ZOMG! Gold hadn't realized that Bubbles was making strawberry jam, too. But it looked that way. "Strawberries," she said, a light smile playing around her lips, as she surveyed how both of them were working with the same fruit. What a delightful coincidence.

But now, to get backkkk to work.

Gold knew she would have to wash the strawberries, first. She slipped off her dragonhide gloves - rule number one: Never touch food or cook with gloves you use for other purposes - and rinsed her hands. Then, satisfied that her hands were clean enough to ensure that she didn't accidentally contaminate or even poison her jam, Gold finally focused back on the fruit.

To start with, she picked up two, huuuge strawberries [YUMMY!] and fixated them in the air, a few inches below eye-level. Then she used her wand - a simple Aguamenti, of course - to thoroughly wash them. She made sure the water didn't splash everywhere, and ran down straight into a sink at the well-set workstation, before beginning to inspect the strawberries to see what would have to be removed, prior to the cutting.

Mmm, strawberry jam.

Daisy waved her wand and said, "Cretum Accelaratus." She looked at the board and read the first direction while washing her hands.

She picked a few of the biggest blackberries she could find. "Augamenti," she said softly and watched as a stream of water came out of her wand and she carefully washed of the berries while humming a little tune. She smiled and made sure she kept her are nice and clean. To make a mess you must clean a mess. She inspected the berries closely and slowly trying to make sure she'd gotten dirt and everything else off of them. She could taste the jam already.

Zane grabbed his pears and began washing them. He figured he'd wash them all, just in case he needed to use all of the fruits. "Professor, uh, how do I harvest the wheat? Don't I need a scythe?" he asked. Big curved hook that could cut through people....DANGEROUS! BUT SOOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Taking off the last leaf from her strawberries Dianna proceeded to the next step. She chopped while whistling. Oh how she just loves to cook!

Quote:

* Place your chunks of fruit into the cauldron and crush slightly.

Mushy! she thought as she conjured fire from her wand to heat up the cauldron. She lowered the fire as her fruit softened.

Ahh! So it was Jam making was it? Lovely!

Patroclus grinned as the instructions for jam appeared on the blck board,
"Well I have already washed my produce, so its onto the next step," the third year thought outloud.

Staring at his Melons, carrots and wheat, he wonder which he would use to make the Jam, the melons were the obvious choice, however he had heard of carrot jam, but recalled other ingredients that he did not have.

SO melon it was!

With a knife Patroclus began to peel the rough skin, and slowly expose the lovely juicy orange flesh within. He peeled three melons, to be on the safe side. With all three skinless, he cut them into havles, and with a spoon extracted all the felsy seeds from within, a seedy jam would not be very nice, the boy thought to himself.

Taking up the knife again, Patroclus cubbed the melon, then scooped it all into his cauldron, and began to sqish away! A little juice splashed him in the face, and Patroclus could help but lick it off, "Yum, I think magic makes Melon's taste even better!"

Oh noooooo!!

Dodson just SHRUNK her pineapple!

Sure it was mutated, but Destiny didn't want it small! She wanted to keep it on display for everyone to see how AWESOME she was at growing fruit. Surely there were spells to keep it fresh, right? Maybe not. She didn't know much about them kind of things. Frowning as the once HUGE pineapple shrunk, she waved goodbye to it's bigness. Now it was just a simple, normal pineapple..

Sweet Merlin, it was a HUFFIE pineapple! Boooo!

She walked over to it, and resisting the urge to kick it like a football, bent over and picked it up to place it in her basket. "Stupid pineapple." She knew she should have grown something else. Making her way over to the tables with all the things they were going to need, she grabbed her supplies, still mumbling about the stupid fruit. No one would ever believe that she, Destiny Shepard, had grown the BIGGEST pineapple in the history of pineapples.

Setting the basket down, she quickly glanced at the blackboard for the first step. Clean the fruit? That was easy and she pulled out her wand. "Aguamenti!" Once clean, even though she really didn't have to clean it since they weren't going to eat the skin stuff, she once again pointed her wand. "Diffindo." she said, moving her wand around the fruit to cut off the skin stuff. Those prickly things hurt and she wasn't going to cut them off by hand!

"Hey Evelyn! Are you making watermelon jam?"

Destiny NEVER heard of THAT before!

