Jam Session

I love the neighborhood I live in. It's in an older part of town, with some fantastic fruit trees. It also has a definite sense of community, which is how I wound up making jam for the first time ever.

Sarah and I picked a load of gorgeous green gage plums (I don't know why they are called green gage when they are clearly not green) one afternoon and spent the rest of the evening chopping and marinading them in sugar.

We gathered on Saturday afternoon at the local church as they had the most space that was needed to make jam.

I didn't realize how easy it is to make jam at home. I always thought it was a very complicated process, plus I was put off by the whole boiling of the bottles and sanitizing them. But after one afternoon of making jam, I can safely say I'll be making it again very soon. It is time consuming and you have to be very careful to sanitize the jars or you run the risk of potentially giving yourself and your friends food poisoning.

The process is very simple.

1. Cut fruit and marinade in sugar. We used a ratio of 2 parts fruit to one part sugar.

2. Boil the marinaded fruit in a deep pan on medium heat until it's pretty thick. To test if the fruit is ready to be jarred, place a tablespoon on a chilled plate and run your finger through the middle of the fruit. If it stays and doesn't run, it's ready for step 3.

3. Blend the fruit using a hand blender and place back on the stove. The blending process will release liquids which need to be boiled off. Once the fruit mixture has reduced (do the test again to see if it's ready), remove it from the heat and bottle in jars. Tighten the lid all the way and rotate it counter-clockwise by a half turn.

4. Place the jars in boiling water; be careful that the bottoms of the jars do not touch the bottom of the pan or the jars won't be properly sealed. You can put a metal/iron trivet on the bottom to make sure the jars don't touch the pan.

5. The lid should pop down if sealed properly. Let the jars cool and tighten the lids all the way. If the lid isn't sealed properly, you can either try to put the jar in boiling water again, or eat the jam within a week. I personally prefer eating it within a week. :)