Jams, Jellies, Preserves, and Syrups 2025

I am interested to know what is in that cereal mix, if you would so kindly share, please?
:dragon:

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Sour Cherry is about wiped out here… as its been on the shelf for about a month. If you have a Kroger the Morello Cherry is maybe a tad better and if on sale is fairly priced.

Some ALDIs now have Muscadines also and they wont last long either i dont think. They are from a farm in NC.

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Millet, oats, pearl barley, and some kind of wheat, bulgur i think. he mixes it how he likes and does it in the mini slow cooker for his breakfast (he gets up earlier than me).

i prefer French toast. with the syrup on it!

also i would be down to trade seed- i don’t think i have coral in the mix

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sorghum syrup going.

i cut the grains off last week, been drying, threshing and winnowing those. up to two quarts.

the threshing bucket. i bang them around in there when I’ve got to watch the news

the stalks are a whole process if you have little equipment for it. i cut them, into sections that will fit in the slow cooker. they go in on high for a few hours then on low for a few days. continually topping water so they are covered.

then all into the big pot to simmer on the stove until the stalks are mushy and the water is brown with sugars.

then the liquid strained into the Dutch oven on low, no lid, to cook down slow into syrup. letting the water evaporate over very low heat with lots of stirring.

I’ll get about this much for the year. i water bath it briefly after putting it in, but don’t bother to fridge it, it stays good like honey for long enough to get used up.

it’s very thick and strong flavored, very sweet- it’ll last me until the fall. i had slightly less last year and it lasted. I’m the only one that likes the syrup here, but my partner likes the grain in hot cereal in the morning. i know you can also pop it like popcorn but haven’t done that yet.

sometimes I’ll crush some grain with the coffee grinder into a powder, and add it to the top of bread if I’m baking. it makes the crust kind of sweet and heavier grain flavors.

i have a big variety for next year and plan a patch in front of the house, by the peach trees. i think it’ll do well there.

i got in all my tomatoes and tomatillos from end of season and went on a salsa canning binge for a day too. did a dozen half pints and 6 3/4 pints. these little ones are for coworkers to take home, plus i made extra for my mother in law who loves spicy food.

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Thank you for sharing the detail and pictures of how you process the sorghum for syrup!

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Banging the bucket while watching news!..lol…Love it. I will give that a try.

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@jrd51 … with most standard jams you combine 4 cups sugar with 2 cups fruit.

Yikes… we are not doing that either.

We make jam like the video below shows… low sugar chia jam.

We normally include 4-6 tablespoons of coconut palm sugar … or organic maple syrup per 2.5 cups of fruit (which makes one pint of jam).

We are used to low (normally no sugar).

This works very well for us. I use it with all berries and have used it with peaches and apples in the past.

No worries about pectin… the chia seeds (2 tablespoons per pint) does the thickening.

I have a post with details in the (fruit in your kitchen) category.

TNHunter

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just did a bunch of black currant jam this way. excellent! i used stevia as the sweetner.

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finished syrup. i make it really very thick and dense, should last me until next year. i had a little less last year! it’s got a really good deep reddish brown color to it in the sunlight.

i mostly use it on pancakes, waffles, French toast etc but you can use it any place you’d use a thick syrup.

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Thank you for posting the whole process. I am fascinated by this and trying to figure out where I can put a patch of sorghum now :slight_smile: there are fields of it out where I cycle and they seem to be only 3’ with random stalks reaching higher.

@TNHunter love chia jam! FYI you can also skip the sugar and the cooking and just put fruit and chia in the blender. That’s the busy mom hack for little kids…cooking and not blending the chia does make a nicer texture (I think), but it’s nice without sweetener.

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@Eme … my IKKJ and Kasandra persimmons… once they turn red and very soft… they are like the perfect consistency for jam. Lots of flavor and sweetness.

Just scoop it out and put on a biscuit or toast.

I wonder how well that pulp would freeze.
Would it still taste that good once you thaw it out ?

Going to have to do a test on that.

I have tried chia jam on american persimmon pulp… and the process of simmering it and freezing it… well it lost almost all that wonderful american persimmon flavor.
It was quite bland.

To help your jam retain enough sweetness… with less sweet berries like raspberries, blueberries, strawberries… you can mix about 1/3 of a very sweet pineapple to 2/3 of your fruit.

TNHunter

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Good ideas. Thanks for the persimmon tip! We got a bunch from a friend (I think saijo based on recent pictures here and some large squat Asian one that’s crunchy) and my kids hate the gloppy gooey texture of the saijo. Using it as jelly is brilliant. I haven’t frozen the quick chia jam, so I’m not sure. When you blend chia, it makes things much thicker than when the seeds are left whole…might not do well with freeze/thaw.

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We just use whole chia seeds… no blending.

The jam is plenty thick.

You can get chia seeds in white or black… strawberry jam looks really good with white chia.

I cant taste the whole chia seeds at all in the jam and never even notice them when eating the jam.

TNHunter

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