Henny Penny Farmette

Rhubarb takes up a lot of garden because of its big leaves but the canes pair well with strawberries

Rhubarb and strawberries just seem to go together. Their flavors blend nicely, whether in a compote, trifle, pie, or jam. The following is a simple recipe for strawberry-rhubarb jam and uses the boiling hot water bath to preserve the jars of jam.

Make extra to tuck into holiday gift baskets or for gift-giving throughout the year.

Luscious strawberries are easily made into  jam

 Ingredients:

2 cups strawberries (washed, hulled, and crushed)

2 cups rhubarb (roughly four stalks, chopped)

1/4 cup lemon juice

6 Tablespoons Classic Pectin

5 1/2 cups sugar

Directions:

Combine the first four ingredients (strawberries, rhubarb, lemon juice, pectin) in a large pot.

Bring to a boil.

Add the sugar, stirring to blend completely.

Return the mixture to a roiling boil.

Time for one minute, stirring constantly.

Remove the pot from heat.

Skim away the foam.

Ladle the jam into hot, clean jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space.

Apply and tighten the two-piece ring/lid caps.

Place jars into the boiling water bath canner.

Process for 10 minutes.

Preserving luscious stone fruit can involve hours of work, even when the process of canning is simple

Preserving the bounty of the orchard, garden, and hive is necessarily labor-intensive. The kitchen work is especially hard on the shoulders, back, and legs during stone fruit season because it requires hours of standing, washing, cutting, pitting, stirring, wiping, boiling, bottling, and labeling.

Apricot jam is easy to make but the fruit must be washed, pitted, and quartered first

Still, I love seeing my pantry shelves stocked with jars of jam, marmalade, conserve, and honey. At last count, I’ve made (so far this season) 70 jars of apricot jam and 12 of cherry-orange conserve.

Spring honey for our family has been drained from a frame, strained, and bottled

Harvesting honey from a hive is not exactly easy work either. My beekeeper neighbor and I removed a few frames of honey for ourselves in late May. From that work, this much I know: lifting a honey-filled super isn’t exactly for the faint of heart.

Supers full of honey are heavy to lift and carry

When the hive has a second or third super on top, lifting (not moving, just lifting) the whole shebang requires a lot of upper body strength.

Weed pulling is another job that requires muscles. This morning I weeded for a couple of hours before I’d had enough. Some weeds can grow tenacious roots up to a foot long and the roots can also have many branches. While I use a spade or shovel often as an aid to weeding, there’s something satisfying about leaning over and pulling out a weed. It’s a compulsion I share with many gardeners.

I didn’t know when I was in my twenties and off on a pilgrimage to India that the yoga I learned there and have done ever since would pay big dividends in the farm work I do today. Joint flexibility and strong muscles are absolutely necessary for the labor-intensive work of  farming.