Raspberries, Blueberries, Blackberries ~ Ambassadors Of Summer

 It's that busy time of the year again, summer. The berries and cherries are ripening faster than I can keep up with them but the birds aren't complaining, they snatch up any I miss picking.

 I set aside today, normally Tea-Time Tuesday here on Cedar Pond, to make and can jam from the berries piling up in the refrigerator. But first I picked the newly ripe raspberries before the day got too hot.

 

 I set up my canning area on the back porch. I have worn out 4 stoves since we built our home because I do a lot of canning and dyeing wool, and my husband & I also love to make a lot of food for people we love. The newer stoves can't seem to hold large cooking pots without suffering for it. A few years ago we bought this camp stove for all big cooking & canning jobs and I love it ! I also appreciate canning on the shady back porch, near the kitchen, while NOT heating the house up anymore than necessary. I make the jam inside, then after filling the hot sterilized jars I process them outside. ( BTW, the stove is mighty nice for camping too.)

I made blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry jam today and the canning season has barely begun. Tomorrow I am trying a new recipe, Strawberry Margarita Jam. The pantry shelves should be full of sweet fruit jams and canned fruit by the end of August, then apple season begins and hopefully the green bean harvest from our garden will yield a big crop too. "Berries & cherries , whether harvested from brambles, bushes, patches, or trees, these tiny ambassadors of summer sweetness share one thing in common - rich, exotic, and intoxicating taste." Canning B.H. & G.

A Spot of Plum Jam

~~~" Jam is a treat, that butterflies taste on their flutter-by feet." ~~~ Eileen Spinelli TEA PARTY TODAY

~Here is a basket of Shiro plums I picked in our orchard. These plums are so juicy and sweet, you cannot eat them without getting plum juice everywhere. They do not keep well so when they are ripe I need to use them right away. Sometimes I prepare the fruit and freeze it to turn it into jam later in the year, but I think the jam tastes so much better when I make the jam right away. ~~~It is raining again today so the weather is perfect for staying indoors and canning fruit.~~~

~To make jam you will need 5 3/4 cups of pitted crushed plums. Leave the peeling on while crushing. Add 1/4 cup lemon juice to the plums. While you are preparing the plums, sterilize your pint or half pint jars, bands, and new lids. Leave jars, lids, and bands simmering in the boiling water until you need the them. ( picture below)

~You will also need 10 cups sugar and a dab of butter or margarine and a box of pectin you can buy at your supermarket. I am using MCP pectin.

~Put the crushed plums in the pan with the dab of butter ( this keeps the cooking fruit from foaming too much) and the pectin. ~~~Bring the fruit, pectin and butter to a rolling boil. This is a boil that cannot be stirred down. Then add the 10 cups of sugar. When the plums and sugar again come to a boil, boil while stirring constantly for 4 minutes. ~~~Immediately after the 4 minutes boiling, remove the jam from the stove and begin ladling into hot sterilized jars. Wipe the rims and tops with a clean hot cloth to clean off any jam and put the lids on and then screw the bands on. Doesn't this look like liquid gold ? I have to label it 'jam' because it looks just like the jars of honey Hubby bottles from his bees. ~Here the jars of jam are placed into my canner. Now for years and years, all us little old jam makers just turned the freshly filled hot jars of jam over, let sit for a few minutes, then turn right side up and VOILA, the jam was done ! Now there are new standards that require we give the jars of jam a water bath. I never had any problem with my jams before, but since we give a lot of our jam away as gifts we play it safe . So.... a hot water bath it is !The jam in the boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

~~~Boiling away~~~

~This yellow plum jam is delicious on toast, but better on ham and pork roast. It is also a favorite jam of many in my family so we rarely have any to spare. After you take the jam out of the canner and place it in a draft free area, you will begin to hear little metallic pops as the seal sets in the jar. Leave the bands on the jars overnight. The next morning, remove the bands ( DO NOT STORE THE JAM WITH THE BANDS ON ) and check to see that there is an indentation in each lid. If not, the jar did not seal properly. No problem though, just pop the jam in the fridge and eat it right away ! ~~~Make some jam. You can get the recipes for your jam of choice in packages of pectin. Follow the directions carefully and you cannot fail. Jam is easy to make and your home made jam is so much more tasty than most of the jam you buy. Jam also makes great gifts. Everybody likes jam!

~~~JAM POEM~~~ from Mrs. Jone's Letter of the Week 'J' Who'll have jam ? There's jam for tea. Jam for Pam and jam for Sam And jam for little me. Who'll have jam, there's jam for tea. Damson jam and Bramble jam, And apple jam for me.