The short answer: sticky and wet.
We (The Wife, The Boyz, The GPs) went strwaberry pickin’ on Saturday morning at our local favorite berry patch. The season was young, the berries were awesome, and the pickin’ was fast. After only 45 minutes of knee-walking, we came home with about 35 lbs of fresh, delicious strawberries.
Since we had some ready-to-go child care (thanks Dad; thanks Mom!), I decided to make jam right then and there. The Wife gave me advice and a recipie, then went to work. I also went to work, and a couple hours later, had eight pints of delicious, sticky jam. Last night, since it was cool, I made another batch of jam before stashing the rest of the berries in the freezer.
I learned two important things about jam making:
- It’s super-duper easy
- I *really* dig it
I think the organizational parts of jammin’ as well as the “hey, look: the pot on the stove that’s been cooking away for an hour suddenly has something awesome in it!” factor both remind me a lot of homebrewing, and add a lot to the fun factor for me.
What’s next? I’m thinking pie filling. And wild blueberry jam (assuming there’s a decent yield this season). And raspberry jam. And (potentially) some crab apple jelly. Ooo la la!