I'm pretty excited about that. I don't usually make jam unless I get a ton of free fruit, or there's good fruit on sale at our grocery store, which has kind of been a produce wasteland so far this summer. I'm really particular about the way I want the fruit to look if I'm going to bother making jam at all. It just can't all be overripe, and I think our grocery store must be the last fruit drop off area in the state, because most of what we get is already ripe or even a little over by the time we buy it. So, good for freezing, not ideal for canning. For me, anyway.
My grandma had this whole thing about making sure to use ugly fruit and some underripe fruit to get the whole spectrum of flavor. I don't know if that part's true, but jam sure does set a lot better with some underripe fruit in there. And the ugly fruit is sometimes the nicest on the inside.
However, I was at the store yesterday, minding my own business, when BAM! I saw that plums were on sale AND that they were not all ripe AND that there were some ugly ones in there.
That's the jam trifecta. It's on now.
I'm only making one batch, for us, because there wasn't enough there to do two, but I'm sure there will be more jam-making this summer. I can feel it. I will also be making marmalade in the fall, when the stupid store gets some decent citrus fruit in because the pathetic excuses they've had for oranges have just been making my brain hurt lately. I haven't had good marmalade in a year or so, because I haven't made any.
And I only like my own, so there.
Just came to the realization that I wrote a whole page about jam and fruit selection. That is not sad at all. Really, it's not.
Maybe it is. But just a little. JAM JUST MAKES ME SO HAPPY I CAN HARDLY STAND IT AND I HAVE TO USE THE CAPS LOCK.
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