In and Out of Jams

 Today I’m rallying the troops to clean up, get organized, get ready for school starting.  I keep telling them if you just do it quickly and get it over with, then you will have time after to do fun stuff……….but they never listen……..

I went to a yard sale yesterday and got some AMAZING buys.  I bought these cute kitty creamers (at least that’s how I’m going to use them!) for $2.00.  I got them for my church tea next year.

And these- THESE- cool vintage 1960s-ish chandeliers – $4.00 for the pair!!!! I thought the lady was going to say $40!!!  I was flabbergasted.  She obviously doesn’t know what she had.  I LOVE them.  Even if I have to put candles in the bulb sockets…..and hang them in the screened in porch…………

Well, besides buying scads of crazy stuff, I’ve been making jam too.  So far I made peach almond jam, blueberry cherry jam (because it reminds me of Michigan and Zehnder’s chicken dinner), strawberry fig jam , and I also made up my own concoction of watermelon fig jam.  

For watermelon jam I primarily followed this fig jam recipe but added elements of this one.  So,  I followed the fig recipe mostly, but instead I used 4 c. chopped figs (not overflowing, just 4 c.) and 1 cup watermelon slush (watermelon run through the blender) and didn’t add the extra water.  And I added a bit more pectin to make sure it all gelled. 

This site is great for canning recipes and canning instructions in general.  And of course finding great pick-your-own sites!

And now I’m working on making wild grape jam!!  We have wild grapes growing on our fence- a cheap and easy privacy fence.

They are tiny little things and more sour than you can imagine.  I’m not sure which recipe I’ll use- there is this one with powdered pectin and this one which requires less juice but liquid pectin.  We’ll see- they are in the freezer until I decide.

In the meantime, if you still have access to good peaches, here is the peach almond jam recipe:

Peach Almond Jam

 

 3 lb. Peaches                                     ¼ cup fresh lemon juice

½ c. almonds, chopped            7 cups sugar (3 lb.)

1 pouch liquid fruit pectin     ¼ t. almond extract

Peel and pit peaches and grind or chop until very fine. Measure 4 cups prepared fruit into a 6- to 8-quart saucepan. Stir in lemon juice and almonds. Thoroughly stir in sugar.
Place over high heat and bring to a full rolling boil and boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and immediately stir in liquid fruit pectin and almond extract. Skim off foam with metal spoon.
Ladle into clean, hot (8-ounce) jelly jars, filling to within one-fourth inch of top. Clean rims of jars and adjust caps, according to manufacturer’s directions. Process 5 minutes in boiling water bath.
This recipe yields about 8 jars.