Jam

One of my life long goals has been to make home-made jam. I find there is something elemental about picking the fruit and then "putting it by" for later use. Plus, just like knitting, the whole process is addictive. I love the abundant piles of fresh fruit. The nagging question, "What are we going to do with all of these strawberries, raspberries, peaches, blueberries... Can we possibly eat all of this?" I love the gleaming, steaming jars of fresh jam lined up on the counter after an afternoon of work. The hot sudsy water, the sterilizing, the peeling, the cutting and dicing, the enormous amounts of sugar, the stirring and timing, the testing and adjusting and finally the filling and wiping and processing. My family loves the jam and squeals or sighs with delight. Especially when homemade bread is rising and baking in the oven at the same time. PB&J's are a life staple for our family. The whole house smells delightful and I get a deep sense that all is right with the world. Odd, I know.
This past week we went down to Traveler's Rest, SC to celebrate Lydia and Gabe's wedding. What a nice time. A breathtaking outside ceremony filled with deep blue skies on a grassy hillside, overlooking lush green mountains. A beautiful couple, supported by a whole host of family and friends and capped off by delicious food, good conversation and lot's of glass tinkling kisses by the newlyweds. My mom graciously agreed to keep the kids and so Kev and I had a wonderful weekend away. We sat mesmerized by the new Star Trek movie and ate wonderful Indian food in downtown Greenville. We walked along the river and talked. We saw some friends from our week at Sonship last October, and hugged the necks of many friends and former teammates from Uganda at the wedding. And along the way we stopped at a little road side stand and bought a whole big basket of local peaches. Pounds and pounds of peaches, an abundant "what are we going to do with all of these peaches" amount. So yesterday I bought myself an early anniversary present...an official canning pot. No more hot water splatters as I try to fit the right amount of jars into a too small pot. Wahoo! I spent a truly relaxing day in the kitchen, surrounded by the smells of peaches and challah bread. Using the right equipment, with mostly good recipes and lot's of laughter and fun. And as I went to bed last night the counter top was lined with peach/strawberry jam, peach syrup (the first attempt at jam- a hilarious mistake) and peach butter. Yum.