Blueberries and jam making

 A weaver back east shared this Blueberry Buckle recipe (from Cooks Illustrated) - it's incredibly yummy, I mean like deliciously yummy, to die for yummy. It's the best of all worlds - it's like a cobbler, like a crisp, like a coffee cake. I'm going to try it with other berries, maybe even peaches or apples.

The same day I made more jam. Two batches of strawberry/blueberry and two batches of figs. The fig trees at the other house (one we're trying to sell with a fire close by) have a bumper crop of figs this year.  I'm not sure how many I've eaten straight from the trees, they're like eating candy........for that matter I'm not sure how many handfuls of blueberries I've eaten this past week either.

The fire keeps on growing, more to the north and west at the moment. Good news is that some evacuation areas have gone from level 3 to level 2, and from level 2 to level 1. Our road is still on level 1, no change there.....hoping it won't be too far off. We'd really like that house to sell but no one is going to go look at it with the fire going full guns. But there is progress being made on the fire so that's a great thing and all the hard work from fire personnel has kept all houses safe to date.

Taylor Creek Fire keeps on keeping on.........

First off - I apologize for the sideways photos - I don't understand it but when I take pictures with my phone they turn up sideways on the blog. They weren't sideways when I downloaded them onto the computer and edited them but they show up sideways here. I'm at a loss.  So, just be patient and turn your head for the first four of them.......

The fire rages on coming closer and closer to our old house, which we still own, which we would love for someone to buy but no one will go look at it with a fire close by and this sign on our road.  The sign message changes to also say only property owners with proper ID will be let through and that's only into certain areas depending on what the fire is doing.

This is an official 'Fire' sign to direct the fire fighters in the right direction - this was posted on our road too. The fire camp, a mini city, used to be set up close to us but now it's moved a mile or so to the east - guess that's a sign when they move further away from a growing fire.

These types of signs are all over the roadways thanking the fire fighters, wishing them a safe day. What a horrible job it is - they're working with very heavy packs, heavy clothing, in 100 degree weather, long hours, many dangers and poison oak on top of it. We are so grateful they are here from all over the country to help us. This morning's fire report didn't mention if any homes have been lost but as of last night there had been no losses due to all the structural protection crews out there laying hose and protecting those homes as the fire has burned around some of them. I'm taking it as a good sign that there was no mention of any losses. The good news this morning is that there is 30% containment - not on the lines being built close to our old home but on the lines protecting many homes to the south. Updated estimated containment date is October 19th - that's a long ways off. My guess is it's the west side that will be the issue for the long term (at least I hope) and the fact that there are plans to let it join with another fire 7 miles to the southwest.

Yesterday evening we went out to our old house to set up sprinklers on the 60 ft long deck. Flying embers are a huge concern and things like pine needles on roof and gutters and wood decks are just ripe for lighting off. The good news at the old house is that the fig trees are producing a bumper crop of figs this year - maybe I'll be making fig jam later today, will definitely be dehydrating some.

We took a long weekend away on the coast to get out of the heat and smoke. Blueberry farms have opened up so we picked 24 pounds of blueberries. The berries are just starting to get ripe, depending on what happens with the fire we'd love to get over at some point to pick more while they're still available.

Here are 3 batches of jam. I've got more blueberries in the fridge for more jam making, freezing and a blueberry buckle recipe someone just sent me.....definitely need to pick up some vanilla ice cream to go with it when I run into town for more pectin.

I'm getting closer to setting up my weaving and sewing rooms at the new house. Yesterday we painted the ceiling and walls of the sewing room. I still need to paint a shelf in the closet and the door trim and Sam needs to install the new baseboard. Then we move on to the weaving room. I am so ready to unpack what looks to be almost an entire bay in the garage of boxes that goes in these two rooms......hmm, hope it all fits......

Fun weekend

This past weekend I took a watercolor journal making class on the coast.  It was great fun, learned lots, and will be making more journals here and there over the coming years. Many thanks to my instructor Mary who not only taught a great class but has also enabled me to spend some money on a couple books, tools, nice paper, leather, etc. etc.

Here is the outside of my journal - that's leather - pink leather!  I forgot to take a photo of the spine where it shows how I sewed the books (sections of watercolor paper) into the journal - I used a waxed linen in the same teal color as my leather tie closure. It was tempting to put a button closure on but I've decided I want to try embossing the leather with a rubber stamp, I thought a decorative button plus the embossing would be too much. Next journal will get a beautiful button closure.

Here's the inside of my journal.  I'm wondering if I could use handwoven fabric for a journal cover.....would have to back it and figure out something for the raw edges without creating too much bulk. I don't know if I have any suitable leftover scraps at the moment to sample with but I will give thought to weaving extra on a perfect warp in the future.

And here's the back page with the colophon which Mary said we should add to our books. I looked up a definition and it's "A statement at the end of a book, typically with a printer's emblem, giving information about it's authorship and printing. Mary said in artist's book they may include the type of paper used. Since I went totally out of my comfort zone with the pink leather I thought my colophon page should be colorful too. I only had a regular black pen and some colored pencils over there so this is what I came up with. I plan on doing some watercolor washes on other pages, maybe some stamping, need to put my name and contact info in the front of my journal but will wait until I do a little playing with the watercolors on that page.

