I apologize for talking about something twice so soon after the first instance. BUT, I had a great thing happen. I took my blueberry jam to my friends at the organic bakery. They tried it and loved it so much they want me to make it for them to sell. But here’s the catch: pectin isn’t necessarily organic. I needed to find a way to make the jam without it (or with a natural source of it).

Being that I don’t like being dependent on buying a product just so I can make something and save a few bucks, I was game to try and figure this out too.

Apples naturally contain pectin. In fact, the original sources of pectin were from apple juicing factories back in the 1920s. The pulpy mess that’s left after the apples were pressed was perfect for use as pectin, and sold to pectin-making factories which used to somehow distill it into a liquid form for sale.

So for my first effort, I mixed in half apples, half blueberries as follows below. The results were very pleasant, this is a less sweet jam though you can easily add more sugar if you so desire. I’ve found the general rule of thumb is 3/4 to 1 cup sugar per cup crushed fruit (I have seen almost double that in some recipes, but I think that would be way too sweet & you might wind up with blueberry syrup instead).

Blueberry-Apple Jam

4 c. finely chopped, peeled apples
2 c. water
4 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
3 3/4 c. sugar

In a 4-6 quart kettle, mix apples and water; simmer uncovered until apples are soft — 15 to 20 minutes. Mash if necessary. Stir in berries. Simmer uncovered 5 minutes. Stir in sugar. Bring to a rolling boil. Boil until jam sheets off a metal spoon — 5 to 6 minutes. Pour into hot, clean jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe edge with a damp cloth.

After that, I thought I would try with just blueberries, a really simple sort of mixture, and see what would happen if I just boiled the berries down for a long time. Surely they’d become less watery over time. This did work, the jam is delicious, and with the long boiling time a lot of the skins broke down and so it’s almost a jelly than a jam. I wound up boiling for 50 minutes - and found out the hard way you cannot ignore the pot for a minute and try to empty the dishwasher at the same time. I had it boil over in what seemed a split second - talk about a MESS as it went down the front of my stove and into a puddle on the floor.

Blueberry Jam

8 cups blueberries

8 cups sugar

2 cups water

Demolish blueberries in food processor, then measure. Add water, boil. Add sugar, and boil almost to jelling point. Pour boiling hot into jars and seal.

I take the jams to the bakery tomorrow to see which they prefer - I’ll let you know what happens! And then I promise, no more blueberry posts for a while.

The front of my stove is still stained, by the way. I’ve tried baking soda and vinegar and lemon, but that blue streak is still there. Anybody have any ideas on how to get that out?

People who know my spouse and I well understand us. But some people look at us and think we are crazy. Here we are, in our early 30s, living in a nice house in town and with enough money to surely afford most anything we want within reason, and here we are hanging laundry on a line, growing veggies and herbs, whipping out the sewing machine for curtains and dog beds, and hauling buckets of rainwater around the yard for plants. To make matters worse, we’re vegetarian. I try to be vegan and I’m slowly getting that way, but it takes time. And we’re opinionated.

Part of the impetus for this site is a reaction from the new Green movement, which is happily gaining momentum. The part that isn’t right in my mind is that all these “green” things — from lightbulbs to solar panels — cost a lot of money. Making your home “green” shouldn’t empty out your bank account, especially now in these less than wonderful economic times. Some call it a recession, some call it a “correction” and some expect another Great Depression but thankfully everyone at this point agrees the economy isn’t humming along.

There are many great sites for treehuggers and many for the green movement. There are many sites on frugal living as well. The goal of this site is to seek out, and try as much as possible, to find ways to affordably make our own “green” things. Our goal as people is to live a little more in harmony with this planet, and not only try to decrease the size of our footprint but improve our health while we are at it.

Our bigger goal is to have saved up the money to buy our little piece of land and build ourselves a green home. This is going to be a process, but this website is part of the process. We are researching and learning how earthships work, how things were done way back when, and newer ways of doing things. Inventing our own even, if we need. And we’d love to hear of your efforts and experiments as well.

We are not going to talk about Global Warming. Whatever your thought on the subject, we still ought to be better stewards of the earth and take better care of it.

So what can you expect here?

Weekend projects - these are things like solar ovens and home-made water distillers that you can make in a weekend (or a few, some projects are bigger than others).

Nourishing Recipes - great recipes that are good for the body, as easy to make as possible, and affordable. I try to be all-organic or pretty darn close to it. But a vegan meal doesn’t have to taste like bland tofu or health food. Don’t believe me? Check out www.veganyumyum.com - I’m convinced this girl can make anything.

Appreciating Life - In our consumer-driven culture, we classify our status by our things. Somehow things are what are supposed to make us happy. I’ve found if you truly appreciate the moment, and appreciate what you already have, all that new stuff that you want really turns out not to be so important. Practice frugality without feeling deprived.

Small Adjustments - Little things we can do in our lives that make a difference in our pockets and/or the environment.

New Use, Old Thing - this just falls under being frugal. Old blinds get cut up to be plant markers, for instance. All kinds of stuff like that we can find and make use of!

In the Garden - Yes. I garden. A lot. If I have too many gardening posts, please please tell me to shut it and find something ELSE to talk about!

Herbal Remedies - some things don’t need a doctor or a pharmacist to clear up. For some common ailments, skip the store and pick a few leaves from your yard.

Thanks for visiting! We lookforward to your input!