Making Jam
Thursday, February 16, 2012
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Yesterday I decided to try out Agar Agar powder when making jam. I know berries in this area are out of season, but I needed new jam and wanted to try a new recipe. I purchased 36oz of natural blackberries (they were on sale) for this experiment. I also purchased some Agar Agar powder. Agar Agar powder is a vegan gelatin and is used in petri dishes to make bacteria grow. I just thought that was an interesting factoid. I usually use pectin when making jam since it is much cheaper than the Agar powder, but I had to try it.
Here is how I made my blackberry jam and please ignore the blurry photos, my iPhone didn't want to cooperate:
Rinse your berries throughly with hot water and shake the colander as rinsing. (shown in my Preserve colander)
Place half of the berries into your blender and puree for about 10 seconds. You still want the puree to be slightly lumpy for texture. When you are done pureeing the berries, place them in a pot.
Add your other ingredients to the puree:
2 tsps of agar agar powder per 2 cups of liquid
2 cups of organic sugar (I split my sweet ingredient between sugar and stevia to lower the calorie count)
Bring to a boil and lower the heat to medium.
Stir until fully mixed.
Allow the mix to boil until it has reduced about a 4th.
Bring out your sanitized jars and fill each jar with 1" remaining at the top. (Mixture should fill 6 7oz jars)
Clean the edge of the jars before closing.
Place the jars in a canning pot with 1" of water covering the jars.
Bring the pot to a boil and boil for about 20-25 minutes.
When the jars have sealed you can leave them in the pot to cool or remove them to a heat resistant surface to cool.
Check the seal of one of the jars.
Enjoy!
My opinion of the agar agar powder is that it sets very quickly, is still spreadable even if it seems solid and does not change the flavor of the jam. It is about 5 times more expensive than pectin and does not have the typical gelatin texture of pectin.
I also took some photos of ridiculous amounts of plastic at Target the other day:
You receive five cents back for every bag you bring to the store. . . .that can add up over time.
This day didn't start out so well, I had to take my cockatiel to the vet because she has a sinus infection. Birds don't show illness unless it's serious. Luckily, I noticed small changes in her and found it early enough. She's going to be fine. =) The only problem now is I have a small plastic bottle of antibiotic for her, yep, plastic ugh. But she's worth it. I have the horrible task of giving her .10 ml in her mouth twice daily. It's hard with a bird, they squirm a lot and bite.
I have decided to talk about zero waste and having pets. Dealing with pets has been the biggest challenge for me so far. I have been trying to figure out how to cut down the trash that is created. If anyone has any suggestions, please leave them in the comment section.
I have a bird and once I set up my indoor compost bin, I can compost the newspaper I use on the bottom of her cage. Her organic diet (Harrison's Bird Food) does come in plastic lined paper bags, this is a little frustrating, but she only goes through a 1lb bag every 2 months. It is the best food on the market and I'm not willing to change. .
My dog on the other hand creates more garbage than my bird. I have a 43lb australian shepherd who eats a dry grain free diet (Wellness Core Reduced Fat). Granted the food has lessened his feces amount, but he still poops at least twice daily. I've decided that I am going to use the empty 26lb bags as garbage bags. It takes Mac 2.5 - 3 months to finish a bag, so I don't have them as trash very often. I am also planning on making homemade liver treats with chicken livers from the store.
On walks I use biodegradable bags (poopbags.com), which I buy in bulk. For picking up his feces in his potty area, it's too expensive to use the poop bags. I scoop it up and place it into a garbage bag. Soon I will change to a biodegradable garbage bag once I find them in bulk at a reasonable price.
When I arrived home from Cedar Rapids, a large box was waiting on my front porch. My jars finally arrived! They had been delayed over the weekend because of a train derailment in Montana. There aren't any places close to me that sell hermetic jars and the price was right.
They did arrive in styrofoam peanuts, but I will take them to a UPS shop to be reused.
Here they are after I took out the paper and put on their rubber gasket.
Here is my newly organized shopping items:
My bags (I sewed some more last night and the mesh ones are from coolhats.biz)