Okay. Let's think of this as Potions, instead of Cooking. That way, Treyen will actually make the cherries turn into jam.

Yes, he's not making jam, people, he's turning cherries into something else.

It was good he'd decided to grow the cherries last, because that was the plant that grew better and faster of the three. With the help of the little basket, Treyen...er, he didn't like the word 'harvest', soo...the boy unplugged the cherries from the cherry tree (the best looking ones, of course), and off to take a cooking potions desk.

Aha! He was washing the cherries already, because he wanted to try one, and he did! And they tasted rather good, nothing compared to the ones the housie-elves gave them, but they were good.

Like when making a potion, yes, this was the hardest part, because he'd chosen a cherry! And they were small. But he tried to do his best, and removed everything that was suitable for removal.
Yes! Cauldron! Let's make the potiooon! This part he liked. And he didn't have to cut the cherries too much, because they were already small, he just cut them in four parts and that was it.

Right-o.

Gold, her careful inspect of the two strawberries complete, rinsed her hands again before she picked up a knife. Having done which, she paused in a smallish, unsure-ish way. She wasn't sure if they were supposed to work with magic, or muggle-style.

She was going to ask Professor Dodson for clarification, but several moments of thought later, she decided magic had to be allowed. Because, you know, this wasn't the Muggle Studies classroom. Not to mention, the strawberries themselves were basically a product of magic. They wouldn't have been here, right now, if they hadn't used charm-work.

Which was why Gold set her knife to work, watching as it chopped away, cutting up chunks of the huuuuge strawberries. Since the blossoms were very large, the chunks ended up being bigger than normal-sized chunks, too. Gold decided to re-cut them, to make them a bit smaller.

She wanted to taaaaste this jam.

Now, for the next step.

Gold flicked her wand, causing the knife to cease its methodical cutting. Setting it aside, after she had given it a quick rinse, she gathered the strawberry chunks. Then she placed them in the cauldron, as per the instructions, and proceeded to crush them.

For which, of course, she used magic again. Because it made the task much less time-confusing.

Now that all the little perfect squares were crushed, Brody looked up at the blackboard to see what the next instruction was. Whatever it would be, this fruit mixture thing smelt quite nice, not as nice as it probably tasted, but still nice. Carefully the set a small fire underneath the cauldron, before peeping over the top, to make sure that the mixture didn't boil too much. She didn't particuarly want to be hit in the face with boiling strawberry juice. That wouldn't be nice, and she really didn't want to get burnt.
With her wand she swished it a little, making the fruit mixture move around the cauldron, so that it wouldn't be burn. That would be important, because she didn't want her yummy strawberries to burn heh. And now it was boiling. She glanced up at the blackboard again to see what she had to do next. Reduce and let the mixture simmer. Pointing her wand at the small fire under the cauldron, and reduce it, so it wasn't letting the mixture boil, but instead it was simmering.

She looked in the cauldron again, watching the mixture, it seemed everything was okay in there, so she wasn't going drastically wrong, which was pretty good, because she generally wanted to make nice tasting jam, not horrifying tasting jam

After her furit mixture had simmered, Brody looked up at the blackboard again, to see what the had to do next. Ooh Sugar. That would make the mixture sweet right. Now Strawberries. They were quite sweet already, from what she could have guessed when she ate one, so she would only need 4 cups of sugar. She didn't have a sweet tooth, but she didn't really think that 6 cups of sugar would make her jam actually taste that nice, it would probably make it horrible, and bit sugary. heh.

Picking up a cup, she added four cups of sugar into the fruit mixture, before swishing it around with her wand again, to make sure that it would be all mixed it. Perfect. She glanced sideways, smiling at her best friend. She still thought it was amazing that they were both making strawberry jam. Best friends FTW

Alex glanced at the instructions after giving Zane a look, "A scythe? Like a very dangerous and pointy weapon?" Alex asked in shock.. somehow she had a feeling that Zane using one was a bad idea. a very bad one in fact. Alex shook her head focusing.. well she got the apples cleaned.. now for other job.. Alex quickly removed the leaves stems and skin along with anything else her apple could have cutting it into small chunks.. she made sure none of them had bruises.

