Making strawberry preserve

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

LAST Saturday, two wonderful religious groups in Baguio celebrated their centennials - the Maryknolls Sisters and the United Church of Church in the Philippines. The latter unveiled a marker on the front lawn of the church and the former celebrated with a Mass and a reunion of all the alumni of the old Mary knoll Convent School at the Santo Tomas Sanctuary. Both organizations have a solid and sustained record of vibrant and active programs for the mission of bringing the Lord's Word to the populace as in the former, while the present Marknoll Sanctuary focuses on the preservation of both the Earth’s resources and the environmental purity which is so neglected these days.

The UCCP (United Church of Christ in the Philippines) began one hundred years ago. And one of the stalwarts of the Church was Pastor Nebres. Together with several dedicated church leaders ground was broken by them one hundred and one years ago. Actually, the marker is to designate the hundredth year, which was last year. Up till this writing, the Church remains strong and vibrant, and pursues its apostolate mainly through the school. This school focuses on Christian values and truly imbues their students with consistent and solid bedrock of such values.

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On the other hand, the congregation of Maryknoll Sisters, organized also exactly 100 years ago, has been in Baguio almost immediately after the Congregation launched their overseas thrust. Last Saturday too, the Sisters of Maryknoll commemorated their Orders 100th year with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Cenzon and a reunion of their alumni. The school (Maryknoll Convent School) has since been converted into a Sanctuary and is called the CENTER FOR JUSTICE PEACE AND INTEGRITY OF CREATION.

At both occasions repasts were served. Many and varied was the food served, which brings us to the question of what was possibly served a hundred years ago? A hundred years ago Baguio must have been much colder than it is these days, when even now it is cold and windy. But a hundred years ago there must have been not as many sources of supplies as there is now. Then, was there any bakery or store where pancit and fried chicken could be bought? Going backward and wondering what the supplies were makes us conclude that the menus would have been...

1. Coffee - Baguio already grew coffee then. Was there cream and sugar? Was it brought up by the missionaries?

2. Boiled root crops like camote and gabi.

3. Homebaked bread and strawberry jam

4. Maybe cookies by the Baguio pioneers

And nothing else we could think of.

Some of the people I asked said maybe roasted pork? Or maybe a cow? Or some boiled chicken. Food for thought.

At the UCCP last Saturday, there was pancit chicken buko pandan salad and rice. There was packaged juice.

At the Maryknoll commemoration also last Saturday, there was mongo sprouts, breaded pork, chicken pastel without the pastry (pastel as we know means pastry) rice and lychee salad. Juice was served. Nothing from the original possible refreshments served a hundred years ago.

The only thing which we can learn from the past hundred years is how to make good strawberry preserves. To make strawberry preserves... you will need:

1. 2 kilos of strawberries

2. 2 kilos of light light brown sugar

3. 2 tablespoons of agar agar

4. 2 tablespoons of lemon or calamansi juice

To make: Wash and drain the berries after hulling (removing the green stem) Boil all together. Bring to a hard boil and boil for 5 minutes then turn off the fire. Cool slightly and place in jars. That’s it. Tell you a secret. Mix the berries and sugar overnight with the juice of the lemon or calamansi. Boil the following morning. The reason is so that the berries will absorb the sugar and hence will not float. The reason for the agar is so that the jam will be slightly thickened. Hope you learned something from the recipe of the week.

BON APPETIT.