Time to start the Maple Syrup operation for 2022. Process starts with washing 50 alumimum buckets and lids and a dozen 5 gallon plastic pails with plastic tubing. 

Peach Blueberry Jam - Low Sugar

• Peaches - 12 fresh peaches or 8 cups of skinned/pitted 
• Blueberries - 2 cups whole berries*, frozen 
• Lemon juice - either fresh squeezed or bottled. 1/4 cup.
• Water - 1/2 cup (only if you use fresh berries)
• Sugar -  4.5 cups of dry, granulated (table) sugar.
• Pectin - 4 Tablespoons no-sugar needed pectin

Step 1 - Pick your berries. 

Remove all the stems, leaves and debris. Place in a cardboard box in freezer. The cardboard absorbs excess water. Once berries are frozen, place in plastic bags or continue on to step two of the jam making process.

Step 2 - Process Peaches

Blanch fresh peaches for 60 seconds in boiling water. Transfer to ice bath, let cool. Peal and cut pits out of peaches.

Step 3 - Mash Berries

Set out 2 cups of frozen berries for 15 or so minutes. They will thaw enough to be able to smash them with a potato masher. 

Step 4 - Wash the jars and lids

While waiting for the berries to thaw slightly for mashing, wash the jars in the dishwasher using a "sanitize" cycle. It would be ok to leave jars in dishwasher until you are ready to fill with jam, but I prefer to move them to boiling water  and use the "warm bath" process while filling the jars with jam. 

NOTE: Put the lids into a pan of hot, but not quite boiling water (that's what the manufacturer's recommend) for 5 minutes, and use the magnetic "lid lifter wand" to pull them out.

Step 5 - Sweetener & pectin

The precise measurements are found in directions inside each and every box of pectin sold (every brand, Ball, Kerr, Mrs. Wages, etc. has directions inside). I prefer Ball Low or No Sugar pectin. Mix the 4 tablespoons of pectin with 1/2 cup sugar and set aside. 

Step 6 - Mix the peaches and blueberries with the pectin and bring to full boil

In a heavy bottom sauce pan, on medium to high heat, start mashing peaches. After the peaches are desired consistency, add blueberries and mash. Stir the pectin and lemon juice (water if used fresh berries) into the peaches & blueberries (stir often enough to prevent burning). It should take about 5 to 10 minutes to get it to a full boil (the kind that cannot be stirred away).

Step 7 - Add remaining sugar and return to boil

When the berry-pectin mix has reached a full boil, add the remaining 4 cups of sugar and then bring it back to a boil. Boil hard for a couple of minutes.

Step 8 - Jarring Jam

Fill them to within ¼-inch of the top, wipe any spilled jam off the top, seat the lid and tighten the ring around them. Then put them into the boiling water canner!

Step 9 - Process the jars in the boiling water bath

Keep the jars covered with at least 2 inches of water. Keep the water boiling. In general, boil them for 5 minutes.  Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight) Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. 

Once cooled, they're ready to store. I find they last up to 12 months. 

*Thank you to a great friend, I have been blessed with the opportunity to pick large quantities of "Patriot Blueberries" for jam making. Her father-in-law cultivated the Patriot blueberry high bush during his time as a faculty member at the University of Maine at Orono. These extra large, plump high bush blueberries are perfect for my low sugar jam recipe.

Collecting - Week 2

The weather still has been less than perfect for the sap to run. Today Jake and I ventured out to collect the buckets in complete snow gear. The buckets were frozen solid -- we used a rubber mallet to free the frozen sap from the bucket. I suspect the trees ran only one day this week. We estimate that we collect 35 gallons of frozen sap. Now it's time to boil. We will jar up what we have before venturing off to DC for Abby's 12th birthday.

Collecting - Week 1

The nights have been so brutally cold (below zero) and the days barely getting above the teens, that we just haven't collected much sap at all. We are a little nervous that we may have tapped a little too late or that we just are not going to have a maple syrup season this year. Forecast for the up coming week is not giving us much hope that things will change in the near future but honestly the weather reports now a days rarely stay the same in a 24 hour period so we could see an improvement in the weather any day. Total collected as of today is 20 gallons.