Alex glanced at the next item and blinked in slight confusion, crush it? Well.. it was sort of like making a potion Alex figured slowly placing the apples, now in small chunks in the cauldron of hers.. now to crush them slightly, she felt like she was in Potion Class.. only with less ingredients.

She started a small fire underneath her cauldron, yea this was excatly like making Potions, Alex thought to herself as she watched the fruit mixture started to slowly.. boil.. now to wait until it actually did boil, pretty simple lesson so far.. of course she had to add the cups of sugar after it shimmered.. She glanced at Zane's own plants smiling at him.. Hey it boiled Alex lowered the heat for a simmer, now for the fruit to soften up.. "This feels like Potion Class." Alex muttered to herself waiting patiently.

Quote:

* Depending on which type of fruit you are using, a different amount of sugar is required. It all comes down to personal taste. Fruits that are already sweet will need roughly 4 cups of sugar. Fruits that are not particularly sweet.. roughly 6.

Getting a cup Dianna poured four cups of sugar to her mixture.
"One sugar,two sugar,three sugar,four sugar." she said.
Afterward she stirred her mixture while whistling. Oh how she can't wait for her jam to be finished!

Know what?

Gold felt like this was a Potions Lesson.

It had the same methodical do-as-directed touch to it. It wasn't like cooking, which Gold was a disaster at, or baking, at which she excelled. Both of them [though one something she tended to avoid, and the other something that she loved] have one thing in common: experimentation as fun. You don't have to follow a textbook recipe, Gold thought to herself, as she pondered over this. You can mess about.

... and in the end, she knew, that was exactly what made the prospect of baking such fun for her.

But here, things were different. Even though they were making jam, the instructions on the blackboard had a very follow-these-or-follow-these look about them. Gold wondered if she could add a couple of extra ingredients, or change a step or two. She had a feeling Professor Dodson wouldn't actually mind, as long as she didn't blow anything up -- and she had enough confidence in her own skills, to know she wouldn't end up damaging the workstation. But after a moment, she decided she might as well do what they had been told do. If there was time left after she had made this jam, she could probably give the oat!jam a try.

Give it a try the way she wanted to.

Incendio.

She raised the heat a notch, so that the mixture would boil more quickly. It had attained the consistency of thick, sticky syrup now and, even as she lowered the intensity of the fire beneath her cauldron, Gold could inhale the scent of crushed!squeezed strawberries. It was sweet, and warm, and it tasted delicious enough to eat.

Gold used her wand to cause the sugar bowl to tip to its side but, before she could pour the sugar into a cup, she paused thoughtfully. She wasn't sure how much sugar she wanted to use. Much as she loved to bake sweet things, she preferred rich spices - or a very normal amount of sugar, if a dish had to be sweet, at all costs.

Three and a half cups of sugar, she decided. Measuring out the required amount of the substance, she tipped it into her cauldron. The scent changed, a whiff of hot sugar, and Gold had to say it was as lovely as the one it had replaced. She wanted to pet her cauldron.

But she couldn't.

Sad.

Oooh. This mixture smelled really really sweet now, and Brody really hoped that it would taste as nice. Although she hoped she hadn't put too much sugar in, because that would be not so good. She directed her wand at the cauldron, allowing the mxiture to stir around, making sure that there would be granules of sugar left in the mixture, because that would not be nice, because you didnt generally wanted to have solid bits of sugar in your nice smooth jam. Well she didn't anyway. As she made the mixture stir with magic, she tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. It was getting a little curly due to the steam coming from the mixture.

Mmm. It really did smell yummy. She wanted to taste it now. Haha. When she was sure that the sugar was dissolved, she pointed her wand back at the small fire under the cauldron, and made it a little bigger, so that it would boil. After this she pointed her wand near the inside of the cauldron, allowing the mixture to continue to stir around the cauldron.


And it seemed that it was quite essential that it kept moving, as that was the next instruction. Not to burn. She kept her wand pointed at the cauldron, so that the mixture continued to spin gently around the cauldron. She must have been doing good, because there was no smelling of buring yet. That made her happy, because she liked doing things right. Standing up on her tip toes, she looked in, noticing that the mixture was being to set a little, because it was been stirred a little more slowly now. That must mean that she was nearly done. Yey.

Oooh, the smells beginning to waft through the air were enough to make Sage's mout water hungrily. MMM, it was all fruity and sugary. The professor walked back and forth, not really observing what was going on but sniffing the air. NOM.

