Motivational Monday

"We are all self-reliant in some areas and dependent in others. Therefore, each of us should strive to help others in areas where we have strengths. At the same time, pride should not prevent us from graciously accepting the helping hand of another when we have a real need. To do so denies another person the opportunity to participate in a sanctifying experience."

Marion G. Romney, “The Celestial Nature of Self-Reliance,” Ensign, Mar 2009, 61–65

Northern Garden update

While Hannah already has plants growing in her garden down south, up here in the north things are moving a bit more slowly.

Our apartment complex has a great feature in a community garden. Anyone who is interested in gardening can sign up for a plot for have for the growing season. Just last week we were assigned our garden plot.

I wish I would have remembered to take a before picture but here's our after. We spent probably two hours weeding and turning over the garden with shovels. It was definitely not as easy as using a tiller!  Mountain Man isn't convinced that we don't need to till it still since the clumps are so big and hard to break down, but I do think we've made some progress.

These are the other plots next to ours, so you can kind of get a before idea.  Each light colored stick signals a different plot.

All the area behind the fences are garden plots. Although we live in a city, the apartment complex is set back next to a county park so there's quite a bit of wildlife.  There are all fences surrounding each garden area (there are three different gardens) and small rabbit fence surrounding each plot.  Since this is our first garden here, I'm interested/scared to see what damage the critters will do.

Next up: plan the plants, and wait for the freeze warnings to stop.

Anyone else up north getting ready to gear up and garden?

Jamming

One big part of food storage is learning to preserve foods on your own.  It's strawberry season here in the South, and last week I took my daughters with me to a u-pick farm.  We picked 20 lbs!


                                            


Instead of using a conventional freezer jam recipe, though (you know, the recipe on the pectin box), I decided to try a new (to me) recipe that uses agave or honey instead of sugar.  I was kind of nervous because the pectin box says "Do NOT use sugar substitutes like honey", but I am assuming they say that because, if you use honey with their recipe, it will not set up correctly.  But, I used a different recipe altogether so it was okay.


(We've made strawberry jam here on the blog before.  Here is the regular freezer jam method that uses sugar, and here is the more traditional, non-freezer strawberry jam method).


The recipe is below.  I didn't take step-by-step pictures but it is pretty straightforward.  I made 4 batches, and used just over half of my berries.  Sadly, I don't know exactly where this recipe is from (my mother-in-law sent it to me), but if anyone knows, please tell me so I can credit them!


                                            
   Honey Strawberry Freezer Jam

   Makes about six 8-10 oz. jars

   4 pints of strawberries (about three pounds of berries)
   1 cup of apple juice
   1/2 cup of water
   1 package of No Sugar Needed Pectin
   1 T lemon juice
   1 cup of honey/agave

   1.  Clean and stem berries.  Mash one layer of berries at a time
in a large bowl until all berries are mashed.

   2.  In a small saucepan, whisk together apple juice, water, and
pectin.  Bring to a hard boil and boil for one minute.

   3.  Add honey/agave and lemon juice to berries and stir well.  Add in
hot pectin mixture and stir well again to make sure everything is
combined.

   4.  Ladle into clean jars (glass is fine) and screw on lids.  Let
sit in the refrigerator for a few hours to set up and then transfer to
the freezer to store.


(I let mine sit on the counter for several hours while they set up, then transferred them to the freezer.)


The jam was delicious and I think it's just as good (if not better!) than the jams that are full of sugar.  It's definitely worth a try!  I used agave for 2 full batches, and then honey for two other batches (though I think one batch had a mixture of the two).  All taste great!


Good luck!