Saturday, March 31, 2007

Jam

I love the sound of canning jars sealing - the pop that announces a job well done. I don't hear it as often as I used to because I started using Weck canning jars because they are prettier. They don't pop. You just have to look to see if the tongue is pointing downward which is not nearly so satisfying as a POP. I just finished making 14 half pints and 4 pints of strawberry jam and I ran short of jars because some people forget to return them and our cats hurled two boxes of jars from the top of the shed, so now I am listening for the pops of the four mismatched jars. I've heard two already. Go here to look at last year's pictures. I was going to take more pictures but it would look just the same as last year, except for the mismatched jars and the larger quantity.

I made more jam this year because we ran out of strawberry jam the first week in February. I, obviously, gave away too much last year or either we were just piggish. We do have pear preserves and fig preserves remaining.

I wonder how long it will take my little sister to get here. She loves strawberry jam. Bring your jars or you will get NOTHING! You too, Susan.

POP! POP! There were the last two.

3 comments:

Garden State Kate said...

I'm sitting here with fresh baked bread...and no jam.
That is something I've never made.
How do you make fig preserves?
We have a nice sized fig tree, and get tons of figs every year.

Jennifer said...

The Weck jars are prettier. I gave all my canning supplies to BLP years ago when I gave up trying to can tomatoes in my teeny-tiny galley kitchen across town. Since then, whenever I'm at a loss for an idea for her birthday gift, she gets new jars. (Her biggest gripe on the eve of canning is that people have not returned her jars.)

Why don't people return the jars? Do non-canners not know that canning jars are reusable?

Wisteria said...

The older ladies always return the jars. Always. Sometimes they return them refilled!!

Kate, Fig preserves have figs, sugar, and lemon. They need nothing else. I am obsessive about fig preserves. I only use whole, including stem, figs, cook plenty of lemon so that I have a slice against the side of each jar, and cook the syrup so that it is a pale amber color. Most people don't jump through such hoops, but I say that if you go to the trouble to can you may as well produce something you think is pretty. I'll post the recipe when it gets closer to fig season. If I don't remind me.