Category Archives: pickles and preserves

Fresh Fig Jam

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Cindy | Leave a comment

Like last year, my fig tree was a little over-productive this year. It was surprising, because it seemed like it was going to be a bad year for figs. I had ONE ripe fig in September. In October, however, they started ripening like mad and I was picking them every couple of days. Baked some, gave some to co-workers, ate some fresh and in salads. Cooked a bunch down to attempt to use in homemade fig newtons. And I STILL had figs, so I decided to make some fig jam.

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Blackberry Jam

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Cindy | Leave a comment

We had so many blackberries this year that it became ridiculous. I was picking them and giving them away, making blackberry and apple pies and crumbles and freezing them.

I finally decided to make some jam/jelly with them, and proceeded to crush berries in a sieve to remove as many seeds as possible. I crushed enough to come up with 4 cups of juice (about 2 quarts of berries).

I used the Certo recipeÂ , although I wasn’t worried about a few seeds winding up in the jelly, so I did not bother with straining it through cheesecloth. I followed the rest of the directions, however.

The jelly is delicious.

Fig Preserves

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Cindy | 2 Comments

The large amounts of figs I am gathering from our fig tree this year is unprecedented. I have given away dozens of figs, I have added them to my salads, I eat them with my breakfast and lunch, I took in a huge bowl and left them in the lunchroom at work, I mailed some to my daughter, I add them to oatmeal, I have attempted to freeze some (don’t know how that will turn out), and today I made some fig preserves to have with cheese. These were quick and very easy to make.