Gold soon caught his attention though, and Sage had a big whiff of her strawberry jam. It smelled DELICIOUS. "Natural gardener AND natural chef by the smell of it," he smiled kindly, hoping everyone would let him have a taste of their jam after class..

"And of course, I think it would be interesting to see how things turn out!" Oaty jam? "Herbology is all about experientation, so I say go for it! Once you get your strawberry jam all jarred up give it a go!"


"It depends on how much jam you're planning on making really," Sage commented when he stopped by Alex who was apparently making jam from apples. Yum. "I think three apples chopped into chunks would suffice."


"Wheat used to be harvested with a scythe, you're right, Zane." Sage said with a nod, "nowadays farmers would normally use vehicles such a combine harvester.. gets the job done much faster in bigger fields.." The Dodson farm had their very own combine harvester, he did like riding around on it. "You've only got a small plot though, a simple cutting charm would do the job." He didn't like the idea of students running around with scythes..

Daisy looked at the blackboard yet again:



She looked at all the berries and didn't see any stems or leaves. She knew blackberries didn't have any skin. And she inspected them closely for bruises. None. She then began to cut them up all into equal little chuncks. She popped a chunk into her mouth and tatsed that they we're sweet. She nodded and was happy. She hated how she would sometimes get a slightly sour on at home.She then dropped each of the chunks into the cauldron and crushed them untill it was a nice mushy mess inside. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the bottom to start the fire. The boiling part was a slow process but she constantly stired it until it began to boil. She then reduced the heat and watched it simmer. The little smoke wisps that floated up made her smile and she wafted them tworads her and she inhaled the sweet aroma that is blackberries. The fruit looked soften enough and the early taste test indicated she'd only need four cups of sugar so she added the sugar and stirred it all together, eager to have a taste. She looked at the blackboard again:



She increased the heat again and brought it back to a boil and smiled at the fact that it wasn't to slow this time around. She stirred and stirred and then the jam, the oh so sweet blackberrie jam she wanted to taste began to set. She moved it from the heat and had her jar at the ready. Ladling all of it into the jar. It was still hot and not yet consumeable but once it cooled off a little she was going to take a spoon full and eat it.

"Incendio!"
With a flash of fire Patroclus had his cauldron burning, and the smell exuding from within it was heavenly As the juice began to heat, the boy could hear, pops and splutters as the fruit mixture began to slowly boil. As the crackling began to grow louder and more frequent, Patroclus knew it was time to reduce the flame, so too allow the fruit to simmer and soften.
"Dont want to burn my beauties," he muttered to himself grapsing at a cup and plunging it into the smooth grains of sugar. "One, Two, Three, Four and a Half cups!" the boy cried as he added each load to the simmering mixture.
Placing a ladle into the caludron, the boy gave the impliment a tap with his wand, "Locomotor Ladle!" and rotated his wand, Thank Morgana for Professor Charlton, the boy smiled to himself, as he waited for the sugar to dissolve.

He was truly starving by this point!

[QUOTE=Waterloo;9564696]

"It depends on how much jam you're planning on making really," Sage commented when he stopped by Alex who was apparently making jam from apples. Yum. "I think three apples chopped into chunks would suffice."

Alex nodded at the Professor she was glad she followed her insticts and went with three large and a fourth small but good apple, just in case she wanted more Jam.. of her apples. Now.. what was next.. Alex glanced at the list of what to do, it was like making Potions after all.

Alex thought to herself Apples were already sweet as it was, but when cooked needed to be sweeetened up so.. Alex decided four cups adding it carefully and surely to the cauldron of apples that had been simmering to soften up it up after all the other directions.. now.. next!

Alex stired the mixture with a quick Ladle/Spoon and a locomotor spell, which was why Charms was a needed part of life.. even if she could of done it nonmagically. She watched as the sugar dissolved slowly and afterwards increased the heat and brung it back to a boil.

She kept stirring keeping the apples moving so it didn't burn, this was still like Potions.. Hmm it seemed to be setting Alex thought to herself as soon as it was beginning to set Alex carefully removed the jam from the heat and ladled it into a jar while it was hot.. this was where magic came in handy.. or dragonhide gloves. Now what Alex thought looking around, "Professor, what do we do once we made the Jam?" Alex asked raising her hand because he hadn't mentioned it to them the after part of it..

