I’m in a jam…strawberry

Well, this is technically old news, but alas, busy times tend to delay things for me in the blog-o-sphere.

Last Saturday, Jordan and I took a wonderful, rainy bus trip across town to go the the Urbana Farmer’s Market. The best part about the last statement is of course the word ‘bus’, as we were testing the brand spanking new bus pass Jordan picked up. It was $235, which equates to about 1 1/2 tanks of gas in a Suburban up here, and equates to about 4 months of driving under our current habits. We figure the pass will pay for itself in four months, but the stress relief in not having to fight traffic, makes it paid and full already!

Returning to topic, we went to the farmer’s market. It was pouring, and so it was not very crowded. It is a pretty good sized market, maybe around 70 vendors. We perused for awhile before enjoying a sandwich lunch and heading home. We ended up with half a flat of strawberries, a head of lettuce, and a small bunch of radishes. In addition to having a nice chef salad for dinner, we also made a batch of Jam.

This was my first jammin’ time (que Reaggea beat), and I was worried I would ruin it. It took about 40 minutes to cook down the strawberries, but the end product was well worth it the next morning!

Needless to say, it was a good experience, and it will not be my last. We plan on canning a lot through the produce season, so we can cut food costs a bit during winter. Also, like I have said before, I enjoy knowing how to can foods that I have oversight on. I know what I am eating better than if I just bought pre-canned foods at the supermarkets.

Coming soon: A full account of my field experiences this week. In short, I gathered my entire dataset for the summer in 2 days. I am taking the weekend off because of it and enjoying a little well deserved R&R.