Living with the Season

It’s that time of year when the kitchen is ripe with the sweetness of cooking jam, the boldness of simmering tomato sauce or the freshness of a just picked basil. I feel wealthy with this abundance because nature’s gifts remind me of the wonder of the earth.

I have not been spending as much time in the garden or on food preservation as usual because another project has much of my attention. My debut novel, Rooted in Sunrise, is being published September 17.Think of “debut” as meaning “I don’t really know what I’m doing.” Yes, I can write. Now, however, I’m at the marketing part of the journey and that’s not my specialty. So in between tastes of the jam or jelly that my husband is making in the kitchen, I’m chatting with other writers and reading advice about the best ways to try to connect readers with my novel.

As I planted the seeds for the garden vegetables that are now reaching harvest stage, I’ve invested time and energy in my writing for years. Now that I finally have a book that I will soon hold in my hands, I want to savor this time, with all its challenges, questions and stumbles. It’s part of living seasonally, paying attention to what’s right in front of you.

One thing that is right in front of me every morning is the delicious blackberry jelly my husband, Jim, learned to make this summer.Because my mom cannot eat seeds, he challenged himself to make seedless blackberry jelly. After lots of experimentation, he landed on a method that worked. Here’s Jim’s recipe.

Jim’s Blackberry Jelly

4 parts berries

3 parts sugar

1 package of pectin or Sure Jell per quart of berries (2TBSP if you use loose pectin)

1.     Mix sugar and clean berries in large pot.

2.     Bring to a hard boil for 35 minutes. Take care to stir and adjust heat to prevent boiling over onto the stove. (That makes a terrible mess, as we discovered.)

3.     Ladle off foam that’s on the top.

4.     Pour juice through cheese cloth or use an old fashioned tomato juicer (food mill) to eliminate the seeds. Return to pot and bring back to boil.

5.     Add pectin at hard boil, stirring vigorously for 1 minute.

6.     Remove from heat. Ladle into clean jars.

7.     Can for 15 minutes in boiling water, fully submerged.

Jim’s final tip: Do not add water at any time, regardless of what the internet says!