in a sunny corner of the garden. The leaves, which are poisonous, were discarded, but she cut the tender, red stalks to use in pies, jams, and syrups, usually combined with strawberries. As a child, I loved to eat the raw rhubarb stalks. Grandma would cut a few stalks for me and my siblings and send us outside with a cup of sugar. Rhubarb is very acidic and causes a pucker
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Grandmother’s jellies and jams made use of the various fruits available to her and were the perfect addition to add flavor to a cold-weather meal.  I don’t know if all grandmas serve homemade jams and jellies and bread with their dinners, but I do know that it was a welcome experience when I was growing up. When making jams and jellies, pectin is often called for. How much is needed depends on the nature of the fruit being processed.  These days, it’s very easy to reach for the store-bought pectin (regular old Sure-Jell or Ball
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Late summer and the coming fall means jam-making time at my house. Raspberry jam is my particular favorite, but I make a big stock of strawberry for my husband too. Jams and conserves are among the simplest canning projects to undertake. All you need is ripe fruit, sugar, and some form of pectin. Jam-Making Basics Old-timers relied on the pectin found naturally in fruit to thicken their jams through long cooking, and you can use this approach today if you like. Some fruits, like sour apples, blackberries, crab apples, and grapes, naturally have a lot
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For those of us who can and preserve our foods, we certainly know how rewarding it can be. Satisfied family and friends regularly enjoy our goodies, and we love being able to provide them. But, most of us often wonder about the world beyond our grandmother’s strawberry jam or our great aunt Betsy’s grape jelly. Surely in these modern times, we should be able to branch out and explore new creations. What stops us? The answer to that question, most of the time, is fear. Many of us follow recipes and are not brave enough
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