Strawberry Sweet Woodruff Preserves Day 2

After the strawberries have steeped overnight in sugar and sweet woodruff, put them in a sturdy pot and bring them to a boil. I like a lot of bright, clean lemon flavor, so I add lemon slices to infuse while it boils.

Then let the mixture sit for another two or three hours at room temperature, or six hours in the fridge. This two-step process helps separate the liquid from the fruit, so you can reduce just the liquid and then add the fruit at the end. This is the only way for fragile fruit like strawberries to keep their shape and not turn into mush. Put the fruit in a colander, and drain the syrup into a pot.

Strawberries are very low in pectin, so I add a high-pectin fruit like green apples to help the jam to set without overcooking. I dice the apples and put them in the syrup. I also put the skins and seeds and cores in a mesh bag, and float that bag in the boiling syrup. Skins and cores have a lot of pectin, and it will leach out of the bag. You can push on the apple bag with a spoon to release more pectin, but be careful not to splash yourself with boiling jam.

Sterilize your jars and lids and tools in boiling water while you wait for the syrup to reach gel point. Waiting for gel point takes some patience and attention. Each batch took about 40 minutes for me today, at mile-high altitude. It's easier and faster to use commercial pectin, but it requires much more sugar, and I don't like the texture. This method makes a luxurious preserve, with strawberries and little squares of candied apple suspended in clear, ruby-red jelly.

Keep a close eye on the jam while it's boiling.

Just before it reaches gel point, the frothing reduces and the bubbles get bigger. You can almost feel it seizing up a bit when you stir it. The color is amazing, a deep, glowing pomegranate-red.

To check the set, use the plate test. Put a plate in the freezer, and drop some jam on the cold plate. Put it back in the freezer for a minute or two. If the jam wrinkles when you push it with a finger, it's done. Add the strawberries back in, and boil for another 5 minutes or so, until they are hot through.

Ladle the hot preserves into the sterilized jar. A jam funnel helps keep the outside of the jar clean. Remove air bubbles, cap the jar with a hot lid, and screw on a ring.

Place the filled jars in a boiling water bath, with rapidly boiling water to cover the lids by at least two inches. Follow boiling instructions for your altitude.

Nine pounds of strawberries turned into 14 pints of preserves. I used four cups of sugar and four and a half pounds of strawberries for each batch. There is nothing better than the 'ping' sound as the jars seal when you take them out of the boiling water bath.


The preserves are silky and gorgeous. The familiar strawberry taste, with a note of vanilla and grass from the sweet woodruff, and a bright citrus pop from the lemon.

Please note that this is not meant to be a comprehensive instruction about canning. It's important to follow all the rules carefully for a safe end product, so be sure to follow an approved method.

Monsoon Season

I didn't think Denver had a monsoon season, but we seem to be in it now. The ninth straight day of torrential afternoon and evening downpours. I can't get enough rain. I grew up in New Mexico, where the weather never matched the brooding novel I was reading. When I first read Cormac McCarthy, I got a little pang of regret. If only I had read him in high school! I might have seen something romantic and interesting in the high country desert. All that love of New Mexico came later, long after I didn't live there any more.

If there isn't lightning, R and I have an agreement that we will run out into the storm and lie in the grass. It's irritating, because sometimes I am busy and not inclined to get wet. But rainstorms are few and far between, so I always indulge her. Most often the storm ends before we get tired of the wet grass. If it doesn't, we run inside to dry off and read books in bed until the storm is over. Usually we do that once every three or four months. We have both been enjoying the ridiculousness of doing our ritual every single day for over a week. We have gotten through a lot of chapters of Prince Caspian.

Yesterday there was a storm that looked to me like hurricane footage from tv. Sheets and walls of water, trees bent sideways, a river pouring down the street.

Once it had been over for awhile and I was sure the lightning was gone, I went outside to take pictures. The water had been much higher than this. It flooded the lawn and stopped just short of the basement windows. I tried to take pictures from inside the house, but you couldn't see through the sheets of rain.

For the first time I can remember, this storm was something other than, hurray! rain! It briefly turned into hail at one point, and we watched out the windows as water flowed up over the curb and cascaded onto the lawn. The thunder was tooth-grinding, earth-shaking, Charlie dove under our bed and wouldn't come out. That's when you start to think, what happens if this doesn't stop. The streets are flooded out. How is D going to get home? What's it like downtown?

And then the sun comes out, and the birds are singing.

D got home fine, Charlie got his walk and the water was almost gone by then.

We are back to appreciating how much the flowers, and the lawn, love this weather.

R and her best friend E are building a dam of rocks, against the next deluge. R is in a phase of wearing her Easter dress every day. Que sera.

I'm not sure what they mean for the dam to do. If it worked, it would stop the flow of water and back it up so that it flooded E's house across the street.

E told me that this is "the lock where I keep my friendship with R." I love that, because it's not a locket, it's really just a padlock. I asked her, does it have anything inside it? And she looked at me like I was crazy.

Trail Walk

I am so grateful for the trail system that winds all the way around our house. We are always a minute away from feeling like we've taken off for the mountains.

Yesterday was the third straight day of afternoon downpours. It left the world so clean. Eerily green and glowing.













A hot bath, pj's, and falling asleep on Daddy's lap with Charlie after a long walk. Summer is good.

Happy Birthday Amanda

Summer birthdays are the best. We had a party Thursday night for my friend Amanda.

I love this picture, with her Mom's arm around her.

I made this Cake for her, still my favorite cake recipe, Classic Yellow cake from Sylvia Weinstock. I doubled the recipe and made four layers. It was the tallest cake I've ever tried. I put plastic drinking straws through the layers to keep them from sliding around in the heat.

It's such a moist cake, it works really well at high altitude with the adjustments I made. Raspberry filling is between the layers. I carved it to make it even all around, which made it pretty crumby . . .

. . . but buckets of buttercream cover everything.

The cake is almost level, but then I piped the top in a crooked circle so it looks like it's not. Everything is a learning experience.

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Right before the party, I put edible flowers from our garden on the cake.

Amanda's littlest son is a big fan of cake, and, as you can see from his face, ketchup.

Our neighbor Julie made this beautiful tribute to Amanda, using words we all gave to describe her.

Success! We made her cry.


Lemonade on the alligator as the sun goes down. Summer is good.

Backyard Race

Father vs. daughter vs. dog.


Charlie tries to cheat, with one big leap across the finish line.

The Longest Day of the Year

A walk down the trail with neighbor friends, on the evening of the longest day of the year.

The kids call this little inlet of the creek "the hideout." You have to scramble down a lot of rocks to get there. Today the mud was like pudding, but more slick.


Only one little casualty, and a small amount of blood.

It must be someone else's hideout too, because there is a tipi.

Still working on the hair situation.

Freedom!


Happy Summer Solstice, Charlie!