Mulberry Jelly Recipe

This is a guest post by Wife. Enjoy!

So what IS Husband’s favorite way to eat mulberries? On a biscuit, of course! Husband is an expert on picking mulberries (and eating biscuits), but I am the expert on jelly making, so he’s passed the blog baton off to me for my FIRST EVER GUEST POST!

Mmmm! Here’s how to make Mulberry Jelly:

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 c. mulberry juice (about 3 quarts of berries)
• 1 packet powdered pectin
• 4 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 tsp. lemon juice + more if necessary. 

Directions:

1.  Sterilize jars & lids: Boil jars for 10 minutes, remove just before pouring in jelly. Boil rings and lids, then remove from heat, keep covered in steaming water until ready to put on jars. 

2.  Juice those berries! Boil freshly-rinsed mulberries over high heat for 10 - 15 minutes, mashing occasionally with a potato masher, then strain out the juice using a mesh strainer.

Boil, mash, and strain mulberries to make juice.

3.  Make that jelly! Measure mulberry juice into a large pot. Add in pectin and stir well. Place on high heat and, stirring constantly, bring quickly to a full rolling boil that can't be stirred down. Add in sugar, continue stirring, and heat again to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute.

It smells like mulberries in here!

4.  Test the jelly for thickness. Jelly should thickly coat a spoon. If it doesn’t, add 2 tsp. lemon juice, boil hard for 1 minute, then test again. By “thickly coat” – imagine you just dunked it in one of those chocolate fountains at the buffet. Keep adding 2 tsp. of lemon juice until you’ve reached a thick coating consistency.

That's a hard boil right there...

5.  Remove from heat; skim off foam. Pour jelly immediately into warm jars and fill to 1/4-inch from top. Wipe off jars, tightly secure lids and rings, then flip jars upside down to seal.* Yields 5 or possibly 6 half-pint jars.

Flipping the mulberry jelly jars upside down helps them seal.

*You could use a canner to seal them, but at this point, I’m tired and this works just as well.

Picking Carrots in Winter

Wife and I picked our first carrot back in the summer, but it was pitifully small. I had no idea how long to wait, so I started asking some locals about their experiences.


Old men know a lot.
I asked an old man what to do, and he seemed to know right away.

"Leave 'em carrots in the ground 'til winter.
Ain't nuthin' gonna happen to 'em."

--Old Man

It's a deal.


Carrots at Christmas?
Just after Christmas I did a test run and pulled up few. They looked great!

After washing the carrots, I was surprised how bright orange and fragrant they were. Much more than store-bought carrots.

Carrots in February
With such a mild winter this year, I thought the rest of the carrots could wait a little longer--but February seemed long enough.

Carrot life in the dead of winter.

Safe in nature's refrigerator.

Quite a haul for carrots in February!

About 90 carrots in all. A great veggie surprise for our winter meals.

And that, my friends, is how an old man's advice filled my belly with winter produce.

Home Gardening Makes Free Vegetables

I have no awesome gardening skills, but I do have a backyard garden.
Gardens make free vegetables.
Free vegetables make me happy.

Now if the suburban groundhogs and city deer will leave it alone, I'll be in business.

Wife and I are on our third-annual backyard garden. We don't grow anything too crazy, but we do grow vegetables we can use or store up. We started getting our first bounty a few weeks ago.

Tomatoes
This year we have three types of tomatoes: romas, better boys, and Cherokee purple heirlooms.

Romas everywhere!

 

I love the taste of a home-grown tomato, but I am not a snob when it comes to variety. The romas are producing far more than the others types, but they are also smaller. The better boys are pretty average and consistent, and the Cherokee purples are BIG and meaty.

Peppers

This year we're growing jalapeno peppers, green bell peppers, banana peppers, and poblanos.  

Jalapeno peppers!

 

Wife makes pickled jalapenos that rock my face off. Had I tasted her pickled jalapenos before we got married, we probably would have skipped our wedding and eloped months sooner.

 

Does this look like a poblano to you?

It doesn't look like a poblano to me, but that's what the sign called it when we bought the plant. Whatever it is, it tastes good.

