First made last winter, the jars were quickly gobbled up as it is my all-time-favorite jam of all time.  Then in the summer when raspberries were ripe and ready, I hunted for blood oranges.  In this day and age of abundance I though someone might stock a few.  Nope.  I settled for making the recipe with cape gooseberries and it was good.  Just not my all-time-favorite of all time.

But now it’s time, my friends, time for blood orange and raspberry jam.  Finally.  Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• enough  blood oranges to get 4 cups freshly-squeezed juice
• 4 cups raspberries
• 3-4 cups sugar (this really depends on your preferences and how sweet the fruit is) I used 3 cups and my jam is perfectly sweet and tart
• cheesecloth

Directions: 

• Put a couple of plates in the freezer.
• Juice those bloody oranges until you get 4 cups.  Take all the membrane and seeds out of the peels and tie into a square of cheesecloth (I used a 4-ply thickness of cheesecloth, i.e. a large square folded in half twice).  Tie the ends of the cheesecloth around a large wooded spoon.  This is your pectin bag.
• Add juice to a large pot with the raspberries and sugar and bring to a boil on medium-high.  Stir frequently.  Hang bag of orange guts from the edge of the pot.  I rigged up something with a chopstick and a clip on the side of the pot, but the large wooden spoon works great too.
• When boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and continue boiling and stirring until reduced.   Remove pectin bag and let cool.  When cool enough to handle, squeeze the bag so that a creamy gel comes out of the pores of the cheesecloth – that’s your pectin!  Scrape the pectin back into the jam and stir.  Then you can discard the bag and membranes.

• Jam is ready when it passes the gel test: put a spoonful of the jam on a plate from the freezer.  When the jam has cooled, drag your finger through the middle of the glob.  If it spreads back into a puddle, it isn’t gelled yet.  If your finger mark stays put, then your jam is ready to be canned.
• Process 125ml (aka 1/2 cup) jars for 5 minutes, or 250ml (aka 1 cup jars) for 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

In other news, just as these flavors came together organically, it seems that right at the same time I’m all ramped up about citrus, I have a few new Garden Therapy Handmade pillows to launch.  This one seemed particularly fitting to announce today, given the citrus-y color of the crocosmia blooms.  For those of you who haven’t yet, please visit the Garden Therapy Handmade shop and take a look at all the bright-colored blooms.  Hopefully they will bring some cheer to your winter’s days.

I’ll be linking this post to these wonderful parties.

Ingredients: 

• 12 organic lemons
• coarse Kosher salt

Directions:

1. Scrub the lemons under running water with a vegetable or nail brush to get the rind nice and clean.  Then cut the stems and ends off the lemons.

2. Score each lemon into a star: start by making a cut through the lemon from the top down to almost the bottom, but don’t slice all the way through.  Leave enough remaining so that the lemon stays attached.  Cut again twice more, to get a star shape.

3. Pack the insides of the star with lots of coarse salt.  Don’t be afraid of the salt it’s not going to become overly salty if you use too much.  Just go for it!

4. Now pack the lemons into clean, sterilized jars.  Really squish them in there so that the juices start to cover the lemons.  Add extra fresh lemon juice if you need to top each jar up so that all the  lemons are completely covered.  Keep squishing down the lemons over the next couple of days to get more juices out and covering the fruit.

5. Let sit for a month in a cold place like the fridge until the rinds soften.

To use the preserved lemons, rinse under cold running water and remove the pulp.  The pulp can be squeezed for it’s juice, but generally the rind is what is used.  Slice or dice the rind to add to recipes like this one: Chicken Tagine with Green Olives and Preserved Lemon. Yum!