So now they were going to make jam. Well if she would have known they were going to do that she would have chosen a different fruit to grow. Oh well, she wasn't going to grow anything different now. She would just go with it and make tomato jam... and then give it to Kay and tell her it was strawberry.

Taking her basket of produce over to a work station she looked over the directions on the blackboard. Well the first thing was a no brainer. Who wouldn't wash away the dirt first?

Laying the tomatoes out on the table she took out her wand. "Aguamenti!" She rubbed each tomoto as the water sprayed away the dirt. Once the tomatoes were nice and clean she removed the little pieces of stem that were lest behind. Next she removed the skin, then started cutting the tomatoes into chunks. Good thing she planted Roma tomatoes, less juices, less mess.

Now what to do. Looking back up at the blackboard she seen it was time to put the cut up pieces into the cauldron, which she did. She then started to crush them.

Eww, now they looked disgusting.

WHAT? They could only make the jam out of the fruit they grew? Well, pffft. She was totally willing to make sweet potato jam, and if she'd known they were going to be making jam, she would've grown strawberries instead of a watermelon. A really funky, square shaped, watermelon. It was still good right?

However, she'd never heard of watermelon jam...

Glancing towards Destiny, Evelyn sighed and nodded her head. "I guess so." she mumbled poking the oddly shaped watermelon with her wand before scooting it closer. It wasn't all that big, which mean the vine connected to the top was easy enough to break off without magic. However, she did need to use magic for the next steps.
"Aguamenti." she said, pointing her wand at the watermelon, and making sure any dirt was washed off. After a minute or so, when she was satisfied that her watermelon was cleaned enough, she stopped the spell before staring at it.

Square watermelon wouldn't taste any different would it? It was just a different shape. It wasn't like the inside was any different right? Well, there was only one way to find out.

"Diffindo." Cutting one part of the square side off, Evelyn looked at the color of the watermelon, only to see that it did in fact, look like a regular watermelon. Smiling, she cut off all the other sides and the top before waiting until she got to the cauldron to cut off the bottom.

She did noooot want any dirt in her jam. That would be gross.

Excito Orbis.

Hands clasped, Gold watched as the stirrer stirred away. The contents of her cauldron were a syrup of crushed strawberry chunks and warm sugar now, and Gold had the desire to pick up the stirrer and break up the sugar into smaller pieces. If that were even possible.

She could sense the sugar breaking up as it disintegrated and, when she peeked into the cauldron a little while later, it looked like the sugar had been thoroughly dissolved. Gold picked up the stirrer, and tested the bottom of the cauldron, to see if any of the sweet substance had settled down there. It hadn't and, satisfied, Gold increased the heat that the fire underneath her cauldron provided her in-the-works strawberry jam.

Bubblesh mixture!

It had come to a boil.

Gold set the stirrer to work, again. She was glad that Professor Kazimeriz had taught her the nifty spell she had used to set it into motion and, as she watched it work away, she felt that old mixture of feelings rise within her, sorrow and happiness and so much more.

Sorrow because he had left. Happiness because he still wrote to her. So, so much more, too. Professor Kazimeriz. He had been - still was - her favourite, and she didn't even mind that she hugged his letters.

She focused her attention back to her jam, before it burnt or something like that. Fortunately, it was alright, better than alright, in fact. It smelled awesome, and she could inhale the scent of melted sugar. Warm, melted sugar. One of the best, best things ever, no doubt.

The mixture in her cauldron had finally acquired the consistency of jam. It was thick, like paste, and a little chunky. Gold waited for it to set completely, as she removed the stirrer.

The flames beneath her cauldron flickered out and died and, satisfied that she had caused them to fade out in time, Gold slipped her wand back into the wrist holster that was its almost permanent home. Then, resisting the urge to taste a BIG spoonful of the strawberry jam, right out of the cauldron, she began to ladle it into a jar.

Mmm, this reminded of her visit to that farm, summer before last. The people had made jam and ladled it into pots, there. The same way they had scraped set yogurt out of large, metallic bowls, and filled it into smaller containers, for daily use. Such deliciousness, it made her quite hungry.

Ladle, ladle, ladle. Jar full.

