Jenny Gomes

Praise for the New Pint and a Half Mason Jar

July 7, 2016 by Jenny Gomes 1 Comment

Mason jars are hot, hot, hot on Pinterest, in stores, and it uses never dreamed of by their inventors. If you are interested in learning the history of Ball, Kerr, and Mason jars, here is a short but clear description http://www.pickyourown.org/canningjars.htm but the long and short of it is they are all very much the same jars now, but invented and popularized around the turn of the 1900s.

Praise for the New Pint and a Half Mason Jar

This post may contain affiliate links. All opinions are my own.

A new thing in the canning jar world is the pint-and-a-half Mason jar. Here’s a refresher on your P’s and Q’s. A half pint is one measuring cup, a pint is two cups, and a pint and a half are 3 cups. In years past, a canner had no three cup option, nor did they have an option that sits so nicely in a cup holder of a car.

I love the pint-and-a-half for several reasons. First, they are, like all real canning jars, safe for water bath canning and pressure canning, heavy glass, and of high quality for daily use and general food storage.

The wide mouth and taller shape mean you could use them for preserving spears of asparagus, pickled carrots, tall dilly beans, etc. The shape lends itself to use as a vase for cut flowers and storage of a pound of ground coffee beans, for example.

The quantity of three cups is ideal for drinking water as any more seems to get warm before I can drink it all and replaces costly and wasteful plastic water bottles. It is perfect for the amount of coffee I drink in the morning.

The jars are made in America (as displayed on the side) which is awesome. The fact that this jar fits so nicely in a cup holder cannot be ignored. Sure, some of us would love four cups of coffee to-go but a quart jar simply doesn’t fit. Don’t try it, as it’s a mess waiting to happen- I’ve done it.

If you want to see what the actual canning process looks like, where you preserve food in these awesome jars (think tall dilly beans or pickled asparagus spears) download my free canning cheatsheet!

Yes! Download Now!

The jars are printed with both cups and metric measurements on the side for easy ratios. Sure, I can eye-ball a cup in a quart jar, but the curved sides at the top of a quart (as opposed to the wide mouth and straight sides of the pint-and-a-half) makes eye-balling tricky towards the top.

It may seem silly to be so totally enthused about a canning jar but I assure you this is a good one to get. I encourage you, Wildflowers, to score some next time you are out. I bought a flat and split it with a friend and I use mine DAILY. While you are shopping, grab some of Ball’s drinking lids and straws. I got a pack of four for wide mouth and four for narrow and also use those daily.

Comment below and tell me what do you put in your pint-and-a-half, Dear Reader? Click the photo link below to grab your own!

5 Reasons to Visit a U-Pick Berry Patch

July 4, 2016 by Jenny Gomes Leave a Comment

This post will share 5 reasons you should visit a U-pick berry patch, 6 ways to prepare for picking success, and explain why you’ll get way more than just a bucket of sweet fruit by visiting one.

A U-Pick, You-Pick, Pick Your Own, or PYO is a place where rows upon rows of a wide variety of fruit if waiting to be picked and sold usually by weight. They absolutely should be on your summer to-visit list and I will tell you why.

