Raspberries

Last week I had 24 pints of blueberries, 3 gallons of strawberries and about 6 pints of raspberries to work with. I have already posted the blueberries and strawberries and will finish with the raspberries. I do love these berries too but rarely find them on sale cheap enough to make to ton of stuff. The same week the blueberries were on sale, I was able to get some raspberries too.  Samantha loves raspberries too and since I had so many other berries to work with, I washed the berries and measured them so that I could make jam with her when I was done with the strawberries.

In the photo above you can see (l-r) Raspberry Lemonade Concentrate, Raspberry Jam and a Mango-Raspberry Jam. They are all very tasty, but the one with the mango is just amazing. Another favorite jam! Our favorite way to enjoy the lemonade concentrates is to mix them with ginger ale. I have added them to plain water too, but the ginger ale is our favorite.

Samantha has been cooking with me at my house and at home with her Mom since she was just tiny. At 10, she is a pretty confident cook, understands kitchen safety and has quite the collection of her own kitchen supplies, including her own knives. She loves to try new recipes and was excited to make raspberry jam. Last summer, she made her first batch of jam and she was excited to be able to do it again this year. Since she loves raspberries so much, I saved that project for a day that she would be here with me. She is tall enough that she doesn't really need a stool anymore but when we are cooking with a deep pot, she uses one so that she is above the pot she is stirring so that she doesn't get burned. I supervise of course, but she understands the basics of making and canning jam now. After finishing she pronounced everything worthy of two thumbs up.

I swear I clean my stove! I normally have my water bath canner on the front burner there and I cook on the back burner. Samantha arms are long enough yet for that she when she is here I reverse it. After canning so many jars of berry products in just a few days, that front burner looks like that a lot, but I really do clean it!