Loveridge Family Farm (or is it Kitchen?)

This is the time of the year when we crank up our stove and dehydrator and begin making the little goodies to give to co-workers, friends, neighbors, whoever has touched our lives in some significant way that we'd like to recognize.

A few years ago we started putting labels on the jelly and jerky that said something like "Merry Christmas to you from the Loveridge Family Farm"/ One of the people to whom I gave the Boysenberry jelly told me that when they ran out, he husband instructed her to "pick some more up. This is good stuff." I guess it looked so professional, he thought she could just stop in at the Loveridge Family Farm to get more.

When we first moved to Sacramento, we changed the label to Loveridge Family Kitchen because there was no fooling anybody about our having a farm of any kind. We bought berry juice from Oregon to continue the tradition of giving jelly or jam. Of course, our beef jerky has never been from our own beef.

But this year we're back again using our own harvest. Our little pomegranate tree (more like a bush) produced about 2/3 of what we have put up so far. The rest came from those pomegranates from the neighbor's tree that just happen to be on our side of the fence.

Today we managed to make 5 bathes of jelly or 60 half-cup jars of jelly. Here's the proof:
The first and most tedious task is removing the seeds from the husks, pods, or whatever they're called. Carolyn took on this job because my hands get way too sore. And she has to do it in small increments because otherwise her hands hurt so much.

Here's what's left of the pomegranates after Carolyn de-seeded them. I have no idea if they're good for anything at all.

We then boil the seeds with just a little water to start softening them up.

And we pour the boiled seeds into a collander to let the juice come through while holding back the seeds.

The next step is sort of fun. I took all the boiled seeds and ran them through a meat grinder. We got some juice from this but mostly we just burst open the seeds.

The burst open seeds were boiled and put in the collander again and finally pressed through a nylon bag which let all the juice that was going to come out, come out.

The juice was mixed with pectin and sugar, and boiled the appropriate times.

And finally the resulting jelly was put in the jars, capped, and sealed.