Fresh fruit. Delicious fruit with old-fashioned and homegrown flavor is something we all should be eating more of for the sake of our waistlines and our general food sense and ideas of what fresh fruit should taste like. If you haven’t had a homegrown strawberry lately, you are seriously missing out. They taste nothing like the large, bright and utterly flavorless fruit in the major grocery chains. Same for berries. A store bought blackberry is a travesty. They taste nothing like a fresh berry and you know who is to blame? Us consumers. We keep buying the seedy giants that are colorful but devoid of any flavor and so producers keep growing them. Let’s head to a patch and support some really good fruit growers, shall we? And really, in order to be transported zillions of miles, store-bought berries, which are naturally pretty darn fragile, have to be picked before they are ripe and they have to be bred for color since shoppers buy with their eyes rather than their brains most of the time.
Outdoor time. There are few of us out there thinking, “gee, I really need some time in front of the computer screen!” Rather, our postures, our fitness levels, our eyeballs, and our hearts and souls are really overdue for some fresh air and sunshine.
Awesome variety. Berry patches very often have many, many varieties each of blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, marionberries, strawberries, and more. This means that while some rows will be bare, or not ripe yet, others will and that also means you will have a ton of varieties to choose from. There are red raspberries, dark, dark red raspberries, and golden yellow raspberries, and potentially they will all be present at the patch you visit. When I pick wild blackberries, the only fruit I will come home with is wild blackberries. At a patch, you can pick enough to eat, can, or otherwise preserve a bunch of different types of fruit all in an hour or so of picking.
Family friendly or nice alone time. It is easy to keep children corralled as the rows provide a visible and clear boundary. I have gone picking with a good friend and we picked at opposite ends of the rows and had the kids in between us, and that arrangement worked nicely. If you bring small kids, a toy truck might be of good use on the dirt pathways. Older kids can have their own bucket and nibble as they pick. Conversely, picking fruit can be a meditative experience and going alone can be quite nice. Leave technology in the car and lose track of time; it’s lovely.
You can eat! You can enjoy the fruits of your labor fresh, serve them with ice cream, and my favorite it canning them to enjoy later. Fresh berries, picked yourself, usually last about 4 days in the fridge, if stored properly. I usually pick pretty quickly and take home more than I can eat fresh. If you want to learn how to can fresh fruit and vegetables, I’m your girl. I created a canning course for busy beginners and you can check it out right here at www.startcanning.com I am super excited to share it with you; even if you have never canned before I can SHOW you in a way a cookbook cannot how to preserve. It is satisfying, delicious, and easier than you think. Head to www.startcanning.com to learn more!

Enter to WIN the Fall into Canning Giveaway: The Start Canning Course + Beginner Tools! The winner is drawn October 26!

How to prepare:

Dress in layers. Think a lightweight long sleeve, tank, hat and/or sunglasses. Pants are obviously hotter but sometimes it is nice to have jeans on for picking strawberries, which are a low-growing plant where you might be on your knees. I usually wear shorts with pockets. Wear sunblock and don’t forget your ears and your part. You might appreciate a pair of lightweight, gardening style gloves if you plan on picking blackberries. The ones with thorns typically have more flavor than the ones that are thornless, but many patches have few if any varieties are particularly wicked.
Bring cash. Plenty of places accept checks and cards, but cash is easy and many places only accept cash.
Bring several smallish buckets. The buckets that we love used to hold ice cream in the ’80s and are white plastic with metal handles. You don’t want a really large or deep receptacle because the fragile berries at the bottom are easily smashed. You will need more than one because some places charge a different price per pound for each type of berry, so you’ll want to keep them separated.
Plan for an hour or two outdoors. That might mean bug spray, a bathroom trip before you go, and a bottle of water.
Be ready to reach high and crouch low. Strawberries are grown in low little bushes, so you can bend at the waist or come into a yoga-esque squat to pick them. My gram (the smartest lady I know) brings a little stool (like one your little kids might use to reach the sink) to sit on for berry picking and it is really much more comfortable. I try to hit those low plants first in a berry picking day because I get tired of them the quickest. Berries like raspberries and marionberries grow on long vines called ‘canes’ that will probably be wound along wires in rows kind of like in a grape vineyard pictured on a wine bottle. You may or may not be able to see over the rows and you can pick from the ground up. The canes of various berries range from smooth to scratchy- like a rasp, as in raspberry. Blueberries are grown on bushes that look the most like a quintessential bush or hedge rather than in a row of vines.
Keep your eyes open. You should watch for irrigation pipes, hoses, etc, bees that might sting (though they will likely be around to pollinate the flowers, rather than be around the ripe berries), and other small critters that might startle you.

