The Annual Plume Gables Jam Giveaway & The Golden Ticket Contest

October 4, 2010 by
It’s that time again, my sweet, gambling, lady lucks!
That’s right.
It’s time for the third annual Plume Gables Jam Giveaway!  
Can I get a yee haw?

Alright.  Firstly, allow me to tell you a bit about our fruit, property and why I like to can:

Plume Gables is situated on the West edge of Pocatello, right where the mountains rise up.  It used to be a fruit orchard built of multiple acres of fruit trees — plum, apple and pear.  Our property holds the original water rights to a spring creek that flows down from the mountains across the street from our home.  We have 6 ancient, fruit bearing grapevines, one peach tree, three prune plum trees and three other plum trees that produce small pink plums ever other year.  We water our fruit trees, vines, rose gardens and vegetable gardens with that little creek we own which involves hiking over to our irrigation box and pulling the gate which diverts water by gravity flow across a field of sage, under a street and into our yard.  It’s pretty magical.
We’re the only individuals who have water rights to our creek before it dumps into the Portneuf River.
The water rights are deeded to this actual property.
This property has had three owners, including us, in the past 102 years.  All three families have used this irrigation, grown this fruit, tasted the goodness that comes from this piece earth and I think that’s a very beautiful thing.
 This year we have focused on making plum jam with our plum fruits because, quite simply, it tastes incredible.  Our fruit is organic.  Watered with fresh spring water from the Rocky Mountains.  Never sprayed with pesticides.  We let our plums ripen ON the tree and when they’re bursting with flavor, nutrients and holy sunshine we pick them, by hand.
We wash them.
We pit them by hand — we cut them in half, pull the pit and then quarter the fruit.
We then turn them into jam.
 This jam is a low sugar recipe.
It’s sweet and it’s slightly tart.  
I love it on freshly baked bread (such as the slice pictured above which is home baked and, yaa hoo, gluten free) with a few slices of extra sharp cheddar cheese.
The color of this jam is incredible!  It’s sort of jewel-magenta-pomegranate-purple-red.  If you care about the chroma of your breakfast, this hue might do the trick.
 We have, at this junction in time, canned over 100 jars of plum jam and I want to share the magic of Plume Gables with you in two ways:

1.  I’m giving 5 jars away.  If you’d like to be entered in the drawing for this giveaway, please leave a comment at the end of this blog post letting me know you were here (please include your email address so I can let you know you’ve won)!  You can say hi, you can tell me why you love autumn, you can tell me about your life, your love, your children, your dog, the carrots you harvested in your garden yesterday…..anything.  There are no strings attached.  Just let me know you were here.  I do these giveaways because I appreciate your support, your friendship and having you in my world.  Easy peasy. Simple dimple.

If, for some reason, the notion of consuming my plum jam makes your skin crawl but you still wish to leave a comment, please do so and simply let me know you aren’t interested in receiving any of my repulsive jam.
 2.  I’m selling some of these jars of jam in my Etsy shop.  Last year, around the jam giveaway time, I had many emails requesting that I make my jam available in my Etsy shop, for individuals to purchase.  I thought about it long and hard.  RW and I crunched numbers, researched shipping costs and pondered on how to make it even MORE fun to get a can of this jam. In the end, we decided we wanted to do a Golden Ticket Giveaway — similar to Mister Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Tours.
It’s a gamble!
We know!
But we think it’s a fun gamble!
And even if your jar of jam doesn’t have the golden ticket, you still have a jar of delcious jam.  Right?  Of course right.

Here’s how it works.  We are selling an undisclosed amount of Plume Gables plum jam in the Etsy shop.  Underneath ONE of the cloth covers is a golden ticket  (or a leather ticket, in this case) which will allow one lucky individual to claim this necklace:
To have a chance at winning this necklace you must purchase a jar of jam.
They will be priced at $8 a jar. 
Starting this afternoon, we’ll be listing them in the Etsy shop.
So there you have it!  Either leave a comment and enter your name in the jam drawing or purchase a jar (and a chance to win that lucky rabbit necklace) from the Etsy shop!
May the luckiest ladies win!

Happy autumn and much love,
The Noisy Plume


CONTEST BLOG GIVEAWAY DEADLINE:  FRIDAY OCTOBER 8.  Midnight (MST).


