Jam Fest

On July 5th, we made the trek back out to North Bend again to Mandee and Nathan's to embark on the new adventure of making Jam. I remember my Mom making jam when I was kid, but this was the first time I really helped.

After gathering the supplies including 105 lbs of strawberries, 175lbs of sugar, 105 boxes of pectin, and lots of containers, we had 7 people working for about 5 hours to produce about 26 gallons, yes gallons of jam. Dusty and I are the proud owners of about 2 gallons worth, and it should last at least a year at the rate Dusty eats it. The rest was split between the families, but if anyone wants to buy some at a price of about $4.50 for 24 oz, I could probably hook you up. It sure is tasty.

Dusty helped run the cuisinart, and I did all the measuring of the berries and sugar. I also help stir in sugar in bit. Overall, it was a good experience, and really fun, and now we get to enjoy the product.

Dusty running the cuisinart to slice the berries to just the right consistency to have small little chunks in the jam.Mom and Mandee cooking the pectinGrandma stirring sugar, and Brett stirring pectinGrandma continuing to stir, and April waiting for Brett to finish stirring the pectin so she can pour. I am not sure how the pregnant one got stuck pouring. It looked very challenging with big bowls over an 8 mo pregnant belly. I was thoroughly impressed.

Here is the finished product. Lots and Lots of Jam

After we made Jam, we visited for a bit with the family. Braden (April and Brett's son) had a great time playing with Ean (Mandee and Nathan's son). Ean is about 6 weeks older than Braden.