5 Reasons to Visit a Berry Patch | The Domestic Wildflower click to read this fun post about 5 reasons why you should head to the nearest U-pick berry patch, 6 ways to prepare for picking success, and why you will leave with more than just a basket of fruit by doing so. — This is my grandmother helping my daughter learn how to tell if a berry is ripe or not. Hint: a ripe berry will almost fall off the vine into your hand.

Not everyone has the luxury of being able to forage for wild berries or grow their own. While I think both are experiences are valuable on their own, a pick your own is an awesome, practical, and easy way to reconnect with where your food comes from and you should absolutely seek one out this season.

I hope you Wildflowers are feeling free, where ever you are on this Independence Day, and I hope that together we can create a little more independence in our homes in regards to what we eat, drink, wear, do, and enjoy. Three cheers for freedom, Wildflowers!

If you want to learn what to do with the fruits of your U-pick labor, head to www.startcanning.com to learn how to can. In this e-course, I SHOW busy beginners in a way a cookbook cannot the canning process and I teach techniques that you can use to can whatever your heart desires. Let’s Start Canning!

Start Canning Course

June 27, 2016 by Jenny Gomes 2 Comments

In this post, I will explain all about the canning course for busy beginners, Start Canning, and I will give you all the details for how to join in the fun this canning season.

I am so proud and excited to share that the Start Canning e-course is ready to rock and roll. If you are chomping at the bit and want to sign up now, head here! www.startcanning.com

Enroll Now!

I created a canning course for the busy beginner. Let me explain a little about what that means. By busy, I mean that I don’t teach every dang recipe ever because no one has time for that. I do teach TECHNIQUES that I think you can apply to many other recipes after you take the course. Once you learn how to process foods in a food mill in one recipe, you can easily do it in another. Once you learn how to make strawberry jam, you can try apricot jam on your own. I know you don’t have all kinds of free time to watch hours upon hours of video and eat bonbons. You could watch the videos and read 10 minutes at a time over a few weeks, or you could devour the whole course in a weekend.

By beginner, I mean really a brand new, never boiled a pot of water before beginner. I explain and show everything, clearly, more than once, so you can SEE how the process works. A good cookbook will tell you what to do but a video course that you can access any time you want, pause and rewind, and that has helpful cheat sheets and just for fun quizzes to check your learning will SHOW you how to can. All the in-person workshops I have attended really assumed that attendees cooked often and well upon attendance and I wanted to be sure that even true newbies could learn from this course.

The biggest obstacles people tell me to stand between them and canning nirvana are the equipment, the seemingly complicated process, and safety. All three issues are addressed in the course so you will be ready to can your first batch right away. I have several videos where I go over which equipment you need, why you need it, and offer alternatives where appropriate. We follow USDA approved canning guidelines and I even walk you through their website that is the final word on canning safety. You will get to see how to can a variety of recipes that I chose very purposefully so you can learn a range of skills you can apply to whatever you want to preserve this season.

I am working on some really fun bonuses to include to the course that I can’t reveal just yet but they just might have something to do with making homemade bread. Stay tuned on that one, Wildflowers. I have a few other irons in the fire that will make the experience even more fun but I have to keep my lips sealed a while longer. You’ll be the first to know, Dear Readers.

Those who join the course get to have access to a private Facebook group where we get to troubleshoot, swap recipes, learn from one another, and where I can help you however you need it.

I really hope that if you are considering purchasing the course that you give yourself permission to do so. The value of learning a fun new skill that will improve your cooking and eating experiences immeasurably will far surpass any concerns you have over whether or not you can do it (you totally can!), if you will get sick (no way; we will use trusted recipes and procedures! I will help you every step of the process!) or if you will understand how (canning is way easier than cooking a holiday dinner, folks). Let’s Start Canning!

Enroll Now!

You can see all the lessons inside the course right here!

