We be Jammin'

Three little berry pickers!

So if you look closly at this picture you will see that three of my kids are hot, sweaty and covered in berry juice.  Why is that? Because we went berry pickin'.  I have to say it's quite the adventure to go pick with five kids.  I have one who can pick, one who wants to pick, one who wants to eat, one who's too little to care and one who wants to run through all the fields.  Yet somehow we managed to pick two flats of strawberries and two buckets of blackberries.  The middle kid is COVERED in blackberry juice. If you have never taken your kids to pick berries before I highly recommend you go.

The other two berry pickers!

We have had the privilege of living close to a very wonderful farm,  Putnam Family Farms.  The Putnams are located near Kinston, NC and have the best fields. They do not spray harmful chemicals on their plants.  When you read the list of what to buy organic berries are right at the top because of their thin skins and the fact that you do not peel them. Berries absorb many chemicals that can not be washed or peeled away. The Putnams having a young son themselves decided to grow their crops so that they would have no problems with him eating straight from the fields and playing in the fields.  The added benefit of their decision is that my family can once again eat wonderful strawberries! We really had a mini science lesson this day as well.  We saw ladybugs, bees (because of his beehives) young grasshoppers and the most beautiful garden spiders.  This is also a good sign that they are not spraying, if they were these bugs would not be present.  We talked about pollination and how the beautiful white flowers were going to turn into strawberries.

The last of the strawberries.

The kids had such a good time, and then we got a really special treat we found out that the Putnams were going to open up the blackberry grove for picking on Saturday!  The prospect of blackberries was wonderful! As you can see in my first photo my son really got into blackberries.  If you have never taken your children out to a farm picking blackberries is a great way to introduce them to picking. You do not have to bend over and look for them, they are right at eye level and it takes them no time at all to fill up a bucket.  I wish I had taken a picture of the bushes but I was so busy showing my kids which berries to pick and then trying to keep up with them as they flew down the row I totally forgot.

 I however remembered to take a picture of all our goodies!  If you are in the area the fields open up to picking blackberries on Saturday! Here is where to find more info on the farm.

    Now once you have picked all those yummy berries what do you do with them? At my house we made jam!

Pot of Blackberry Jam

 Jam is not hard to make at all, you just need jars, pectin, fruit and water!  You don't have to use a pressure canner when making jam just a water bath so really it's the easiest thing to make to start canning.  My two baskets of blackberries made 13 1/2 pints of wonderful jam!

Blackberry Jam!

I also made strawberry jam.  I however didn't use all my berries because I ran out of jars. That's ok I just made that into homemade strawberry syrup!

All my jam nice and warm in my waterbath canner!

Pot of Strawberry Jam

12 jars of strawberry jam.

 Now this is by no means enough to last all year. BUT this is not my last "jam" session of the season, I still plan on making more blackberry jam as well as blueberry. I think the strawberry is safe for now.  We have eaten MORE than our fair share of strawberries this season!  In closing if you have time over the next 2 months go and pick some yummy blackberries at Putnams and check out his wonderful farm while you are there!!!

 

I think the happy faces speak for themselves!

The Nina, The Pinta and no Santa Maria

It's getting to be summer so that means it's time for the family outings.  Living near the coast we have so many wonderful things so close to us!  This past Saturday my family went to see replicas of the Nina and the Pinta!  I have to say I now have a whole new appreciation for what it took for people to come to America.  After standing on the deck of one of those ships and seeing how small it really was all I could think was how crazy they all were!

This is really how big the ship is, was, could you imagine setting sail in one of those with so many other people?

 The guy in the blue shirt is my dad and he's 6'8" That gives you a reference for the size of the ship. Granted these ships were not the Mayflower, but just think of the bravery of it, getting on a ship to go somewhere with NO GPS, no REAL map because that area wasn't even known. In those ships they had to take every thing they were going to need because they couldn't stop at the mini mart.  This was no Carnival cruise.  Each of these ships carried a crew of between 18 to 24. 


One thing you may not know about Columbus is that he was a religious man and thought God wanted him to reach the Indies to bring the Gospels to the people there.  One of my thoughts is that you would really have to have a strong faith to get on one of these ships.  Columbus made the journey 4 times. He brought back Corn, pumpkins, cassava, pineapples, tomatoes and my fave. avocados.

Columbus was stranded in Jamaica for a whole year.  He also sailed with Ponce de Leon who later discovered Florida and Antonio de Alaminos who later discovered the Gulf Stream.  He sailed with family.  Yes he did have a wife and two sons.  Columbus had brothers that sailed with him so you could call this a family affair.  At his death he did not know that he had discovered two new continents.

Look at the size of that anchor!

This was a really great thing for us to go see and now when the kids start on history for this coming up school year they will have this visual, real reference to draw off of. It's one thing to read books about the ships it's another to stand on one and feel how small it really was. I am truly grateful for the courage of those who came before us, those who were not scared to go on a trip without GPS, and a mini mart. It is because of these trail blazers we are where we are today!

My hubby and the wee little bit! She slept thru the whole tour of the ships.