I’ve gotten into a jam-making, water-bath canning, blueberry and strawberry and blackberry craze.

I grew up with a great big garden in our backyard.  I will be honest with you – gardening and yard work are not my first loves.  However, I grew (ha ha, “grew”, get it? bad pun, I know) to appreciate it and hoped that someday I would have a garden of my own.  Fast forward to our new house in Williamsburg.  We live in a neighborhood that is OVERRUN with deer and rabbits.  The deer meander down the street like they own the place, for cryin’ out loud.  The researchers at William & Mary are all in a tizzy over native plant and bird life being driven out of the area because of too many deer.  People walk down the trails and have deer run into them.  Growing a garden in this part of the world, especially in our neighborhood full of large, beautiful, shade-providing trees?  Not going to happen.

So, my gardening dreams suffered a small setback, but I got over it.  Instead of me planting the seeds and toiling between the rows of tomatoes and berries, I let someone else do the work.  Then, I go pick the berries myself (and by “pick”, I either mean I literally pick them off the bushes or I pick some up from the store, ha ha!).  I picked 12 pounds of blueberries (with some help from Chris and Joe) and then picked up 4 pints of strawberries at the local Fresh Market.  I made 32 jars of blueberry jam and I’m still not done with the strawberries.

Are we going to eat 32 jars of blueberry jam?  No, not likely.  At least not this year.  The majority of those jars are the small gift-giving variety.  I can recall my mom handing out jars of jam at church around Christmastime.  They’re perfect little gifts for pre-school teachers, the neighbors on your street, your husband’s work colleagues (or your work colleagues!), friends, and family.  Just cut out some pretty Christmas fabric to put over the tops, tie a red ribbon around them, et voila!  A gift of summer that’s gluten free, egg free, soy free, dairy free, and so on and so forth.

I was intimidated by the thought of making jam at first.  Thoughts of botulism and everyone we gave them to coming down with food poisoning would fill my mind, but it’s surprisingly easy.  I bought the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and Blue Book Guide to Preserving from Amazon, got a large water bath pot + rack at our ACE Hardware Store (side note: I looked in our local Target and Walmart and neither had one, though Target did have a “kit” that cost over $80 that included one).  I also bought some jars, lids, rings, and pectin.  My mom had given me a jar lifter and I bought a wide-mouth funnel, a foley food mill to crush/smash the berries, and a magnetic lid wand (this one really isn’t necessary, but it is so handy and for only $2.00, I recommend it).  So yes, there is some financial investment but when you add it all up and divide it amongst the many jars of jam you make, you still come out saving money, especially if you do it year after year.

The jam turned out perfectly.  A little hint that I learned from my mom: add a dab of butter at the beginning of the jam-making process to cut down on foam (if you make jam, you’ll know what I’m talking about).  Chris tasted all of the varieties that I’ve made thus far and given them a thumbs up.  A neighbor has already eaten a jar or the blueberry jam and didn’t die of food poisoning, so that’s certainly a good sign.  Chris even told me that he’s never cared for strawberry jam, but he’s only ever had store-bought.  When he tried my homemade variety, he said that it tastes so good that it makes you wonder what’s in the stuff at the store.  Again, a good sign 🙂

I’ve already shoved some of the small jars to the back of the cabinet to keep for Christmas/teacher appreciation gifts.  Joe will start preschool this year, and there’s also the nursery staff at MOPS who will take care of Jack every other week.  And if you’re a family member and reading this, odds are that you’ll get to sample some of it, too!