The Canning Process Explained

June 23, 2016 by Jenny Gomes Leave a Comment

This post will explain clearly the canning process and detail what is boiling when so you can begin canning with confidence.

The part about canning the really makes newbies worried (other than food safety) is not knowing what has to happen when. When you were a kid, you might remember someone canning in your family and looking up at the stove and seeing what seemed like 10 pots of boiling water. Well, canning does not require 10 pots, but I know it can seem like it to a busy beginner.

I like to mentally break the canning process into two main parts. You have to PREPARE and then you PROCESS. Prepare and process; that’s the name of the game, Wildflowers.

First, you must prepare the big water bath processing pot in which your jars will hang out. Fill it and the jars with hot tap water, turn the stove on high, and bring to a boil.

Prepare the preserving pan. In the preserving pan, you will be cooking the fruit into jam, the tomatoes into sauce, or bringing a brine to a boil.

Then it is time to PROCESS. This is where the action happens. Your food is cooked according to the recipe, and your jars are warm.

The process begins with you pulling one jar out of the processing pot at a time. Pour the boiling water out, place the hot jar on a towel on the countertop. Fill the hot jar with hot food (your cooked jam, applesauce, etc). Put a lid and ring on to the jar. Return the hot jar (now full of food) into the boiling water bath. Pull your next empty jar from the pot and repeat the process. Here’s what you need to keep in mind as you repeat the process:

You may need to lower the heat on the processing pan. As the amount of food decreases (because you are putting it into the jar) the remaining food will boil faster. Keep an eye on the preserves and stir often. You want it hot but not burning or scorching on the bottom.
As you fill hot jars with hot food and return them to the processing pot, you will notice the water level rising. Avoid overflowing by pulling a jar from the boiling water and pouring the water from it into the sink.
This water level issue is compounded a bit by the vigor of the boil and the amount of water that is lost to steam. There are plenty of times where I have had to dump water in the sink to only have to add a bit more once all the jars are filled with food. The jars need to be covered by a minimum of 1 inch of boiling water in order to process.

Once all the jars are filled with food and submerged in the boiling water bath, bring the pot back up to boil. This is when you may have to add hot water to the pot to cover the lids sufficiently. I have filled a drinking glass with hot tap water or used water from the tea kettle. It isn’t advisable to move the very heavy pot full of boiling water and jars from the stove. Use a vessel to fill it.

Once the water is boiling, set a timer for the time specified in the recipe, be sure to adjust for your elevation. Because of the change in atmospheric pressure the higher you get in altitude, you must add 5 minutes of processing time for every 1000 feet you are canning above sea level. I go through my cookbook with a pencil and change all the processing times so I never have to think about it.

If during the canning process the water stops boiling (if you turned the stove down a bit too much, or you lost power) stop the timer, and once the boil is resumed, resume timing.

Once the time required has passed, turn the stove off and use the jar lifter to pull one jar at a time from the boiling water bath and set each jar carefully on a towel covered countertop.

Listen and watch for the lids to make a ping, ding, or click type of noise, and to become firmly concave on the jars. It may take up to 12 hours for the lid to seal and that is perfectly okay. Sometimes the lids seal while they are still in the air, clasped in the jar lifter. That is also okay. Don’t disturb the jars until they are cool and sealed, at least 12 hours later. Label and store in a cool, dark spot.

That’s the order of events, Wildflowers! When people tell me it seems like a lot going on or that they don’t think they can do all that at once, I ask if they have ever cooked or helped cook a big holiday dinner. I think that those cooking marathons are way more complicated; you have meat in the oven, gravy on the stove, veggies in the fridge, dressing to whisk, timers for a bunch of different dishes, rolls to warm, pies to cut… THAT is a lot to manage. Canning is just 3 burners going and once your food is in the processing pot, you usually don’t have to move around the kitchen that much.