Red Cabbage
We've never grown red cabbage, so I'll let you know how it works out.

If we get sick of buckets of slaw, I'll have to find other uses for these big heads of magic.

Carrots
Also a first: carrots. In cartoons, critters and people can just yank on a carrot top and pull the whole thing up out of the ground. I have learned this is a lie.

Look at this skinny thing! I dug this guy up as a test, and it was not easy. I nearly broke it. It sure was sweet, though. Mmmm.

Okra
I like a little fried okra. I LOVE a lot of fried okra.

When it comes to okra, bigger is NOT better. This one is a little small still, but I don't let them get much bigger. Eating a foot-long okra is like eating a couch cushion. Or a log.

Also...
A few beans, one strawberry plant, and a bunch of herbs round out the rest.

 Not bad for a little backyard garden!

Caprice Fixed, Money Saved!

After my '88 Chevy Caprice failed to pass inspection this year, I decided to do the repairs myself.

Mission accomplished! Repairs are done, The Beast has been reinspected (and passed), and I'm back on the road. I saved a lot of money, too.

Brake hoses
The mechanic quoted a price of $160 to replace both front brake hoses. I picked up the two hoses from the nationally-recognized auto-parts megastore for $11 each. Several friends have asked how I did it, so I'll show you in my next post.

Wipers
Installing wipers is such an easy job that the nationally-recognized auto-parts megastore will usually do it for free right there in the parking lot. I did it myself, but not at the mechanic's $28 price tag. I picked up a pair for $20.

Headlight alignment
This was easy, free, and took about 20 minutes. My Haynes Repair Manual has a guide for adjusting headlights with the turn of a screwdriver.

Rear view mirror
Take it from me: do NOT use super glue to reattach a rear view mirror to your windshield. It doesn't work. For $5 I found a little glue kit made just for rear view mirrors. Easy! Just don't glue the tab to the mirror or glue the tab on backwards. Lame.

Money I saved

	Quote	My Cost	Savings
Brakes	$160	$22	$138
Wipers	$28	$20	$8
Lights	$15	$0	$15
Mirror	$10	$5	$5
TOTAL	$213	$47	$166!

Since I'm NOT an auto mechanic, I'm hardly qualified to give advice or show how to fix a Caprice. But, I will show you what I did to fix mine.

That means my next post will be less of a "how-to" and more of a "how-did."

Hey! I think I just coined a new phrase: The How-Did Guide!

So be it...

Rejected: Failed Inspection Costs Dollars!

Oh no! My car didn't pass inspection this year and it will cost ALL THE MONEY! Well, not really. But it is still a big phooey.

Now I have some repair decisions to make, but first...


About my car
I drive a 1988 Chevy Caprice, and proud of it.

My '88 Caprice, or "The Beast," is AWESOME because:

• It's PAID FOR
• It's old enough that I can fix some things myself
• It's big and comfortable
• It's made of more metal than plastic

The Beast reminds me of stuff I like: reliability, saving money, DIY, and the freedom of not being obsessed with the latest and newest things. And no, I don't work for Chevy!

I gave my work buddy OCD a lift in The Beast. He said, "This car is SO comfortable! It's like floating down the road on a sofa!"

Thanks, OCD! I agree...


Broken!
Four things didn't pass inspection:

• Right-front brake hose cracked ($80)
• Windshield wipers ($14 x 2 = $28)
• Rear view mirror fell off ($10 to re-glue)
• Headlights out of alignment ($15 to adjust)

Total to Pass: $133

But wait! The mechanic said my other brake hose wasn't looking so hot either, but not bad enough to fail inspection. If I need one side replaced, I would rather have both sides done. After all, it's a 24-year-old rubber hose and probably could use a change.

Total Cost: $213

Yikes! Time to think about fixing the car myself.

Brake hose: Just unscrew a hose and screw on a new one?
Wipers: Like putting on pants. Got it.
Mirror: $10 glue? Really?
Headlights: We are talking about twisting a few screws here. No biggie.

Alright, I'm going to tackle this.
It's you and me, Caprice. Let's do this thing...

P.S.  A big thanks to The Yankee for the photos and camera use.