Jam It!

I’m not sure how they did it… It must have taken the patience of Job! Preserving and canning… & CLEANING up the ridiculous mess! Well… odds are they (Granny, etc.) did it better… much better than me.

I have no problem with the vegetables, but the fruits… they make me curse. After spending HOURS cooking, juicing, cooking, jarring, sealing & cleaning… my blackberry jam… well it didn’t… jam. It was still juice. JAM IT! (#1)

So… I google my way to a seemingly simple solution… recook it. Ok, easy enough. (& the goose is eager to “help”) so here we go again! An hour and a half, 17 jars & 1 messy kitchen (again) later… we have… well… what do we have???? It seems that 4 of the jars (in pot A) are super-jammed & the other 13 (from pot B) are well… sort of jammed???? WHAT IS GOING ON!!!!!!! I even used a thermometer this time and they were both at the exact same temperature… this is crazy! Can a blue pot somehow produce inferior jam to that of a silver pot???? clearly I know there is some more logical & technical cooking solution, but… JAM IT! (#2)

Well what can you do now? I take one super-jammed jar & one not-so-much-jammed jar, open them up (which was ok since these two rascally jars didn’t seal anyway!) and take a taste… well… they are edible… but they don’t taste or look like granny’s or mama’s or the smuckers I currently have in the fridge…. JAM IT! (#3)

I give up! What is a girl to do? I have it! Give it as gifts! No one will know! They will think that’s what homemade is supposed to taste/look like! So MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone… this Jam’s for you! Do with it what you will… if you cover it with enough peanut butter, maybe you can pawn it off on your kids… or your dog… maybe that’s how I can get the rascally pug to quit barking!