1. Garden Therapy Handmade Shop Opens!  

Opening the new Etsy shop to sell a hand crafted line of floral throw pillows was by far the most exciting thing that happened this year.   The Studio Blooms line of throw pillows started from flowers grown in my gardens which were then photographed in macro, blown up to mammoth proportions, and printed on fabric using the giclée technique.  Each pillow represents a piece of artwork for your home,  yet  artwork you can cuddle up to and read a book on.  Every step was carefully (obsessively?) planned out and executed, so the final cushions are truly show-stopping.

A labour of love that took well over a year and a half to launch, it’s been a great success so far and I have very high hopes for 2012.  Look for new designs, new products, and new locations where you can buy Garden Therapy Handmade in the coming year.  And remember, each design is a limited edition so please snap them up before they are all gone.

2. Free Printable Canning Labels  

It seems a shame to put so much love into a a jam, jelly, or pickle to then just label the lid with a sharpie.  These printable canning labels are also meant for the canning jar’s snap lid so it get’s recycled when the lid does with no sticky glue to soak off the glass jar.  Oh, and did I mention they are free?  Yup, just download and print ‘em on label paper.  You’re welcome.

3. The Natural Skincare Series

While making bath and body care products isn’t technically gardening, these projects all honour nature by using only natural essential oils, colourings, and other ingredients.  Tutorials for handmade cold process soap, bath bombs, sugar scrub, bath salts, and lip balm were incredibly popular and made amazing holiday gifts.  Good news, there will be more recipes and tutorials to come in 2012!

4. Candles in Many Shapes and Forms

The first candles to be posted were these Citronella CAN-dles.  And while no bugs bit me while they were alight, I was bitten by the candle-making bug!  Soy and beeswax jar candles followed which were beautiful in their simplicity.  The real star of the show, however, was the beeswax flower jar candles, where a 3-dimensional beeswax surprise hides under the lid of these.  A perfect holiday gift, although so far, those who have them have not wanted to burn them and watch the flower melt away.  To that I say, light away and make more…and here’s how.

5. The Grinch Tree, Whoville Party and & Holiday Decorations

Speaking of the holidays, the Grinch tree was the singing Who’s that warmed up my Grinchy demeanour this holiday season.  Feeling a little blue and growly before the holidays, I didn’t want to put up a Christmas tree this year.  The compromise was to decorate a tree that mirrored the feelings, and the Grinch tree was born.  And just like the movie, my spirits warmed up and the true meaning of Christmas was revealed: to make festive holiday planters and decorate the house and throw a Whoville-themed party!  Thanks, Grinchy.

6. Wreath Making

There is always a wreath on the Garden Therapy front door, and maybe another few scattered around the garden.  Tutorials for Making an Evergreen Wreath, Lavender Wreath, and Halloween Hop Wreath were easy and fun projects that didn’t cost a penny.  Love!

7. Halloween Planters, Jack-o-Planterns, & Rock Spiders

Now that Hop Wreath wasn’t the only Halloween decoration this year.  Scaaary planters with severed hands, witch’s brooms, and kale (OK, not too scary) were unique natural decorations.  But nothing was as fun as the Jack-o-planterns and DIY Rock Spiders (sorry, Elisabeth, I know they freak you out).

8. Concrete Garden Projects

Being lucky enough to receive a review copy of Concrete Garden Projects: Easy & Inexpensive Containers, Furniture, Water Features & More meant a fun afternoon making modern planters and leaf-print stepping stones.  I’m totally addicted now!

9. Jammin’ Recipes

Not as much canning happened as normally does, but there were still some fantastic recipes this year: Winter Marmalade, Black & Blue Berry Jam, and Bourbon Cranberry Sauce topped the list.

10. Tangerine Tango

The final highlight of 2011 was the announcement of Pantone’s 2012 colour of the year, Tangerine Tango which will undoubtedly be a popular colour in fashion and home décor (already seeing it everywhere!) but there are also some pretty cool plants that can spice up your garden.  Also cool, a set of Studio Blooms pillows rocks out in Tangerine Tango.  Hmmm.  That is a really great way to start of 2012.

