Bounty of the Season

One of the earliest memories I have as a young child is having a dishtowel tied around my neck as I perched on a stool using a wooden pestle and a sieve to crush grapes to get juice to make jelly. Summers at our house were spent with gathering fruit from grape vines, peach, pear and plum trees, strawberry beds and raspberry bushes.

Those summers are always hot in my memory with my sisters and brothers helping to pick the fruit. A lot of the berries went into our mouths and never made it to the kitchen, but the fruit that did make it was washed and became jellies, jams and preserves. I still make jams and jellies. There isn't a large family to eat it at the house anymore, but my friends and family seem to enjoy receiving a jar of jam at various times during the year.

I go to roadside stands now to get the fruit. I used to be able to go to a couple of local farms and pick my own, but a lot of those have fallen wayside to subdivisions. A few weeks ago, I went to a peach farm near where my parents had a small farm when they were first married. The peaches were made into jam and a cobbler the next day.

I recently found I had no less than 4 of the Blue Books published by the Ball Canning Company. I have discovered that the recipes in the book are easy to cook and can. When I first learned to make jams and jellies as a young woman, I used my mom's method of using parafin to seal the top of the jar. Now I use a hot water bath using the instructions on the recipe. In this age of samonella etc., I feel better about the products I give to others.

Recently, I have asked the family and good friends to start returning the jars. The cost of canning and jam jars has increased over the past few years. I tell them if they want a refill I would appreciate it if it came back. Most everyone is happy to comply especially after they have told me which jam they would like have in their "goodie" basket. A favorite this year seems to be the Blueberry and Lime Jam. The lime seems to bring out the taste of the blueberries.
Nothing is better than homemade jams and jellies on toast, or PB and J, waffles and pancakes, oh my!