Apricots and some Strawberries by neocles, on Flickr

All Jammed Up by neocles, on Flickr

The apricot canning project this year was small but reasonably successful. I lost very few apricots due to my branch supports, and we ate lots of fresh ones. Finally the day came when they had to be picked, and I brought them all in. I kept them in the fridge to try to have fresh fruit on hand for as long as possible. But last night the time came to preserve the rest.

I couldn’t find the online recipe I used last year that included orange zest. But I had lots of lemons and so just went with the easiest thing I could find that called for some lemon juice. It also called for about 3/4 cup sugar to each cup fruit. I ran out of regular sugar a cup shy and so substituted brown sugar for the last cup. I like the slightly darker flavor it adds, but in retrospect, I probably should have just cut the sugar by a cup anyway. This batch is a bit sweeter than I remember the batch from last year being.

But it’s fun just the same and I’ve got jam to get me through the fall anyway. I guess canning is catching on. I heard this NPR story the other day on how canning classes are in demand as people try to revive this ancient alchemical skill in order to beat the bad economy. I can’t help thinking that there are all these things we as a society are doing totally wrong because we have been bamboozled into thinking that we can’t do anything ourselves, and that real happiness comes from buying everything and making nothing. We only get a glimpse of the truth when pushed by a crisis to rethink what we’re doing. Well, more on this in a future rant. Right now, I’m going to eat some some toast and jam.