Thank you to everyone who has visited in 2011 and I so very much hope that you will be back this year.  Happy gardening!

I’ll be linking this post to these wonderful parties.

Materials:

• small 1/4 pint (125ml) jam jars
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 3/4 cup sweet almond oil

Lemongrass Ginger Recipe Ingredients:

• 3 drops of lemongrass essential oil
• 1 drop of ginger essential oil
• 1/4 tsp turmeric for coloring

Rosemary Spearmint Recipe Ingredients:

• 2 drops of rosemary essential oil
• 2 drops of spearmint essential oil
• 1/4 tsp spirulina for coloring
• 1/4 tsp crushed dried mint leaves and bergamot petals

Directions:

1. In a bowl or large 1L measuring cup mix together the sugar, oil and recipe ingredients.

2. Spoon mixture into small jam jars and smooth out top.

3. Optional: download and print these freebie canning labels to dress them up!

I’ll be linking this project to these wonderful parties.

With American Thanksgiving coming up this week, I thought I’d share my homemade bourbon cranberry sauce recipe.  We gave jars of this away to each of the guests that joined us for Canadian thanksgiving back in October.  The recipe is intended for canning so you (and your guests if they are lucky enough to take a jar home) can store in the cupboard until Christmas or Thanksgiving next year.  Don’t forget to dress up your jars with some adorable canning labels you can download and print on label paper.  Here is a custom design for this recipe:  Garden Therapy Bourbon Cranberry Sauce Labels.

Ingredients:

• 6  cups cranberries
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup bourbon

1. Combine sugar, water, and vinegar in a tall-sided saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.
2. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then add cranberries.
3. Return to a boil, then reduce heat and stir rapidly uncovered for 5 minutes until cranberries burst.
4. Stir in bourbon.
5. Ladle into hot jars leaving 1/2″ of headspace.  Process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes for 250ml (1 cup) jars.

Makes three 250ml (half pint) jars or six 125ml jars.

We’re participating in these linky parties or blog hops.

Templates:

• Garden Therapy 2 Inch Canning Labels Polka Dot
• Garden Therapy 2.5 Inch Canning Labels Polka Dot
• Garden Therapy 2 Inch Canning Labels Plaid
• Garden Therapy 2.5 Inch Canning Labels Plaid
• Garden Therapy 2 Inch Canning Labels Bold
• Garden Therapy 2.5 Inch Canning Labels Bold

Supplies:

• Full page shipping labels or heavy-stock, glossy paper and spray adhesive
• Colour laser printer
• 2″ and/or 2.5″ round hole punch or scissors

Steps:

1.  Print the labels on a full sheet shipping label or on a nice heavy-stock, glossy paper.  Buy the best quality shipping label you can find.  We like glossy paper for these.  Printing can be done on your colour laser printer at home (do not use an ink jet printer as that will smudge when wet) or by taking the file to a printing house.

2. Use a 2″ or a 2.5″ hole punch (available at craft stores or online) to cut out each label or if you don’t want to invest in one of those fancy tools, cut by hand with sharp scissors.

3. If using plain paper, cover the back of each label with spray adhesive according to directions on the can, or use another type of fairly dry glue (don’t use white glue or the label with pucker).

4. Apply the labels to your homemade creations and revel in the beauty you have brought to the world.

For more ideas on how to dress up your canning creations, check out last year’s canning label template project and canning label inspiration contest.

Here are a few photos of the harvesting frenzy for the last full week of August.  How can you blame me for stocking up?

Figs are abundant again on my neighbours tree although not as much as they were last year.  I made balsamic, fig, & rosemary preserves, dried figs in my dehydrator, and plan to make whole figs in a balsamic syrup.

I picked up pickling cukes at a farm this year for the first time and they are pickling away in my dining room.

My secret blackberry picking spot was loaded this year so I made blackberry pie, blackberry jam, blackberry & blueberry jam, and froze some for baking and ice cream.

