Raspberries and Dahlias

It's that time of year again, you only need to spend a few minutes at the farmers market and you've got what seems like enough produce for an army. Then magically, by the end of the week, it's all gone and you need to go out and get more! Currently, it's dahlia season here in east central Wisconsin and the Skeleton Crew and I couldn't be happier.

It's always a good feeling to know you're supporting local farmers, especially when they are so much better at growing stuff then we are! 

This is the only dahlia that has bloomed so far out of all the tubers I planted last spring. There might be two or three more but I'm not counting on it. Maybe next year my luck will change? 

It doesn't really matter where they come from but someday I will figure out how to give them the perfect growing conditions. Then it will just be a matter of wandering into the garden and picking a fresh bouquet every morning. Of course I'll still keep buying them too.

Fall raspberries are in season, too. These were a little on the tart side for eating fresh. Since we got carried away and bought two pints and they couldn't be spread around the house in vases like the dahlias, turning them into jam seemed like the only solution.

Ivy sustained a spinal injury while arranging the flowers. Since the glue holding her together takes 24 hours to dry, Burt and Kibitz were left on their own to make the jam. 

Fortunately, there is an easy method that doesn't involve complicated canning procedures and takes less than an hour. It has only four ingredients and they didn't even have to watch a YouTube video to figure it out because the directions were in the box of pectin.

The hardest part was doing the math to get the proportions right . . .  and maybe also trying to keep Kibitz from melting while the pectin was boiling.

Viola! Three and a half jars of jam from around a pint and a half of raspberries.

It even passed the test to see if it was completely set!

Finally, it's ready for the official tasters.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are enjoying these last few days of summer.

Did you catch sight of the Harvest Moon last weekend? It made an appearance here on Friday night but then we had three solid days of rain. It's a good thing we don't have anything to harvest!