what we did on the 4th.

we made jam. triple berry jam.

Strawberries that the kids and I picked the week before our Ohio trip, blueberries from the farmer's market and raspberries, well from the grocery store.

This was on my "to do" list and I am so thankful Joe lent a hand. We ended up having a fun little night of jam making while the kids relaxed and watched Cars. Since it was rainy we had bummed around taking lazy Sunday naps and took a little outing to the grocery followed by a similarly lazy little drive around town.

Then home to make jam :) And since we are dorks we took pictures, many pictures of the process. We used a fantastic pectin called Pomona's thanks to a few friends of mine that have used it, I got some at the Granary before it closed for the weekend, so glad I did! While many jam recipes called for 8 cups of sugar per 8 cups of fruit (I just couldn't do it!) we used a whopping 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of honey for 21 cups of fruit and it turned out VERY yummy! So happy to have a lower sugar option!

So, anyway. Many thanks to Joe for working his math magic on the Pomona's recipe maker.

We set to work getting everything ready to make jam. I cannot say enough times how much more fun this is when you are working with someone. Oh and put on a good cd or listen to a countdown on the radio.

Our recipe was:

21 cups of fruit

10.5 T pectin

10.5 T Calcium water

2 c honey

2 c sugar

1/2 c lemon juice

which yielded: 10 pints and 10 4oz mini-jam jars

After sampling it this morning, I am very pleased with the outcome.

Homemade jam and jelly is something I remember from my growing up years. My mom and grandma always had homemade strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb ( my favorite) apple butter, grape, raspberry etc. The list goes on. It was so good and I remember getting the jar out of the fridge for dessert of jam on biscuits. Making my own has been so much fun.

I love finding hobbies that Joe and I seem to enjoy together. At some points that is hard to come by, but the farmer's market and canning seem to be 2 of our favorites and they yield a yummy bounty. Now, if only we could pull a garden together! There's always next year, right?