I have had so much fun since I decided to start canning and making jams and jellies again. I forgot how satisfying it is to look at those jars of beautiful preserved foods can be. And how great it is to hear those "pings" coming from the jars as the seal. I have probably gotten a little carried away with the jams, but I seem to have an unending supplies of offers to relieve me of a jar here and there for taste testing. I did take a few jars of the blueberry to share with some friends at work.
I went back to my Whole Foods last Friday because they were having a one day sale on peaches. So I bought a bushel. Kip asked if I really needed two boxes. I have found the magic response "well there is peach jam, peach cobbler, peach ice cream, ...." and suddenly he is on board! It did take me a while to plow through all those peaches, but I managed to get a large batch of raspberry peach jam, a couple of batches of peach jam and several jars of sliced peaches.
Summer peaches are definitely at the top of my list of all time favorite flavors in this world, but I think blackberries hold that top spot. I remember when I was a little girl I would ask my Grandmother for "peanut butter pocketbooks", which was a single piece of bread smeared with peanut butter and blackberry jam. That is one of my strongest food memories from being a child. My SIL offered to take me blackberry picking with her this weekend and I took her up on it. Her BIL and SIL have blackberries on their property and they are out of town and called her and let her know there were lots of berries that would need to be picked while they were gone. We were both able to get enough berries for a good size batch of jam. It was her first time making and canning anything, and I think she is hooked.