While you are actively filling the jars, I would say that is the part that might be stressful for a newbie. I make my small children stay out of the kitchen just in case I splash hot water and I make sure my sweet but underfoot Lab is outside and not going to trip me on accident.

The first few times you can, this may seem like a lot but I’d advise a beginner to focus on the task at hand to ensure low stress and fun experience.

If you wish you had a friend to invite you over to SHOW you how this all works so you could learn to can with confidence, I’m that friend.

I have created a canning course for the busy beginner where I share more than 10 videos of me actually canning so you can see the process for yourself.

If you are thinking you don’t have time to learn, I assure you that I don’t teach every recipe (who has time for that?). I teach a set of TECHNIQUES that you can apply to countless other recipes. Once you watch me make strawberry jam, you will be ready to try apricot jam on your own.

With the course comes to access to a community of like-minded souls who are brand new to canning just like you, where you can share successes, ask questions, swap recipes, and learn from one another.

Enroll Now!

I can’t wait for you to join this course and learn how to feed your loved ones food you can feel good about and share the love all year long, months after harvest.

This price won’t be around for long and I want my blog readers to be the ones getting the best deal since you are the smartest, raddest Wildflowers on the internet. Enroll now and get instant access to the course!

Enroll Now!

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

June 20, 2016 by Jenny Gomes Leave a Comment

This post will share a simple, classic recipe for homemade vanilla ice cream featuring the vanilla extract, paired with the amazing cranberry chocolate fermented mole I made that knocks the trio of recipes into the stratosphere. Read on for the final layer of homemade dessert divinity!

Now that you have fermented your cranberries, cherries, cocoa, and chile together into a paste, and you have your vanilla beans soaking to make vanilla extract, you can now make your homemade vanilla ice cream.

Vanilla is a term that has unfairly been applied to the boring, mediocre, and forgettable. My cousin dated a girl that was described as “vanilla” because she was nice…and that was about all she was.

How unfair to both the girl and the flavoring because vanilla really shines when favorably paired, as with the fermented mole.

When scooped together on the same dish, the cool, sweet, creamy vanilla ice cream is a perfect foil for the fruity heat of the mole and you can actually taste the vanilla really well.

It is weird, delicious, and totally unusual. Make it and impress a crowd, Wildflowers.

This ice cream recipe was shared with me by my neighbor and friend Nan who is a goat farmer and homeopath. She makes it with her own fresh goat milk and if you can get your hands on such heavenly dairy, you should. If that isn’t available to you, use plain cow’s milk.

Recipe:

2 and 3/4 cups whole fresh goat milk or cow’s milk

1/4 c heavy cream

*Use goat cream if you can get it; heavy cow’s (whipping) cream works fine too. You can also substitute whole (not light) coconut milk – make sure to shake well. Also acceptable is sour cream, or whole-milk plain, high-quality yogurt such as Straus brand.

*You can also vary the proportions within the 3 c. of milk/cream as far as1 cup whole milk and 2 cups cream

3/4 c white sugar

small pinch salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract. Use the best you can afford because this is what really makes the taste, which is exactly why I like to make my own. Read how I do it here.

Put milk, sugar, and salt in mixing bowl and use hand or stand mixer to combine until sugar dissolves. This can take a while (up to several minutes) so keep stirring.

Stir in cream and vanilla. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour (or as long as 8 hours).

Process according to the directions for your ice cream maker until thickened and creamy, usually about 20 minutes.

Store in the freezer but bear in mind when you make homemade, preservative-free ice cream it is very best devoured fresh.

And there you have it, Wildflowers. Have you entered to win the corresponding dessert post’s giveaways? For the fermented mole post, one lucky reader will win a copy of “Fermented Vegetables” which is over 300 pages of fermentation instruction, photography, recipes, and inspiration.

Enter to win the "Fermented Vegetables" cookbook!

