Sustainable Living Mondays

What does mean exactly, you ask? Well, it's a new feature that I've decided to add to the blog. Every Monday, I will post something that relates to sustainable living. It might be something that Aren and I are doing, a cool product or idea I found somewhere else or it might come from you! I am interested in things/ideas/products that are; local, well made, repurposed, minimally processed and packaged. I have decided to do this not to be all righteous but simply to share information, keep a record for myself of good ideas and perhaps inspire more thoughtfulness about the choices we make everyday.


For this inaugural post, I bring you jam. This weekend I made my first batch of jam ever. Now growing up, my sister and I helped my mom can a ton of stuff every summer (seriously: peaches, cherries, apricots, corn, meat, chicken, 3 kinds of pickles, tomatoes, 3 kinds of jam) so I had an idea of how to do it but had never been the one in charge. Making your own jam is an easy way to eat local (mainly, as organic raw sugar and lemons do not grow in the GTA) throughout the year. Imagine being able to taste early summer strawberries in February. I am so looking forward to that!

I used Orangette's recipe from Bon Appetit. I used thrifted jars and strawberries from the farmer's market. It takes awhile but isn't very hard. Most importantly, it's super delicious! Not too sweet and pure strawberry goodness. The texture is a little soft but I don't mind. I don't actually like the super pectined jam that's practically solid. Next time, I will experiment with adding some apple or green berries which both naturally contain a lot of pectin to it jells just a little more.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for this segment and if you make the jam. I'm going to make apricot and raspberry next.