Rhubarb Jam

at the time of writing this, I am in the middle of RHUBARB Season – first part of July

Rhubarb is my best friend in the early part of the season. And stays my long suffering, generous, faithful friend right through till the cold puts it to bed at the end of the season. I try not to pick too much at the beginning of May when its first coming on, or in September when it’s getting tired, but other than that, the bounty is profuse!

Jam is one of rhubarb’s strengths. It can stand on its own – plain rhubarb jam – and be wonderful. Or when you pair it with strawberries, raspberries, honey berries, saskatoons or plums (or other summer fruits), something magic happens. Rhubarb, that ever generous friend – moves into the background and acts as a flavour ‘enhancer’. The taste of strawberries will prevail. Or raspberries. Or whatever. So why bother using rhubarb, if you can only identify the taste of raspberries?

I hardly ever make pure raspberry jam unless I have such a bumper crop that I don’t know what else to do with them. We use them ‘fresh’ every single day. Out of hand of course, on cereal in the morning, on salads, in desserts, in smoothies, . . . . I love to make a couple beautiful raspberry pies in the summer. I fill my freezer with raspberries to use all winter long. We wait a whole year for raspberries to come on, and there’s nothing quite as wonderful as ‘garden fresh’ raspberries, but their season is only a few weeks long and then they’re done. I am highly motivated to not miss them. Rhubarb on the other hand, just keeps on giving and giving. Rhubarb extends the raspberries. It’s like that. The quiet, subtle friend who stands in the background, making you look good and getting all it’s satisfaction from doing so. How can you not love rhubarb?

The other thing I love about rhubarb jam is that it doesn’t need a lot of sugar, and it doesn’t require pectin to set up and be the beautiful consistency you want to spread on your morning toast. If you’ve made the typical pectin recipe for any kind of jam, you know there’s more sugar than fruit in it; sometimes double the amount. yikes! That kept me from loving jam, and certainly from making a lot of jam most of my adult life. In fact, the current pectin recipe for rhubarb jam calls for 3 cups chopped rhubarb with 5 cups sugar, a pouch of pectin and even a few drops of red food colouring. yikes again! That’s a LOTTA sugar! And I hate using food colouring. That’s another reason I often pair rhubarb with other fruit for jam. Rhubarb isn’t all red, and when you cook the jam, it can sometimes be a little ‘brownish’ (hence the food colouring in some recipes). Adding other fruits half way through the process adds COLOUR!

Truth is, as sour as rhubarb is – it really doesn’t need as much sugar as we usually use to sweeten it. I know that seems counter intuitive, but you can trust me. Read on, and open your mind to try something that doesn’t make sense. If you don’t agree with me, you can always add another cup of sugar if you want.

Here is my basic rhubarb jam recipe. Keep in mind that when preparing it, these amounts are my ‘suggestions’. I am not precise in my measurements, I use them as guidelines. I taste along the way to reach the level of sweetness I desire.

Rhubarb Raspberry Jam
this makes 5 pints. I usually can 4 and put the rest in the fridge to enjoy immediately, or to give away
12 cups chopped rhubarb
2 cups sugar
2-4 cups raspberries
1-2 more cups sugar (as you decide – taste test it)

  1. Put a small lunch plate in the freezer. You’ll need it at the end.
  2. How finely you chop is gonna influence how much rhubarb fits into a cup right? So shoot for about half an inch size pieces. Don’t use a one cup measuring cup. Use a bigger bowl. Pictured above is an 8 cup measuring bowl. Heaping is about 12 cups.
  3. Measure your rhubarb out and put it into a large dutch oven pot. Sprinkle 2 cups sugar over top and lightly toss to incorporate it throughout. Let it sit for at least an hour to *macerate (1). I often leave it for much longer, sometimes chopping the rhubarb at night and letting it macerate all night. I mostly do this for my own convenience, not because its necessary. I’m usually trying to do several other things at the same time, and it just helps to do them in stages. In the morning, the sugar will have softened the rhubarb and have drawn a lot of liquid. Don’t discard it. This is good.
  4. Put it on medium high heat and bring it to an easy rolling boil, stirring every few minutes to prevent scorching. You don’t have to stir constantly, but don’t go leaving the room and forgetting about it on the heat. Just try to stay close at hand so you can give it good attention, stirring frequently. I generally use this time to wash the jars, get the hot water bath boiling in another pot on the stove, and other general kitchen clean up. You can expect the process to take about an hour.
  5. Continue cooking, adjusting heat as necessary. You’re looking for a good steady boil. You’ll see it begin to thicken after the first 15 minutes, continue stirring. As it thickens, the boiling will cause it to spit at you. Nothing you can do about that other than to wear an apron and be prepared to wipe up as necessary. Lowering the heat might help a little, but it will add a few minutes to your time. It’s just gonna ‘spit’. About half an hour in, add the raspberries. Stir well, taste and add another cup of sugar to sweeten. Stir while continuing to boil, and taste again, adding another 1/2 cup sugar at a time till you like the sweetness.
    You may find during the cooking process that a foam begins to form on top of the jam. With some jams or jellies it can be quite substantial. It shouldn’t be that much with this jam, so I just stir it in. But if you don’t like it, skim it off.
  6. In approximately an hour, perhaps a little less, you may think it is thickening enough. Test the consistency by turning your spoon and dropping jam back into the pot; you’ll know when you like what you see (not too liquidy). Remember, it will set up a bit more as it cools. Take your small plate from the freezer, and drop about half a teaspoon of hot jam onto the plate. Don’t worry, that amount isn’t gonna break the plate. You’re trying to cool the jam quickly with this process. When the jam has cooled, draw your finger through it. If the two sides of jam stay separated, your jam is a good consistency. Turn the heat off.
  7. Your jam is done.

