Award Winners

Now that I'm done with having full loads of classes, I've had more time to do fun things! Gardening, canning and crafts have been on my agenda. So this year I decided to enter some things in our local fair, The Gold Country Fair in Auburn, CA. It turned out to be a very successful decision! I ended up winning second place in every category I entered- so exciting!

Needle Felted Mushroom

Homegrown "Siamese Pumpkin"

 

Spiced Plum Butter (with Cardamon, Ginger, Cloves)

Photos by Sailors Ravine Studio

Strawberry Blackberry Jam

Delicious and beautiful jam made from home-grown strawberries and blackberries! What I did was juice the blackberries to get all those pesky seeds out and used the whole strawberry giving it the texture and flavor of strawberry jam with a tart kick from the blackberries. I also used Pomona's Universal Pectin- it's the best! Basically you follow the guidelines of how much juice/fruit you have and you add tiny amounts of pectin to suit the jam. It allows you to decrease the amount of sugar added, leaving your jam tasting more like fruit instead of candy.

Strawberry Balsamic Thyme Jam

My oldest sister is an excellent and adventurous canner! She'll make delicious and in my opinion flawless jams, juices pickles and preserves in her kitchen while my three adorable nieces run all over the house. I call that talent!

Yesterday we made two batches of Strawberry Balsamic Thyme Jam (here's the recipe). Sounds funky but trust me, its amazing! It has much more depth than ordinary strawberry jam. Hints of lemony thyme and the little presence balsamic vinegar make it a gourmet flavor combination. 

I simply enjoyed it with whole wheat toast and goat cheese... yum!