Jam Session

There's nothing like making homemade jam: the zen-like process of preparing the fruit, the sweet smell of boiling jam permeating the house, the satisfaction of seeing row after row of brightly colored jars sparkling in the sunshine like jewels of summer.

I spent most of Wednesday in a jamming frenzy. I woke up bright and early and started with cherry. We picked the cherries at a berry farm on 41 between Atascadero and Morro Bay. This was the last batch we could harvest - the recent heatwave caused most of the cherries to burst on the tree, their sticky sweetness attracting more yellowjackets and bees than someone with an allergy (me) would care to be around. I spent Sunday afternoon pitting them with my MIL's handy dandy cherry pitter. (Note to friends and family: Please put one of these suckers on my Birthday Wish List.) By the time I was ready to jam on Wednesday, all I had to do was pull them out of the freezer, run them under cool water and get started. This was my first attempt at cherry and I have to say, yum!

Becky joined me half-way through cherry and was able to pitch right in when we got to apricot. This golden jam is one of Chad's favorites. (I swear we go through it so fast I think he's eating it by the spoonful!) I used pre-chopped fruit from last year's harvest. (It had been waiting in my freezer for a future as either jam or pie.) It turned out beautifully. I can't wait to make more this year. Jeri has already promised me some from her tree in exchange for a couple jars of jam.

By the time the apricot was out of the water bath, we were on a roll. Next on the list: kiwi. I've never tried it, but wanted something unusual to enter into the fair. (Unusual entry = greater chance at a ribbon. It's all about strategy.) We got our organic kiwis from Sunflowers Produce. Monique hand-selected firm, ripe fruit that she hoped would make peeling them easier. Fruit prep was harder than strawberry, but easier than cherry or plum. The hardest part was making sure we got as much of the fruit as possible. It took 16 kiwis to make two pints of jam!! I put them in little 1/4 pint jars and lined them up. Not only did it taste amazing - very sweet with a sharp after bite - but it looked adorable.


Next up...good old fashioned strawberry. This is the only jam recipe that I have memorized. This batch is already my fourth of the season. We used organic strawberries that were so sweet we couldn't resist the temptation to snack. Unfortunatly our snacking left us a few strawberries short of two batches. We put our heads together and found a recipe for strawberry-kiwi jam.

We used the remaining kiwis and strawberries to make what is fast becoming my favorite. I would love to try this as a jelly. The jelly portion of the jam is a pretty watermelon color. With the bright pink chunks of berry and the black of the kiwi seeds, it's fun, different and really quite lovely. It's super sweet but still tart.

Overall, it was a fun, jam-filled day. Becky's hooked. She's ready to open a farm stand. I ordered a new jamming cookbook (mine is dated 1978) that has recipes for yumminess like peach-ginger, mango and watermelon. I can't wait to try them out. I have a sneaky suspicion that everyone is getting jams for their birthdays and Christmas.