Tuesday, June 28, 2005

jam JAM jam

this is a jumpstart post! I can't beleive we've gone a month with nothing new. So, I thought I would ask you guys about my newest obsession - you may have guessed it from the title - jam. We went out on a walk to a Glacier Rock in Yamhill county this weekend and saw (in addition to the glacier rock) a bunch of blackberry blossoms, which got me thinking about the blackberries that will inevitably follow, which made me think of JAM. And how I would like to make some, and maybe try some groovy combinations and flavors - like adding ginger or something. Does anyone have any experience making jam? Do we want to maybe get together and try it some weekend this summer? If it turns out tasty, it would make excellent christmas gifts. I'm not feeling tied down to just blackberry either, but I thought it might be an inexpensive way to start. Anyway, if anyone has any jam/jelly thoughts I would love to hear them.

3 comments:

Martina said...

We don't have huge jam making experience, but we did make that ginger pear jelly last year and have jars left over from that. That was pretty easy to do and turned out great. My mom did try to make strawberry jam once a long time ago and it turned out a consistency that she calls "drinkable", but I am buoyed by our pear success. I also have a peach-caradomom butter recipe and one for lemon curd that I have been wanting to try making.

At the time when we made the pear jelly, I was thinking I might like to do some kind of berry jam when fresh berries were in season. I'll have to look through my recipes, because I've been collecting some in preparation.

Jen said...

Oh! Ginger pear sounds delicious. As do the peach cardomom butter and lemon curd. I've got some recipes I've come across as well - we should compile them, or post them here, or somthing. I think some of the old issues of Martha Stweart's magazine have some nice looking preserve-type recipes too. I'll have to look.

I don't know why, but every couple of years I get held in the grips of canning/jarring/ preserving mania. And this is one of those years! Normally I just sort of lie down until it goes away, but I think the jam is going to win in 2005. (yay!)

Jen said...

I forgot to mention that if any recipes call for rhubarb, we've got you covered. Our rhubarb has gone nutso this year.