Saturday, July 4, 2009

Making Jam

I was so excited to go strawberry picking with Julia and some friends. Could I make my own jam??? Well sure, we have our own kitchen, we can do what we want...YAHHHHH


Early Friday morning we dropped Jade off at Oma's and headed up to Visser Farms. Julia was so happy to be out with just Mommy and with Cadence(her friend). We took a large, medium and small basket and were sure that we would fill them all. Mommy filled most of them but Julia did a very good job for her first time.


We headed home and thought maybe we will spend the day on Saturday and make jam then, but then my mother in law needed my camera so we had to make it Friday night so we could take pictures.


We were so happy to be able to make this memory together as mother & daughter. We bought Julia her own apron so we could be twins in the kitchen. I washed all the strawberries and called Julia when it was time to mash the berries. I though, WOW this is easy and then I noticed...we didn't have lemon juice, I am almost out of sugar and wow...i need more jars...it makes more than I thought. So I sent Brad out to pick up supplies.


Once we made the 1st batch, we felt like pros. We had such a system when we made the jam. I filled them and wiped the jars down and Julia put the lids on and stacked them neatly on the counter. She was so proud of her accomplishment and so was I. We couldn't wait to taste it!


The next day we headed out again for some more supplies to make the rest of the jam. Grabbed the pectin, jars, and more sugar and back into the kitchen I went.


Thinking I was a pro at this i glanced at the instructions and the way i went. I made 16 more jars and tidied up the kitchen.


As I glanced at the newly batch of jam i noticed they didn't look the same but thinking...maybe they were riper berries I sat down to Facebook. As I looked at my friends status, she commented on my jam making and she stated that she messed hers up b/c she didn't boil the water & pectin, I sighed and then it hit me...


I too did not boil the water with the pectin. That is why it looked separated. All the pectin was at the bottom and the berries and sugar was at the top.


I was so upset...here I thought i was such a pro already...then my supportive husband that he is had an idea to separate the jam and pectin in two bowls and add the missing water and boil it with pectin and then mix it with the berries and jar them again.


Well at least this was the way we fixed it...we will see how it turns out in a day or two but any way it will sure taste good on toast or ice cream.


What will be next in our adventures in the kitchen...WHO KNOWS?

1 comment:

  1. Great job Julia.. and Amanda! It's trial and error... but you are having fun and making memories all the while and that's the most important part!

    ReplyDelete

Followers