Jam Day

Peter was working on Saturday - our summer normal (sad). The boys and I needed a project - and it turns out that this was Strawberry Saturday. One special Saturday each year (usually the last in June), strawberries are available at our Farmers' Market. Strawberries are Colin's latest fruit (yay!), and so I decided we needed a year's supply of homemade strawberry jam [jam is good for so many things ... added into muffins, a dip for pancakes, a little mixed into nasty medical baby cereal Nutra...]. Scotty and Michael washed the jars in our unusually hot water with the shower sprayer. Jacob washed the strawberries - they were heavy! Jacob and Michael cut the tops off the strawberries while we listened to Arnold Lobel stories on CD. Scotty helped squish the first batch - the rest ended up in the food processor! It all just barely fit in our enormous pot. Thirty jars of pretty red jam - which turned out more like jelly because the strawberries were loaded with juice. I didn't think it was going to set, but it appears to have worked. The whole process took all day long, when 4 busy boys are all at home and are eager helpers. But we always like a good project!

All the strawberries reminded me of this book that each three year old boy has loved and I now have memorized- "Mountains and fountains rain down on me, buried in berries - what a jam jamboree!"