Jar full of STRAWBERREH JAM!

Gosh, yummyyy.

Gold half-smiled. Natural chef? She wouldn't say that. Her cooking could be a disaster, she simply didn't get why. But she could bake excellently, so maybe that was something to be proud of.

"I'll give the oat jam a try right now, sir," she said. If there was still time left, of course. Gold didn't actually know how much time there was before the class would be over, because she had taken off her wristwatch, and had no idea where it was, now. She needed to look for it, too. "Would you -" She hesitated. "Would you like to taste the jam I've made, sir?"

She was sure it tasted perfectly nice. But she had no idea if Professor Dodson liked strawberry jam.

Watermelon jam? That did not sound as appealing as any of the other fruits. Maybe he would just grab some of Destiny's pineapple. She did grow a huge one afte rall. So she should be happy to share.

Ehh... and now her pineapple was normal sized.

Oh well. He grabbed one of his watermelons. (Which was much easier said than done.) He brought it over to a workstation and looked up at the board. He decided to skip the first step since the rind of the watermelon was coming of anyway.

He then got to work cutting up the watermelon with a knife. Soon he had delicious bite sized pieces. He then looked around and noticed most of his classmates set their knifes to doing the work on their own.

Ehh... oh well. Old habits die hard, right? He checked each piece for seeds before tossing them in his cauldron. Using the bottom of a ladle he slightly crushed the pieces. He then started a flame under his cauldron.

Hmm... he still had some leftover cut-up fruit left. He'd be allowed to eat that... like right now, right?

Oooh, looked like Alex was done making her jam. Sage went over to have a peek and a sniff. He liked jam a lot. "Once you've made it, you'll have to give it a taste!"

"You know, I've been hoping someone would say that.." Sage smiled when Gold offered him a taste of her jam. HEHE. "So I'll have to take you up on that offer." Strawberry jam was his favourite too.

He found a small, unused spoon on the side and scraped a little of the leftover jam out of the cauldron. It smelled heavenly! It was still a little hot, so gave it a little blow before carefully giving it a little taste...

MMM. Sweetness!

"That's some fine jam, Gold!" He wasn't just saying that to spare her feelings either. It truly was yum. "Nice work! You'd make a great farmer!"

Awww. Gold had to grin a little. Professor Dodson seemed pretty happy to try some of the jam she had made. She only hoped he didn't think it wasn't very good, because that would be a bit of a blow to her belief that it would taste perfectly lovely.

Oooh, he liked it!

"Glad to know you like it, sir," she chuckled. This had just made her day! To know that she had been able to make some GOOD jam. "I would think of that, but I believe the world could do with another healer, sir." It was just that Gold wanted to help people - sick people. Or unhappy people. Or people from not-so-developed regions who couldn't afford a proper healer's treatment - and it was written all over her face, at this moment.

Oh, and she could make the oat!jam, now.

YAY!

Having secured the remaining strawberreh jam, Gold cleaned up her cauldron, gave it a good rinse, husked the oat grains, and let them drop right into it. Compared to the strawberry chunks, they were already pretty small, but she crushed them a bit all the same, and would have lit up a fire underneath the cauldron, if she hadn't suddenly thought of something.

"Can we take the fruit we haven't used to make jam back with us, Professor?" She asked, hand in air to get Professor Dodson's attention. She had still had a BIG strawberry or two left.

Alex nodded at the Professor taking an unused spoon and safe to use spoon and took a very small amount of the left over Apple Jam from the cauldron blew on it for a moment and gave it a taste. Alex hummed at the taste, she had guessed right and it had the perfect amount of sweetness. Of course.. this was the first time she had ever heard of Apple Jam.. and she wasn't a large fan of sweet either but she liked the Apple Jam, yup it was her new favorite Jam... Now.. what was next Alex wondered glancing around, seemed only a few people were done with their jam.

Daisy pulled out a spoon and dipped it into the cauldron to get a taste. It wasn't yet cool and she popped it straight into her mouth. "Ow that's hot!" She exclaimed. She tasted a bit of it on the parts of her tounge she didn't burn and smiled. "But it's amazing!" She still had some tomatoes in her garden. She raised her hand, "Professor Dodson, if I use tomatoes does that mean this process will make it well, ketchup?"