Jelly and Jam

I love making jelly and jam this time of year!  The fruit comes in so fast, I can barely keep up with it.

I tend to dedicate one day a week to jelly making.  And I really only make it at this time of the year.  My family only likes one kind of jam: triple berry.  A delicious concotion of Strawberry, Blueberry, and Raspberry, it is irresistible.  I stumbled upon the recipe not long after we moved into this house.  I had planted a stawberry bed, and we had an unbelievable number of blue- and rasp- berry bushes growing in the back yard. I found a recipe for triple berry jam in the Sure-Jel box when I was looking to make some strawberry jelly.  I figured I had nothing to lose, and an instant family favorite was born!

Jam really doesn't take much time to make.  It's an investment of a morning, or an entire day if you're really into it and making huge batches all at once.  You do need sugar, and you do need hours of uninterrupted time.  You aren't going to be able to leave to go to the store in the middle of the process, because once you lose your momentum, you just won't be able to get back into the jelly making.

We use our jelly all year long.  It goes onto our toast.  I buy only vanilla yogurt at the store, and we add a couple of Tablespoons of jam to the yogurt, stir, and I swear to you, it truly is the best yogurt you've ever had!  You know exactly what went into that jam, and you were the quality control agent, cooking and canning it on the same day - or the day after you picked it.  I don't care what you say, store bought jelly just can't hold a candle to home canned jelly.

You do have to make a one time investment in canning jars.  And you have to invest in lids.  But, considering I've been using some of these jars of ten years now, it was an investment well worth making!

If you've never made jam before, give it a whirl!  I'm posting my link from last year's jam post here.  As always- you MUST use a pectin agent of some kind.  Sure Jell, or Ball, or whatever you can find in your local store- the pectin makes the jam set.  Also - you MUST follow all directions and measurements exactly.  No short cuts, and no substitutions.  Canning food for long term storage is a science, and keeping the food safe and healthy to eat months later requires exact attention to detail.

So, go grab some fruit and enjoy your own home-made jelly!

(Just in case the link above doesn't work, here it is again)
http://librarynut-momsview.blogspot.com/2011/06/making-jelly.html