For the homemade vanilla extract post, we have been kindly gifted a Mason Jar Tap lid which makes your infusions perfectly pourable. To further elevate your canning jar affection, the winner will also get a drinking lid to transform their jar into a to-go cup.

Click to enter the Mason Jar Tap & Drinking Jar Lid Giveaway!

If you are loving this homemade goodness, and want to learn even more about putting food and love into jars, sign up here to know when the Start Canning Ecourse is live. I can’t wait to help you busy beginners Start Canning this month!

Jenny Gomes

Praise for the New Pint and a Half Mason Jar

If you want to see what the actual canning process looks like, where you preserve food in these awesome jars (think tall dilly beans or pickled asparagus spears) download my free canning cheatsheet!

5 Reasons to Visit a U-Pick Berry Patch

Enter to WIN the Fall into Canning Giveaway: The Start Canning Course + Beginner Tools! The winner is drawn October 26!

I hope you Wildflowers are feeling free, where ever you are on this Independence Day, and I hope that together we can create a little more independence in our homes in regards to what we eat, drink, wear, do, and enjoy. Three cheers for freedom, Wildflowers!

Start Canning Course

The Canning Process Explained

If you wish you had a friend to invite you over to SHOW you how this all works so you could learn to can with confidence, I’m that friend.

I have created a canning course for the busy beginner where I share more than 10 videos of me actually canning so you can see the process for yourself.

If you are thinking you don’t have time to learn, I assure you that I don’t teach every recipe (who has time for that?). I teach a set of TECHNIQUES that you can apply to countless other recipes. Once you watch me make strawberry jam, you will be ready to try apricot jam on your own.

With the course comes to access to a community of like-minded souls who are brand new to canning just like you, where you can share successes, ask questions, swap recipes, and learn from one another.

I can’t wait for you to join this course and learn how to feed your loved ones food you can feel good about and share the love all year long, months after harvest.

This price won’t be around for long and I want my blog readers to be the ones getting the best deal since you are the smartest, raddest Wildflowers on the internet. Enroll now and get instant access to the course!

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

If you are loving this homemade goodness, and want to learn even more about putting food and love into jars, sign up here to know when the Start Canning Ecourse is live. I can’t wait to help you busy beginners Start Canning this month!

Get Started Pressure Canning

Shrubology Ebook

Copyright

Jenny Gomes

If you want to see what the actual canning process looks like, where you preserve food in these awesome jars (think tall dilly beans or pickled asparagus spears) download my free canning cheatsheet!

Enter to WIN the Fall into Canning Giveaway: The Start Canning Course + Beginner Tools! The winner is drawn October 26!

I hope you Wildflowers are feeling free, where ever you are on this Independence Day, and I hope that together we can create a little more independence in our homes in regards to what we eat, drink, wear, do, and enjoy. Three cheers for freedom, Wildflowers!

If you wish you had a friend to invite you over to SHOW you how this all works so you could learn to can with confidence, I’m that friend.

I have created a canning course for the busy beginner where I share more than 10 videos of me actually canning so you can see the process for yourself.

If you are thinking you don’t have time to learn, I assure you that I don’t teach every recipe (who has time for that?). I teach a set of TECHNIQUES that you can apply to countless other recipes. Once you watch me make strawberry jam, you will be ready to try apricot jam on your own.

With the course comes to access to a community of like-minded souls who are brand new to canning just like you, where you can share successes, ask questions, swap recipes, and learn from one another.

I can’t wait for you to join this course and learn how to feed your loved ones food you can feel good about and share the love all year long, months after harvest.

This price won’t be around for long and I want my blog readers to be the ones getting the best deal since you are the smartest, raddest Wildflowers on the internet. Enroll now and get instant access to the course!

If you are loving this homemade goodness, and want to learn even more about putting food and love into jars, sign up here to know when the Start Canning Ecourse is live. I can’t wait to help you busy beginners Start Canning this month!

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Get Started Pressure Canning

Shrubology Ebook

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