Hi, I don't have any blackberry or cherimoya seeds, but i do have other things to trade, I would really like the purple sprouting broccoli, I can't find it anywhere. Here is my list. VEGETABLES: Spinach-Bloomsdale Cucumber-Straight Eight Tomato(Slicing)-Stupice Tomato(Cherry)-Gardener's Delight Red Bell Pepper(unknown variety) Pea(English)- Alaska Carrot- Red Cored Chantenay Radish- Early Scarlet Globe Beet-Early Wonder Lettuce(Bibb-Tom Thumb Bean(Pole)-Blue Lake Carrot-Danvers Half Long Pepper(Sweet)- Sweet Banana Muskmelon- Golden Delicious Pepper(Sweet)- California Wonder Watermelon- Sugar Baby Cabbage(Chinese)-Wong Bok Cabbage-Copenhagen Market Broccoli- Di Cicco Corn(Indian)-Bloody Butcher HERBS AND FLOWERS Chives Basil-Genovese Lavender-Munstead Summer Savory German Chamomile Lemon Balm Feverfew Borage Lavender Hyssop Echinacea- Purple Coneflower Sunflower- Black Mammoth Sunflower- Dwarf Columbine- Rocky Mountains Larkspur Forget-Me-Not

Epicurious: Strawberry Jam With Black Pepper, Ginger, And Bay 2 kg hulled and quartered strawberries 400 grams organic brown sugar 400 grams organic granulated sugar 2 pieces, pith-free lemon zest 3 tablespoons lemon juice, from the above lemon 1 bay leaf 1 tablespoon freshly ground tellicherry black pepper 2 tablespoons peeled and minced fresh ginger Place a heavy pot (I use a big old cast iron enamel pot) over medium high heat and add the strawberries. Cook for five minutes and then add the sugars. Stir well and cook for five more minutes. Add the zest, the lemon juice, the bay leaf, pepper, and ginger. Cook for about 45 minutes, stirring often. Check for consistency and temperature. The jam should be boiling, and when it gets to 220 degrees F keep an eye on it. Test with the cold plate for consistency and remove from heat when the desired consistency is met. Place in jars with 1/2 inch of headroom, cap and process in rapidly boiling water for 30 minutes. Remove jars to a cooling rack and when they have cooled, label them and store them in a cool pantry.

1 of the jars doesn't seem to have much headspace at all - I can barely see it when I get down and sight along the edge of the lid. I tried just to fill each one to the rim below the threads. I just washed the lids and jars in my Bosch DW. It has a Sanitized light so I figured if that was on it was OK? I took them right from the DW as soon as the hour-long cycle was finished to fill 2 at a time so the jars were still hot (even though the lids were all in a baby utensil basket so I took those out all at once, the last 2 might have cooled slightly while I got the first 2 filled and closed). But I tried a spoonful of the leftovers - they're gummy! jars don't even sloosh when I tipped one upside down. So I mixed the leftover leftover "sauce" (what we hadn't eaten on ice cream) with the gum and got reasonable approximation of jam - it was roughly half and half. Should I open all the processed jars, mix them together over low heat so I don't cook them much at all, then reprocess? Or do I have to heat to boiling to put into a hot jar and process it? I hate to have to wash all these jars and waste the lids, DH says we can just open 2 (or 3, since 2 jars of "sauce" are pints and I only made half-pints of "gum") and mix them together, put them in the fridge and we all can eat PBJ sandwiches for the rest of the year! I can't give away jars of gum, though I did give SIL a jar of sauce. I *still* couldn't find pectin last night at Big Lots, though they had lots of quart-sized Mason jars.

Natural pectin content in fruits varies greatly. Even tomatoes have pectin in them. Unless a lot of boiling and sugar is added to help natural pectin to set, its difficult for a person just starting out to make a successful jelly or jam with no added pectin. Some don't use any added pectin, but because diabetics must watch sugar intake its not a good idea to attempt it unless you have a lot of experience. Simply boiling down apple cider to at least 1/20 of its original volume will give a syrup and possible set. Adding things like peels, seeds, septa, and any hulls that surround seed cavities can help improve a natural set. Things like pepper jelly and others with very low amounts of natural pectin will simply boil down to syrup, or scorch badly before reaching any kind of set. Many people here have just strated out trting to make a home canned food. If they follow someones very old recipe and find it to be a failure, the person may not want to try a failure again. Pectin concentrates are quite common in the US and for most fist time jelly makers its a good idea to follow a recipe exactly before attemptng to set a jelly that has no added pectin and is also low in sugar. A BWB IS necessary no matter what place on earth you live on. The UK may not think its necessary, and is perfectly safe to can without any BWB, but thats simply giving dangerous and unpredictable safety to home canned products. I push the envelope some when using a steam canner, but because the canner has a rapid recovery and most canned items are high in acid, I don't worry as much about contamination. I would NOT home can without knowing about an alternative process that is done by commercial companies, and if its possible to duplicate some of these processes. Again, all high acid foods, which, by themselves are safer to home can compared to a low acid food that requires a PC and very high over 212 degrees F heating.