If you plan to seal it for long term storage, ladle it into clean*(2,3) jars using a canning funnel. Allow plenty of head space in jar.*(4) Wipe with warm cloth to ensure the ridge is perfectly clean. Put a clean lid on, fasten it finger tight with the ring, and lower it on a slant into your boiling hot water bath.*(5) Make sure each jar is covered by at least an inch of water. You may have to add a little water. If you do, pour into the side of the pot, never directly onto the jars.
Begin timing when the water returns to a boil. 10 minutes.
When the time is up, remove from water with a jar lifter, and place on folded clean tea towel on the counter. Allow air space between your jars. Lightly cover with another clean cloth and let the jars cool. You will hear a ‘pop’ sound as the jars seal.

I made this jam three times in the last week or two. First one, I used 4 cups of sugar total. Second batch, I used 3.5 cups total. Last one, I used 3 cups. It was just enough – deliciously TART without being sour. My personal favourite.

*1. macerate means to soften – in this case, with sugar and time
*2. I recommend using pint (2 cup) sized jars, or half pint jars (1 cup)
*3. I do not sterilize my jars. I freshly wash them in hot soapy water, rinsing well, and air dry. I put the hot jam into room temperature jars and lower them into boiling water. Hot jam – Hot water. Jars do not need to be sterilized before canning IF they will be filled with food and processed in a boiling water bath canner for at least 10 minutes, or if they will be processed in a pressure canner. If you plan to process for less than 10 minutes, you should sterilize first (but what would you process for less than 10 minutes?)
*4. Headspace is the space between the contents and the top of the jar. You want to leave enough headspace so that the food can swell and move about as it’s heated without boiling up and out of the jar, but not so much that there is an unnecessarily large quantity of air which may interfere with vacuum sealing it. If jam overflows, it will affect the integrity of the seal of the jar. Fill only to the bottom of the jar neck to allow for a vacuum to be created sealing the jar.
*5. if you are using a large pot as a makeshift canner, make sure you have a rack or a folded tea towel on the bottom to keep your jars off the bottom of the pot. Failing to do this may result in jars breaking.

I hope you’ll make some Rhubarb Jam – alone, or paired with any other fruit that might be ready at the time. I use raspberries from the freezer – previous year’s bounty. As far as sugar goes, you are the boss. Dare to use less. Taste-test continually as you make your decisions. No surprises.

Let me know how you love it.

Warmly,

Cindy Suelzle

Waste – Our Dirty Little Secret and its Solution

The average North American throws out an estimated 170-183 kilograms (375-405 pounds) of FOOD every year. Each “individual“, not family or household! That make us among the Worst Food Wasters in the world! Not something to be especially proud of is it? And then what about if you have four people living in your home? That’s a whopping estimated 1600 pounds! Of FOOD! How can we afford that?

North Americans are among the Worst Food Wasters in the world.

I don’t even know what 1600 pounds of food-waste looks like, but to simplify, it works out to about 25 – 40% of the average grocery budget. I have a pretty good idea what THAT looks like. Yikes! If you’ve got a couple of teens in your house, you’re likely spending well over $1000 a month on groceries. If we took the most conservative estimate (1/4), then we’re still talking about $250 a month IN THE GARBAGE! That’s $3000 a year! What could you do with an extra $3000 a year? I don’t know about you, but I can think of a lotta things I’d rather do with $3000 a year!

If you’re like me, you’re probably saying “No way. Not me”. I prided myself on being quite resourceful and while I did not doubt the stats, I was pretty certain they didn’t apply to me. I figured that someone else must be wasting a lot of food to make up for me not wasting so much. So I began to seriously pay attention to everything I threw into my kitchen garbage. And it didn’t take me long before I had to reluctantly concede … “well, maybe, that might be me“.

What are we wasting?

Well in my case, it was mostly produce. I was full of good intentions when I brought fresh fruits and vegetable home. And perhaps if I would have personally washed and cut the fruit, and maybe peeled it for my family, and then FED it to them, they would have eaten more of it. But I didn’t have time for that nonsense, and they sure didn’t always take advantage of what I was providing them “fresh”. Conscientious mom that I was, I had to make sure I continued providing it. I was stuck in the routine of:
– buy fresh fruit and vegetables from the store
– a week later throw much of it into the garbage
– back to the store to buy more “fresh” fruits and vegetables.
– one week later throw most of it out.
Repeat. – often – like doing that somehow made me a better mom.

