So I watched an interesting documentary last night Food Beware: A French Organic Revolution and I realized the importance of making things from scratch. These days, everything seems to come in a container already packaged for us, with who knows what ingredients and chemicals added for the sake of preservation. And though my family has been into organic foods for a couple years now, there are several things we were accustomed to buying already made. Some products are probably impossible for us to make ourselves, such as keeping chicken or fish--meats in general. But others, such as breads, jams, and vegetables, are certainly something that can be taken care of at home or locally.
After watching the movie, I decided I was going to start making as many things as I could at home. My sister-in-law makes bread, which I'll have to have her teach me how to do; and just today I experimented with making strawberry jam. Turns out it's actually really easy to make, and simply involves sugar and strawberries. I used this site as guidance, but I thought they were putting too much sugar in the mixture. Strawberries are sweet to begin with, and adding a cup of sugar to a cup of strawberries seemed a bit much in my opinion. Of course, that's according to individual taste, but we can certainly do with cutting back on our sugar intake. Anyway, I tasted it, and certain the flavor is so different from the kind you get at a store! This version doesn't have any pectin in it, which is natural in fruits, which is why I didn't see the point in adding any more to the mixture. I used raw sugar cane from Jewel, and the strawberries were also organic. Jewel has a good selection of organic foods and vegetables, though nowhere near is varied as the kind you can find in places like Whole Foods. They carry a brand called Wild Harvest Organic, which makes the coffee we prefer, as well as the sugar and the wheat thins my sister-in-law enjoys.