The tomatoes are staring to come in as well, some of which have seen dehydrated, others made into sauce for the winter.

Any other squirrels out there stocking up for the winter?

I read that traditional Seville orange marmalade was first made by a grocer who hastily purchased a large number of oranges from a Spanish farmer.  When she did take the time to taste them, they were so sour and full of seeds they would not be sellable.  Not wanting to waste the lot, she made the first Seville orange marmalade.   

Just the fact that Seville oranges are rare and seasonal peaked my interest, but the “making lemonade from lemons” was enough to send me running to the grocery store to buy supplies. 

Sadly, not everyone gets lemonade, or in my case a delicious, citrusy spread.  Sometimes you spend 6 hours peeling, juicing, seeding, cooking and canning marmalade and get crap.  Jam #20 was a huge failure for one reason: I left too much pith (the white rind between the peel and the flesh of the fruit) on my peels and the whole batch (14 jars) was terribly bitter.  Unfortunately the recipe said, “pith is bitter, so the more you can get out the better. But don’t worry if you can’t get it all out.”  I took this to heart and unfortunately that was the wrong call for my palette so that’s 14 jars of pithy junk down the sink.

Not one to back down from a challenge, I set out to kick some marmalade ass (and do it my way, no offence to 18^th century English grocers).  So I bought some tangelos, Meyer lemons, lemons, limes, and pink grapefruit and made a much more modern Five Fruit Marmalade. The colour is delightfully orange, the consistency is more jelly than rind, and the flavour is the right balance of sweet-tart-bitter-bright.  It tastes amazing on a scone and guess what?  You can make it anytime you want!  Plus it tastes amazing on chicken as in this recipe I made last night.

While not every recipe turns out to be perfect, I’m happy to say that I have now put 2 more jams under my belt (um, literally) and I think the bitter jam only served to make the sweet jam more appealing.  Perhaps next winter I’ll take another run at traditional Seville orange marmalade, but certainly in a much, much smaller batch.

After spending hours making the perfectly crafted homemade jam, jelly, chutney or pickle, I get on to making the perfect label to gussy up my jars.  Like wrapping a present or dressing for dinner, accessorizing with labels can really add to the finished product.  What’s inside the jar is art: beautiful flavours and colours and freshness packed lovingly into a tiny glass container.  Why not accessorize?  It will make a perfect holiday gift.

Supplies:

• Full page shipping labels
• Computer with graphics program (or even MS Word will work)
• Colour laser printer
• 2″ and/or 2.5″ round hole punch or scissors

Steps:

1. First, draw a circle in your graphics program on the computer to be the size of the label you want to put on the top of the jar.  For instance, I made a 2″ circle for a regular mouth (78mm) lid and a 2.5″ circle for wide mouth (80mm) lid.  Then add photos, graphics, and text to design your label.  I like to use photos I’ve taken of the ingrredients when they are growing in the garden or freshly harvested but you could use any graphic that appeals to you, the preserve or the season.  For those who prefer the kitchen to the computer, I’ve created some simple templates:

• Garden Therapy 2 Inch Printable Labels
• Garden Therapy 2.5 Inch Printable Labels

2.  When you are happy with your design, print the labels on a full sheet shipping label that can be purchased from any office supply store.  Buy the best quality shipping label you can find.  I like glossy paper for these.  Printing can be done on your colour laser printer at home (do not use an ink jet printer as that will smudge when wet) or by taking the file to a printing house.

3. Use a 2″ or a 2.5″ hole punch (available at craft stores) to cut out each label or if you don’t want to invest in one of those fancy tools, cut by hand with sharp scissors.  Thanks to Andrew for the fabulous hole punch idea as it made it sooooo much easier.

4. Apply the labels to your homemade creations and revel in the beauty you have brought to the world.

Looking for more inspiration?  Check out the Canning Label Inspiration page and contest.  Enter your finished project by December 15th to participate in the contest.