jammin'

Today, I made 13 beautiful jars of strawberry jam. t's strawberry season down here in Mobile and Nathanael and I went to a U-pck farm and got five gallons of beautiful strawberries for me to make jam. To make this beautiful jam I had to use pretty much a whole bag of white sugar, two boxes of fruit pectin, and about two gallons of strawberries. One of the jars just popped! I can hear them in the kitchen. It was actually really easy. After you mush up the fruit, you mix in the pectin, cook it for a bit and then mix in tons and tons of sugar. Then, you put the mess into jars, close them, and boil them to seal the jars. Then, while they're sitting on the counter cooling, they pop as they become sealed. I like the noise. Nathanael has been making a batch of strawberry mango sorbet which I believe will be very good. I'm not allowed to eat t yet because it isn't all the way frozen. Nathanael also made meatloaf tonight on a whim and it's really pretty good despite being a shoebox-shaped hamburger.

I'm getting excited about filling up my shelves with beautiful colors in glass jars. This is my first full season since I learned how to can and I plan to can as many of my favorite things as possible, when they're cheap and in season. After strawberries, it will be time for blackberries and then peaches and then tomatoes and pickles. I'll make mostly grean bean pickles I think, but if we get some nice peppers in the garden, I'll pickle some of those too, and maybe some squash for the hell of it. I will never, ever pickle beets because I think they're nasty. Last year at the farm, Kyle, my fellow worker, was known from time to time, to drink beet pickle brine. Upon seeing this, I remember Mike saying "That's GOT to be good for you," as if trying to convince himself. Good for you? maybe; nasty? definately.

Late in the summer there will be figs, but I don't really know what to do with figs. I'm especially excited about the blackberries because they're 100% free. A few weeks ago they were blooming and the vines grow wild everywhere. Literally. Blackberry jam is my favorite so I'd be a fool not to try to save some of this bounty. It's weird to think that people used to spend 90 percent of their time doing work related to feeding themselves. I imagine it wouldn't seem so fun if there was no other choice. What is fun, is letting the seasons guide my appetite, spending a month or a couple of weeks gorging on a particular vegetable, and getting really tired of it so I won't want it again till next year. The only thing I can't wait for is fresh tomatoes. That, and come August, I will really want some lettuce, which is hopeless in the 100 degree heat of that time of year. After reading this, I'm sure everyone can guess what their christmas presents will be this year.