Jamsters Anuual Jam Session for 2010

NOTE: All photos on today's post taken and copyrighted by my Ol' Same, Dame Judith.

First, start with a freezer full of fruit picked during the summer: grapes, Oregon grapes, rhubarb, peaches, plums, Bing cherries, zucchini--oops, that's for bread, not jam;-) -- blackberries, raspberries....

 Then gather three SOCs (sisters of choice) - Lee, Nancy, and Lenora.  You might notice, we're all wearing aprons with our names on them. There is a reason for the names - after several hours/days of jamming, we're a little brain dead, and it's very helpful if we're properly identified. It's also extremely confusing if we grab the wrong apron, then not only are the others confused, but so is the wearer!

 Damson Plums cooking. We have to remove the pits, and it was easier to cook them first. Then, we got smart! We started nuking them in the microwave instead of wasting a burner.

 Nancy at the food mill

 Lee mushing the nuked plums through the pepper roaster. The pepper roaster had big holes, but too big for the plum pits. Then Nancy ran the pulp and skins through the food mill to remove all the goodness from the skins.

 Jars waiting to be filled with goodness! We filled 352 jars this year - down about a hundred from last year, but that was OK with us. We still have 117 jars each to eat or share with friends as we see fit. What did we make?

We started off with Canton Ginger (if you strain the ginger out after cooking, dry it, coat it in sugar, you have Candied Ginger); Sweet Onion Jam, Damson Plum jam, Ginger Peach Honey, Cherry Marmalade, Asian Pear Marmalade, Tangy Plum Ketchup, Blackberry/Oregon Grape jam, Jalapeno Jelly, and I forgot the others. But lots of yummy things! Trust me.

We also made three large jars of Preserved Lemons for Moroccan style cooking (the lemons are salted - to be well rinsed before use!)

The Jamsters posing in front of the red stove. At the end of the session (started about 7pm Thursday, ended 6pm Sunday) we were still laughing and having fun!