***NOTE***
We are shipping this jam worldwide.  If you are not in North America PLEASE DO enter the giveaway and please know that we will ship all jam purchases anywhere the postal services of the world deliver.


***THE GOLDEN TICKET CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED***
Because we are officially out of jam!!!
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???!!!
Thank you so much for supporting us today!  We were so thrilled to watch those little jars fly off the interwebular shelves over at the Etsy shop.  You never cease to surprise us and it’s our delight to ship a little piece of our home and love to you.  Also, thank you so much for pushing me up and over the 3000 item sales mark on Etsy!  Wowee!  What a number!
If you missed out on this batch of jam, fret not, the grapes are just starting to ripen here and we might do another Golden Ticket Contest before the season is through.


This said, the giveaway here, for five jars of jam, will be up and running until Friday at midnight!
xx
Filed Under: canning, giveaway, jam, plum jam, plume gables

The Proof is in the Pomatoes

September 17, 2010 by
First off, happy Friday to you all!  
The weekend has arrived and things at The Gables are downright farmy!
Now.  Take note.  This particular rose has taken until now to put these blooms forth.  The blossoms are the most glorious hues of salmon fading inward to a pleasant and punchy yellow…these flowers prove that everything tends to bloom when RW comes home.

Also, may I solicit your prayers for Madame Judith who seems unable to produce eggs?
The poor thing.
Is there a patron saint of egg laying?
RW has been giving her plenty of hugs, trying to encourage her to pop a few eggs out.  We expected her to begin laying in August and we fear she may think she’s a rooster.
She’s become quite a handsome lady, hasn’t she?
Farley has become the keeper of my tomatoes (and yes, he always sits on steps like this).  Remember a couple of weeks ago when we were having our first freezes here?  Well, my tomatoes survived and are coming ripe all at once, as usual.
When this happened last year, I made batches and batches of pico de gallo salsa and ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day (and then I took tortilla chips into the bath and had chips and salsa while soaking).  This year, I planted a total of 25 tomatoes plants in the various gardens of The Gables.  I have a considerably higher fruit yield and last weekend I made a foray into canning my own pasta sauce as a way to preserve some of this garden goodness into the winter months.
The outcome of my first attempt was positively delicious and I am prepared to share the recipe with you now, should you like to can your own pasta sauce or just make a delicious, fresh, from scratch marinara sauce for dinner this weekend.  My recommendation is that you use your own garden fruits or scout out some beautiful, vine ripened, organic tomatoes from your local farmer’s market (store bought tomatoes are the saddest things in all of the grocery world)  Easy peasy.  Here it is:

Jillian’s Superdooperlicious Pasta Sauce

8 cups coarsely chopped and peeled tomatoes (about 9-10 tomatoes OR 4 lbs)
1 cup chopped onion (Walla Walla sweets are GOOD in here)
3 cloves of minced garlic
2/3 cup of red wine (no matter here, I use 2 buck chuck)
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1 tsp pickling salt
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1 can or 6oz tomato paste

1.  Combine ALL ingredients in a large saucepan, bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 40 minutes or until mixture reaches desired consistency, stirring frequently.

2.  Remove hot jars from your canner and ladle the sauce into jars and leave a 1/2 inch of headspace.  Process for 35 minutes for a pint and 40 minutes for a quart.

This should make you 8 cups of pasta sauce.

Notes:
1.  If you don’t have the patience to can (and this recipe IS VERY time consuming), I don’t see why you can’t store this sauce in freezer containers (glads or zip-locks) into the winter.
2.  To peel your tomatoes, blanch them!  See instructions HERE.
3.  I’m very picky about following canning recipes because I fear botulism.  I wouldn’t mess around with the ingredient portions here too much folks, if you do INDEED can this sauce.
4.  This sauce is delicious on the spot if you just want to make it for dinner.  Fortify it with mushrooms and your choice of meat, if you like.  We’ll be adding elk, antelope and venison to ours this winter!
5.  On it’s own, it’s positively scrumptious over pasta (quinoa pasta for me) with freshly grated Parmesan on top.  And that’s the honest truth.
Happy canning!

See you on Monday!
xx
Plume
Filed Under: canning, recipe