Ground Cherry Jam

Sitting in the kitchen hunched over a huge bin of ground cherries husking them one by one, we had the discussion- "why are we doing this (making jam), again?" Oh yeah. Because we went through so much trouble to harvest all of them and making jam is a good way to use a large quantity. So is it worth it to do so much work (planting) just to create more (harvesting) and more work (preserving) for ourselves? Pieter joined our "circle" happily munching on ground cherries to the tune of- one for the jam, one for Pieter. We couldn't husk them fast enough! Maybe it is worth it. And the jam turned out really well- well, we think so, but we'd never had ground cherry jam before.  It has a nice tang but is still plenty sweet and is reminiscent of pineapple-y marmalade.

husked ground cherries

Here is the recipe that Vince found and altered as he saw fit. We actually trippled this recipe despite all of the warnings not to double jam recipes and it was fine: 
 




3 cups ground cherries
1/4 cup lemon juice (he used fresh squeezed from 4 lemons in our tripled recipe)
grated lemon rind
1/2 cup water
1 box pectin

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Once the ground cherries start splitting, mash with a potato masher.

Add 3 cups sugar. Continue stirring and return to a boil.  Boil according to pectin package: 1-3 minutes.

Process in a boiling water canner 5 minutes. (We tried turning one batch upside down for 5 minutes and then right side up without processing in water and they also sealed.)

Tripled, this made 16 half-pints of jam.

The crushed fruit rose to the top of the jar, but still set well.

Caruso Farm Drive(way)

The first load of asphalt-before he got stuck

Vince spreading the road

In August we had "recycled" asphalt grindings delivered to make a road down the side of the property. It came from a construction company that broke up an old parking lot.  Because it holds together more than gravel, it was a little more difficult to spread. That didn't stop the driver from getting stuck in the loose gravel on the hill after dumping it, though. Add him to the list of other deliveries that have gotten stuck on our farm. That was the point of the road. After the excitement of having the truck towed, and a few loaves of banana bread later as a peace offering, Vince was able to spread the road with the box scraper and the loader. It now reaches the greenhouse. What was exciting then is much more exciting now as the rain and slippery mud come- but not on this road! It is packed pretty tight now and what prompted this blog was seeing Vince's truck all the way down by the greenhouse. That wouldn't have happened at this time (or any time, really) last year.

Fall Clean Up

The few weeks of nice weather (a couple of weeks ago, now) were a good time to clean up the garden and gasp! get ready for spring. In "the bottom" as we call it, an new acre was plowed, tilled, and planted with a cover crop to keep the weeds at bay, the soil healthy and ready to plant in the spring.  The gardens were cleared of plant debris and tilled with the exception, of course, of the things still in the ground: corn, carrots, parsnips, beets and leeks.  The chickens were let loose in the strawberries to clean up the rows and the fence lines were cleared of blackberries and tall grasses. The hoop house was cleaned out to make room for the tractors to be out of the winter weather, (Oh, the dreams of a barn...) and the checklist continues.