2015 Maple Syrup Season Begins

We've had a significant amount of snowfall this winter, upwards of 100 inches of snow here in Gorham. This has caused a delay in getting out to tap our trees. As of right now, we still have waist high sugar snow at the base of most trees. Access is limited by snowshoeing only, but Jake has managed to tap 50 of our 100 trees so far as of March 8th.

Low Sugar Blueberry Jam

Thank you to a great friend, I have been blessed with the opportunity to pick large quantities of "Patriot Blueberries" for jam making. Her father-in-law cultivated the Patriot blueberry high bush during his time as a faculty member at the University of Maine at Orono. These extra large, plump high bush blueberries are perfect for my low sugar jam recipe.


• Blueberries - 10 cups whole berries, frozen 
• Lemon juice - either fresh squeezed or bottled. 1/4 cup.
• Water - 1/2 cup (only if you use fresh berries)
• Sugar -  4.5 cups of dry, granulated (table) sugar.
• Pectin - 4 Tablespoons no-sugar needed pectin

Step one - Pick your berries. 

Remove all the stems, leaves and debris. Place in a cardboard box in freezer. The cardboard absorbs excess water. Once berries are frozen, place in plastic bags or continue on to step two of the jam making process.

Step two - Mash Berries

Set out 10 cups of frozen berries for 15 or so minutes. They will thaw enough to be able to smash them with a potato masher. You'll end up with about 6 to 7 cups of crushed blueberries. 

Note: if you want to make a smooth blueberry spread; instead of crushing the blueberries, just run the blueberries through a blender until you get a smooth consistency.

Step three - Wash the jars and lids

While waiting for the berries to thaw slightly for mashing, wash the jars in the dishwasher using a "sanitize" cycle. It would be ok to leave jars in dishwasher until you are ready to fill with jam, but I prefer to move them to boiling water  and use the "warm bath" process while filling the jars with jam. 

NOTE: Put the lids into a pan of hot, but not quite boiling water (that's what the manufacturer's recommend) for 5 minutes, and use the magnetic "lid lifter wand" to pull them out.

Step four - Sweetener & pectin

The precise measurements are found in directions inside each and every box of pectin sold (every brand, Ball, Kerr, Mrs. Wages, etc. has directions inside). I prefer Ball Low or No Sugar pectin. Mix the 4 tablespoons of pectin with 1/2 cup sugar and set aside. 

Step 5 - Mix the blueberries with the pectin and bring to full boil

Stir the pectin and lemon juice (water if used fresh berries) into the blueberries and put the mix in a big pot on the stove over medium to high heat (stir often enough to prevent burning). It should take about 5 to 10 minutes to get it to a full boil (the kind that cannot be stirred away).

Step 6 - Add remaining sugar and return to boil

When the berry-pectin mix has reached a full boil, add the remaining 4 cups of sugar and then bring it back to a boil. Boil hard for a couple of minutes.

Step 7 - Jarring Jam

Fill them to within ¼-inch of the top, wipe any spilled jam off the top, seat the lid and tighten the ring around them. Then put them into the boiling water canner!

Step 8 - Process the jars in the boiling water bath

Keep the jars covered with at least 2 inches of water. Keep the water boiling. In general, boil them for 5 minutes.  Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight) Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. 

Once cooled, they're ready to store. I find they last up to 12 months. But after about 6 to 8 months, they get darker in color and start to get runny. They still are safe to eat, but the flavor and texture aren't as good. So eat them in the first 6 months after you prepare them!

-- republished from http://www.pickyourown.org/blueberryjam.htm

Time for Maple Syruping!

Its late in February and we are having warm days and cold nights so its time to start maple syrup season! Get your buckets and your spouts out and clean them with 1 to 10 solution of bleach and water.  This disinfects the buckets to ensure clean sap.

2014 is the 3rd season the Decrow family has been maple syruping. We have just recently moved to our new house on Barstow Rd. Our maple syrup shack has been converted to a home for our 5 chickens (2 Barred Rocks, 2 Rhode Island Reds, and 1 Buff Orpingtons) and a Flemish Giant Rabbit so we have moved to are brand new big red barn. Todays task is to wash out all 70 spouts and buckets and lids.

