So after all that fun at the farm we woke up and made jam! My in-laws showed me how to can peaches last season, which gave me the courage to try canning on my own. It was so much fun. The boys helped me wash the berries and dismantled a few of them while I was cutting off the hulls. Then we put the berries down where they could reach and mashed them to bits (we used a pastry cutter). They really enjoyed that part.
After that we dumped in the sugar and pectin and boiled those berries for a couple of minutes. I have sweet memories of standing with my Nanny while she stirred her pot of wild grapes into jelly... Then the boys pulled our jars out of the dishwasher (it cleans and warms them up), and I poured in the jam. L helped me get the lids on, and then I used a pair of tongs (couldn't find a jar-lifter at the store) to put them into the pot.
Here's some of the jars waiting for their bath. The bath melts the bit of wax on the lid, sealing the jam. It takes about 5 minutes.
All nine of our beautiful, scrumptious, ooey-gooey jars were then sat upside down for 24 hours. Okay. So eight of them sat. The ninth one went out to the picnic blanket with some yummy scones. That was a wonderful, beautiful, toddler-sized mess! But there are no pictures, because I was sticky too!
Want to try canning? It really is easy! Visit PickYourOwn.org!
No comments:
Post a Comment