Seedless Watermelon

A friend gave us a watermelon from their garden yesterday, along with squash and eggplant and 5 1/2 lbs of blueberries I picked and 3 lbs of crab apples.  I love these people.  They have land, fruit and are happy to share.  Figs are still to come.

I cut open this watermelon this morning and as nature intended it has seeds.  Its been a while since I had a seeded watermelon.  I think they only sell seedless in the stores anymore!  I've always had a bit of a beef with seedless watermelon.  There is something wrong about a  fruit without seeds.  How can it reproduce?  Where do the next generation come from if there is no seeds?  They sure are easy to eat though.  So you'd think I'd rejoice in my real watermelon this morning!  As I stood there cutting it into small pieces and picking out endless seeds I was thinking 'this is a lot of work, why am I doing this?'  Oh yeah.  Because I saw it being picked yesterday.  

I grew up eating watermelon with seeds,  picking up a piece and taking a bite and spitting out seeds.  I never liked it much but that was mostly because I think it doesn't have much flavor.  Seeds were just part of the ritual of watermelon.  My kids are a little young however to police their own seeds so I stood and picked them all out.  In a few years I can toss caution to the wind and let them spit.  That will be nice.  Until then I need to just keep my complaining to myself and remember that love is picking out watermelon seeds for your baby.  Because watermelons are meant to have seeds.

Making Blueberry All-Fruit

Summer is canning season.  Jam, jelly, pickles...I like canning.  There is something so satisfying about seeing that line of beautiful jars after you take them out of the hot water bath and hear that little 'pop'  I like knowing what is in the jam I feed my kids all year and having great gifts for family and friends at hand anytime.

So last week a friend and I braved the chiggers and picked blueberries at another friends house.  They have these massive blueberry bushes that I have been picking at for years.  Yes I got chiggers.  Yes it was worth it to have a good stock of Jam.  Yes I will be heading back to stock my freezer with frozen blueberries for muffins and pancakes through the winter.

Picking blueberries with children is a little bit of an endeavor.  Madeleine, my 2 year old eats and eats and has a grand time.  Justus who is 10 months chases the dog and then cries to be held.  I wear him in the Ergo and try to pick as fast as I can.   This is generally how life works anyhow.  I decided to make all-fruit after the kids went to bed.  Less whiny that way.

So, I have recently discovered Pomonas Universal Pectin.  I love love love it!  With it I can make jam with anything.  I can add as much or as little sugar as i want.  I can make jam with honey.  I can do pretty much as I want with jam.  They have great all-fruit recipes in the packet that I used to make the blueberry jam.  So all that is in it is blueberries, grape juice and lemon juice.  Perfect.  

I got tired of making lots of tiny jars and just made pints this time, with a few small jars for gifts...

Into the water bath for 5 min....

Oh I love how easy jam is...