Blues and gooses

So, as part of the CSA share for this week we headed out to Heron Pond Farm for some PYO blueberries along with our friends R & E from the wilds of western NH.

First, we noticed the new paint job on the farmstead...  Check it out (sorry about the head-tilt, I tried to fix it)!

Then, out to the fields for us.  First, some blues (8lbs, mmmmm, so tasty).  Then, we noticed some gooseberry plants out at the end of the very last row.  They looked a bit sad, but they were absolutely covered with berries that were quickly heading towards overripe (otherwise known as dang tasty RIGHT NOW).  Turns out Andre is not a fan of gooseberries so he told us we could have a few...

They made it home with only a few fed to the passengers en route.  Pick all the stems and flowers off them and we've got about 8 cups total.  2 cups, along with a diced apple and handful of blues got tossed with a bit of sugar and are baking under a layer of oats, butter, and brown sugar.  

The other 6 cups have been turned into the jam seen above.  First, boil them with a slice of ginger.  Then, into the food mill to get all the flesh and juice but leave the rather tough skins.  Then, back to the pot along with 4 1/2 sugar.  Bring it all to a hard boil for a minute.  Immediately mix in 3/4 of a 6oz packet of pectin (I used it all, I'm a crazy man!).  

Put in jars.  Turns out that this made exactly 2.4 pint jars of jam.  We sent the rest home with E&R as payment for their labors.  If you actually had 8c of gooseberries you'd use 6c of sugar and a whole packet of pectin.

I boiled the jars for 10 minutes.  R said they just popped to indicate that they've sealed.  That's a bit of summer that we'll find sometime in the winter.