Composting kitchen waste may be better throwing it into the trash, but I still didn’t purchase it just to throw most of it into the compost.

Round and around we went. More and more money into the compost. Did you know that ‘healthy eaters’ generate the most food waste? Doesn’t seem fair does it? Well, you could say I was “ripe for the picking” when I realized that there was absolutely ZERO waste involved in the new way I had begun to buy groceries. I admit I was first attracted to THRIVE LIFE freeze dried food because of its long shelf life, and I was astounded to learn of the exceptionally high nutritional value of it. But I was even more impressed when I began using it in my everyday meal plan, and noticed that I was no longer throwing out as much food. That was a bonus I hadn’t counted on (duh). The nutritional value might have been the selling feature and the convenience of it sealed the deal, but in a very short amount of time, when I realized that I was in fact saving money, that was the clincher! When you are no longer throwing out a quarter of your monthly groceries, you start seeing your dollar go a LOT further! And that was a happy realization for me.

On a bigger scale, while it pains me to admit it, I read a recent report that says the evidence points to Canada as being among the worst on the globe for wasting food. The report released by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation — “an environmental agency set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement — found when including all stages of the food supply chain, 396 kilograms of food per capita is wasted in Canada every year. That’s compared with 415 kilograms in the United States and 249 kilograms in Mexico.” I’m not sure how excited we can get about being ‘better’ than someone else, especially when that ‘someone else’ produces more produce than we do. So much for my wholesome Canadian pride. Sheesh!

So, I don’t pretend to have the answer to global problems, and I don’t have the energy to even worry about them. But I have always been of the mind that if we each take care of our own front porch, the world will be a much nicer place, so I am gonna focus my attention on what is in my control. What exactly IS in my control? The waste in my own kitchen. I control that. And where I choose to spend my hard earned dollar – I control that too.
That is where I started. At home.

Did you know that when you buy a can of THRIVE LIFE freeze dried Spinach, that 0% (yup, a big fat ZERO) goes into the garbage? Every piece of spinach you buy gets eaten. By you. Or me.
Compare that to the spinach I used to buy in the cellophane bag from the produce department in my grocery store. I threw some of that into my compost almost every time I bought it. Add to that injury, is the insult of discovering that spinach loses ALL of its Vitamin C within 4 days after harvest? I can promise you that the spinach on my grocery store shelves was not picked within the last 96 hours. And did you know that THRIVE LIFE Spinach is picked at the peak of perfection and flash frozen within 6 hours of harvest? And that it contains up to 6 times more Vitamin A than the so called ‘fresh’ spinach we buy from our local grocery store? Yup. Yup. And Yup. So add those facts to the fact that much of the so called ‘fresh’ spinach I was buying ended up in my compost pail, because really how much time do you have before that spinach starts to go slimy on the bottom of the bag? Lets just say the romance of fresh spinach began to lose some of its appeal.

Spinach is one of my favourite Thrive Life freeze dried vegetables.
Certainly its one that I use the most.

Continuing on with the example of Spinach: a family sized can of Thrive Life freeze dried spinach is priced (at time of my writing this – July 2022) at $33.82 USD when purchased in a Delivery (best pricing). For my Canadian friends, converted at a 1.3 exchange rate, that works out to about $44 Cdn.
(*hint: you get FREE shipping when your complete order tops $99)
That same family sized can contains the equivalent of 11.5 bags of spinach! The size of bag that in my local grocery store cost $4.35 (10 ounces) each. To buy the equivalent amount would cost me $50 Cdn (I live in Canada). I asked myself: “why would I want to pay more for ‘not-so-fresh’ spinach, when I know that the nutritional value of ‘fresher-than-fresh‘ spinach from Thrive Life, is considerably more?” It didn’t make any sense to me. And that doesn’t even factor in the typical waste from that store bought ‘not-so-fresh’ spinach.

Even into Canada folks, that is a huge savings. And I am a sale shopper so I’m always looking for a bargain. When I buy Thrive Life Spinach on sale, I save even more.
And you know how much of that goes into my compost pail? ZERO!
That is 100% Food! In my pantry. Ready to use when I want it. With a 25 year shelf life. Even after the can has been opened, the shelf life is at least a year.

reducing food waste will save you a ton of money

This story just keeps getting better, and better. I guess you could say “Spinach to Win-it”. But remember, Spinach is just an example. We can repeat this scenario with every
single food item that THRIVE LIFE has. Of course details will change, but the waste factor and the nutrition factor remain solid.

My way of reducing waste in this country is by reducing waste in my own home.
Since doing so, saves me a lot of money, its a win/win situation. And that’s how I like things.
Happy all round.


Cindy Suelzle
Independent THRIVE LIFE Consultant and Leader