Sunday morning we went blueberry picking again. Twin Creeks Farm south of Bandon has 5000 berry bushes and they're still loaded. We picked another 20+ pounds. I baked a blueberry cobbler for Sam since he said I've never baked him cobbler in the 33+ years we've been married and he loves cobbler and has fond memories of his grandmother's from down on the farm.  I'm a crisp or pie girl myself but I made the cobbler.  It's good but he had to admit maybe it tasted better when he was on the farm visiting his grandparents - looks like crisp and pie are next up.........

Blueberry season

Gotta love blueberry season.......it's my favorite berry although this year's crop of local strawberries was exceptional. Today I made 3 batches of blueberry jam and a loaf of lemon blueberry bread. I have a bowl of berries in the fridge for eating and have several bags in the freezer for smoothies, muffins or whatever. I posted the recipe for the lemon blueberry bread once before - it can be found HERE.  Next up is some apricot jam, cousin Jim's neighbor gave him a bunch of apricots so he's sharing - I'll get enough for one batch which is plenty of apricot jam for us - will get to that on Friday. Blackberry season will be here soon - haven't made blackberry jam in forever.  Yum, can't wait to slice into this bread after dinner.............

A bit of weaving.......

We spent the past 6 days on the coast - absolutely lovely weather, sunny, cool and windy.....could have been a bit less wind but I'm not complaining because it's so much hotter here in the valley. I did some reading, some relaxing, some spinning , some weaving and some of lots of other fun things.  This morning before we headed home we went to a blueberry farm south of our beach town and picked over 18 pounds of blueberries........not sure how many we ate while picking.  Blueberry jam is on the schedule for tomorrow, I think I've got enough sugar for at least 2 batches. Will freeze blueberries but since I have a couple lemons I might have to make some blueberry lemon bread.

 I got back to weaving on the false damask warp I had started weaving last time over, just love this weave structure for towels......

......here they are in a cheery yellow

Since I finished up that warp and am still on a kick to use up my cottolin stash I put on another towel warp in the same draft but this time I was using up odds and ends of spools that were getting low. I've got 4 different colors I'll use for wefts on these 10 towels. These look pretty orange in the photo but there's no orange in them at all - mauves, pinks and a little lavender. I think after this there's enough cottolin left for another mixed color towel warp.....not sure what weave structure yet. After that I'll move on to something new on that loom.

Bailey is exhausted after his time on the coast. The neighborhood was hopping so he sat out on the front porch watching and never got his naps. He was especially interested in watching the kids play baseball across the street, and then later the kids next door shooting off fireworks. But the highlight of his time on the coast was getting this new football at the parade on the 4th. We sat on the curb and he watched the parade, watched all the kids running out into the street to get the candy and toys being thrown. But then a bus from Bandon Dunes golf resort went by and threw out this little football - no kid had a chance, it was coming right at Bailey and he jumped up and grabbed it. Go figure why a one of the top golf resorts in the world threw out a handful of footballs but Bailey was happy they did.

Lemon Blueberry Bread

Ok, so this is a terrible pic but this lemon blueberry bread is the best. I've been wanting to make it for a few weeks but either I'd have blueberries and no lemons, or I'd have lemons and no blueberries........finally yesterday the stars aligned and I had both.  I think I originally got this recipe out of a Country magazine years ago but don't quote me on that.  I bet it would be good with fresh raspberries too.

Lemon Blueberry Bread

1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
3 tbs lemon juice
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tbs grated lemon peel
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Glaze: 2 tbs lemon juice and 1/4 cup sugar

In a mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, juice and eggs. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; stir into egg mixture alternating with milk. Fold in peel and blueberries. Pour into a greased 8x4x2 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes or until bread tests done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine glaze ingredients. Remove bread from pan and drizzle with glaze. Cool on wire rack.

Notes - when I made this yesterday 2 lemons gave me exactly the amount of juice I needed but that will vary depending on your lemons.  Also in my convection oven it only took 50 minutes to bake.

Hmm, still have more blueberries.......think I need to pick up a couple more lemons.........

Blueberry Pot Pies

Yum - blueberry pot pies right out of the oven, recipe courtesy of A Farm Girl's Dabbles. I've love to stick a spoon in one of them to find out how yummy it is but we're having company this evening so I better not. I'll serve these with vanilla bean ice cream.

In a funk....try mini-blueberry pies

Ok, so the funk hasn't totally lifted, but feeling better as I make decisions and cross another item off the list. Not sure what's up today other than frittering of my morning so I decided why not use some of those blueberries to make mini-blueberry pies.....blueberry pie is my favorite. Ok, so they're not really pretty, they don't look like those Bumbleberry Blossoms Costco used to carry around the holidays...but they'll be great with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.....when I go out and buy some........  I used storebought pie crust, cut each crust in quarters, smooshed it into the monster sized muffin tins, threw in some blueberries, a little sugar, cinnamon, butter and oatmeal on top. I think hope they'll taste great. Going to freeze half and see how that works.

Local blueberries aren't in yet but it won't be long........I'm a regular at the blueberry farm, I think those gals wonder what I'm doing with all those blueberries, they're speaking spanish when I leave probably saying there's that crazy lady that comes in 3 times a week for flats of blueberries........ I make jam, pies, muffins, crisp, on cereal, in yogurt, in fruit salad....just one big blueberry summer. For those of you in Southern Oregon I'll share where I buy my blueberries - it's a Townsend Farm blueberry farm located on the Applegate River with the berries being sold next door on Helms Rd in South Grants Pass. I used to go to Blueberry Hill in Crescent City, CA until this farm went in several years ago. My mouth is watering just thinking about those local blueberries......