My pictorial jam-making experience :-) I have to admit, this is some of the best jam I've ever eaten. Patrick swoons over it. I didn't grow up on homemade jam but Jason's aunt makes some of the best that I've ever had (and if she ever wants to share her plum jam recipe, I would be glad to partake of it...hint, hint...) and I thought I would try it. Our family loves to go fruit-picking, so I took the kids berry-picking one day earlier this summer.
We picked a LOT of strawberries.
And a LOT of blackberries, which were later combined with both strawberries and raspberries for triple-berry jam (which is amazingly good), but which I will not be showing you here.
Cutting the tops off that many strawberries took forever. This jam is well worth it. They were really easy to mash, though.
Then they get boiled with sugar and pectin. Sadly, you have to scrape off the foam before canning the jam. Happily, you can then EAT the foam, which is awesome.
Processing the jars in a boiling-water bath.
And voila, they are done! Hearing that little popping sound as the jars seal is always fun. I've given away several jars, but still have a few left. We're really enjoying this jam.
Even better is that we picked so many berries that I
have pureed triple-berry mixture in the freezer, ready to be made into jam when we run out!
have pureed triple-berry mixture in the freezer, ready to be made into jam when we run out!
Because I've been having just a little too much fun with canning, I've also canned blueberry syrup, bread-and-butter pickles (Mom M's recipe, and they're delicious!), and spaghetti sauce. Tonight, I ventured into the making of applesauce
and made 6 quarts with a mixture of honeycrisp, pink lady, gala, and one other kind of apple that I've since forgotten. We didn't get to go apple-picking this year so I had to buy them at the farmer's market, but they seem to have worked. I've only used up half my apples (apparently about 4 apples makes a quart of applesauce), so I'll be making the rest tomorrow night. Part of it will be pear-applesauce, which is my favorite. Our shelves are stocked!
Before (I only made the ones in the bowl)
After
2 comments:
This is all very "Little House on the Prairie" of you. Are you going to build a sod house and put new ticking in all of the mattresses next?
P.S. Please save me some pickles for when I visit in January. Thank you.
You have my mouth watering, Erin. This is so up my alley; next time we're home I'm going to figure out a way to get canning jars back across the world!
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