We've all been very busy today. Me and my mom got the 70 buckets, lids and spouts washed, dad is getting the tracked 4-wheeler  set up for sap collection and my brother made a space themed cake for blue and gold ceremony that we are attending tonight for cub scouts.

Peace Out ~ Abby Decrow

Framing has begun!

Week 6 Day 1: The framing of our home has begun! The sill plates are lined and the floor joyces of the kitchen are in. It does not appear to be much from the barn side of the house; however from the daylight basement side, the first floor framing is complete. There will be two windows overlooking the Pomeroy field. This area of the basement will be the future home of our family gym room.

Construction of the Family Homestead has begun!

Week one of the construction co-incided with Jake and my 19th Wedding Anniversary. It was a very nice present to us both as we have been feeling a bit discouraged with the late start to our project.
Week 1

• Day 1- Thursday: Excavator was dropped off and the first 50 feet of the driveway was dug. This got the driveway in past the Barstow Road right-of-way. Important only because the Town of Gorham is currently ditching the road and our driveway entrance really needed to be in before they dug the road shoulder down. Driveway fill was spread only 25' or so.
• Day 2- Friday: No real progress was made today. Driveway was dug in only another 50 feet, only a load or two of driveway fill was delivered and a portable bathroom was placed for the crew. 

Week 2

• Day 1 - Monday: Now that is what I am talking about! Whole 550' driveway has been dug and 80% of the driveway fill has been delivered and spread. Dana also dug out 3 huge tree trunks for the trees that Jake needed to bring down. We have a couple more that need to be pulled out, but the backyard looks great! The foundation footer hole for the barn is now in too! WOOT!
• Day 2 - Tuesday: Now the stumps are gone! Dana Shay is doing an excellent job with the year work. 
• Day 3 - Foundation footer for the barn has been poured. 
• Day 4 - Scheduled to rain today, but it was only a few showers in the morning.
• Day 5 - Rained so hard - No real work was done. The guys were in to take down the found forms from the barn foundation.

The Girls have arrived!

Today we picked up our 6 baby chicks. We have two Rhode Island Reds, two Buff Orpingtons, and two Rocky

Flemish Giants - oh my!

Kids got two more bunnies to add to their little brood. These little girls are gray with blue eyes, very cute. These little ladies won't be little for long, the average size of a female flemish giant rabbit is 20 pounds.

Planting the Blueberry Bushes

Our good friends, the Heplers, got us hooked on the high bush Patriot Blueberries. Bruce's father, Dr. P.R. Hepler, developed the Patriot Blueberry bush when he was a faculty member at the University of Maine at Orono. For years I have picked berries at his mom's house where the blueberry patch is as large as a tennis court. My family has always gobbled them up before I have been able to do anything with them.  This year I made low sugar blueberry jam for friends and family. I can't count the compliments I have received on this jam, so we are starting our own blueberry field ourselves in the fruit orchard.

Another Farmall Tractor for Parts

Earlier this week we discovered that the old Farmall tractor had a flat tire! Just when we thought we were going to remove the pine tree stumps from the new garden area. So it was time to scour Craigslist for a parts Farmall tractor. We found one in New Hampshire that has beautiful tires and a sickle bar.

Thanks Dad and Jake for sacrificing your day in travel for this beauty!

Starting the Orchard

The time has finally come, we've just purchased our first 6 apple trees from O'Donal's Nursery: Honey Crisp Gold,Liberty Gold,McIntosh,Royal Gala, Freedom, and Cortland. We are very excited to start our apple orchard. In order for an apple orchard to be successful, you need two different varieties of trees for cross pollination. We decided to get six different trees for variety.

We also purchased three blueberry bushes, two Patriot and one Northland. They too need at least two varieties to cross pollenate. Maybe it's time to be thinking about asking our friend Doug to bring his bees over to pollinate our new fruit trees and bushes.

Maple Syrup Season - Year 2

This is the second year we have processed our own maple syrup. We put out 60 taps and collected more than 1,000 gallons of sap. Mr. Cerny also invited us to come down to pick up over 100 gallons that he was not able to get to himself.

Farmall Tractor for the new property

20,000 Nickels

20,000 nickels is her name! We've got our first antique tractor to help us with the new property. The Haslam's were willing to share this beauty with us. We are very excited to start using her to cultivate the land.