So I happened by a roadside fruit stand today and decided.. "Hey, I should really make some jam." I've made jam before, it's a fairly easy thing, but I've never really been on the purchasing and planning end of it since my dear sweet dad always just "happens" to have bought a bunch of berries right before I visit.
So I ask the lady at the fruit stand how much jam would one flat of raspberries make. She tells me 12 pints. I'm thinking.. ok, I'll buy some strawberries too just to stretch it out to a few more pints.
I go to the store to get the correct amount of pectin and Karo syrup. I go home and begin. I decide I should just mash all the berries up first thing and put each kind in it's own bowl. (I had strawberries, raspberries & blackberries) I start making some interesting combinations of jam, but after 4 batches it's pretty apparent that 12 pints was a GROSS underestimation. I've now used ALL my Karo syrup and am out of lemon juice, but I still have a plethora of mashed berries.
So I run back to the store for more pectin, Karo & lemon juice. A few batches later and I'm out of jars... still many many berries left.
Back to the store AGAIN to buy 12 more pint jars and 3 more pectin boxes and another Karo syrup (hmmmm... I wonder if I should have bought that super-size Karo the first time I came..) .. surely this will be enough to finish off the berries (it didn't help that I got fancy and threw some peaches into the mix too). On the way to the cash register I grab a tray of Fish Egg Sushi Rolls so the girls can at least have something to eat for dinner since their mom is all grouchy and sticky. Oh did I mention that I brilliantly picked a day Matt was out of town to tackle this little project?
I'm on my LAST batch and... no - more - jars! I start scouring the fridge and cupboards for jars. I found a jar of olives which I dumped into a tupperware and cleaned out.. the lid still smelled like green olives.. so we'll see what that one tastes like. I cleaned out a jar that was used to hold bugs... REALLY WELL. And had to stoop to a tupperware for the rest of it.
And so... 6 hours, 40 pints (yes,that's FORTY) and 3 trips to the store later, I finally finished all those crappy berries! 12 pints my butt!
I don't even want to think about how much I spent on the whole process. I think I have my 5 year supply taken care of. This is good because I don't want to see another box of pectin or mashed berry for a looooong time.
4 comments:
That is awesome. I can just see you running around with jam stuck in your hair so it sticks up like "Something about Mary" and screaming at the kids to put their shoes on 'cause "it's time to go to the store AGAIN!!"
I enjoyed that story! :) Now you have all your Christmas gifts! I'll have you bring the jam for all of the family parties the next 5 years.
How very domestic of you!
I love homemade jam but love even more that my mother in law provides it for me!
I'm so glad to know that I'm not the only one who has misjudged canning a box of produce! I made some apple butter last year after visiting a nearby apple orchard, we ended up buying 3 crates of apples (yes, I know a bit overkill). We ended up with 20 pints of apple butter, applesauce, apple pie filling, apple juice, apple relish and every other manner of apples. Needless to say we are so sick of apples! Hey, maybe we can do some trades, a few cans of apples for a few cans of your jams. (hum..)
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