I DO not know why, but EVERY Labor Day for the last nine or ten years (except for last year when all the blossoms got nipped with a late frost and there WAS no fruit in August), I've had a craving to make jelly. The odd thing is that I don't really even EAT jelly, but I just get this URGE to "put something up".
THIS year, I spent MOST of Friday doing just that. I think it started as a "nostalgia" thing...Grandma Reynolds always had JARS and JARS of jelly in her basement at the farmhouse...strawberry and wild plum, mostly, but sometimes raspberry and other fruits from the farm too. So...I started out making jelly to honor her memory...then just decided that I really LIKED "putting up" the stuff.
So...Friday morning, dad, Emilie, Abigail, and I put on a TON of bug spray, donned our long pants and hats, and drove through the countryside near mom and dad's house to pick wild plums. We found an AWESOME bunch of trees near an old cemetary, and didn't even have to go looking for more in other locations. When we'd picked four or five buckets full, we went back to the house, and picked crabapples from the neighbors tree as well.
After taking showers to wash off the bug spray (and any ticks that might have attached themselves to us while we were crawling through the ditch to get the plums), I set to work. It really IS a lot of work to make jelly, but there's something EXTREMELY cool about picking fruit, processing it, and then having jars and jars (okay...actually just jars) of bright pink sweetness the very same day (I know...how LAME, but it really IS therapeutic for me, and the jelly ends up tasting REALLY fresh!).
THIS year, I spent MOST of Friday doing just that. I think it started as a "nostalgia" thing...Grandma Reynolds always had JARS and JARS of jelly in her basement at the farmhouse...strawberry and wild plum, mostly, but sometimes raspberry and other fruits from the farm too. So...I started out making jelly to honor her memory...then just decided that I really LIKED "putting up" the stuff.
So...Friday morning, dad, Emilie, Abigail, and I put on a TON of bug spray, donned our long pants and hats, and drove through the countryside near mom and dad's house to pick wild plums. We found an AWESOME bunch of trees near an old cemetary, and didn't even have to go looking for more in other locations. When we'd picked four or five buckets full, we went back to the house, and picked crabapples from the neighbors tree as well.
After taking showers to wash off the bug spray (and any ticks that might have attached themselves to us while we were crawling through the ditch to get the plums), I set to work. It really IS a lot of work to make jelly, but there's something EXTREMELY cool about picking fruit, processing it, and then having jars and jars (okay...actually just jars) of bright pink sweetness the very same day (I know...how LAME, but it really IS therapeutic for me, and the jelly ends up tasting REALLY fresh!).
I spent from noon to about TEN THIRTY that night making batch after batch. First a batch of wild plum, then another batch of wild plum, then a batch of crabapple, then another batch of crabapple...in all FORTY jars of the stuff.
It will probably take me about three years to eat all of this jelly (even after giving away MOST of it), but it's SO GOOD, and really reminds me of my grandmother. Such great memories of that wonderful farm!
I've also canned pickled beans, bread and butter pickles (which ended up being bread and butter MUSH), and a few other assorted vegetables, but jelly is the only one that I've continued doing on a regular basis...what's up with that??!!
It will probably take me about three years to eat all of this jelly (even after giving away MOST of it), but it's SO GOOD, and really reminds me of my grandmother. Such great memories of that wonderful farm!
I've also canned pickled beans, bread and butter pickles (which ended up being bread and butter MUSH), and a few other assorted vegetables, but jelly is the only one that I've continued doing on a regular basis...what's up with that??!!
Abigail and Emilie getting ready to pick wild plums!
Me in the ditch, picking plums!
"Grandpa" helping Abigail get the plums near the top of the tree!
Wild plums in their natural habitat
Crabapples ready to pick!
Washed, and ready to "juice"
Stir, stir, cook, strain, repeat
Wild plum juice ready for the pectin and sugar
Crabapples ready to "boil down"
"Fruits" of the laborAnyway...hope YOU had a chance to do something that YOU really enjoy this Labor Day weekend!
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