Jammin

So very many barbecues this weekend yielded, two beer can chickens, three racks of ribs, two and a half pounds of salmon, tomato salad, spinach salad, coleslaw, apple pie, frozen key lime pie, summer challah pudding, and a leftover two pounds of strawberries.

My little family can do a number on fresh fruit, but we were full and I awoke this morning to see that these gorgeous red berries were quickly turning on them. I decided that this was a sign that it was time to learn how to make jam.

I thought for sure this was going to be an arduous process-- something that Ma would do on Little House on the Prairie over the open fire. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would get nothing else done today because making jam would surely take hours upon hours.

...but it didn't. It was so quick and so easy. Honestly, the worst part of the process was sterilizing the mason jar, and Pa came in and did that for me, all while we relished in how we could live off the land, and I could start to churn my own butter. Truly, this was the conversation we had.

Then, on the way home from storytime, I noticed that our local farm is open for strawberry picking, so now I can use locally grown strawberries, can, store, and gift them, like Diane Keaton in Baby Boom! (yes I know that was applesauce, but you get what I mean.)

And Karyn dared to suggest I just make smoothies...bah!