The Great Jam and Jelly Jam of 2009

Ay yi yi!

So, I have had this chore in the back of my mind for a while now:

You need to do something with the berries in the freezer.

You know how it is, that "one day I will get around to it" things. Of course, the one day did not come for a very long time and now fishing season is upon us.

What does salmon fishing have to do with berries?

Everything! It all boils down to freezer space.

In the small freezer I keep berries and fish, plus the requisite packages of frozen egg skeins needed for bait later on in the year. Over a dozen gallon zip lock bags of berries in there, which take up quite a bit of space since they aren't nice flat packages like vaccum sealed fish. I have mentioned the jam and jelly making to my niece several times, but she is too busy. The very thought of tackling that chore by myself was a little too intimidating-so, I asked a good friend to come help on Sunday.

I removed 8 bags to thaw on Saturday morning: blackberries, blueberries, raspberries. That left a few smaller bags of blueberries, one bag of raspberries, and all the high bush cranberries. These are berries I have either picked or was lucky enough to scavange from family members over the past year. I also have some rhubarb awaiting attention-just remembered that too, lol

So Sunday morning we got started.....and I worked at it until about 8 pm that night when I ran out of pectin. Yesterday I picked up more pectin and did another case of blueberry last night. The final tally is:

55 jars of jam or jelly.

Seriously! 21 of those were the quilted jelly jars, the rest are pints. I used one entire 25 pound bag of sugar, plus maybe a third of another. I ended up having about three cups of rather sludgy blueberry juice left....and I tossed it out. I had used all the pectin I had picked up yesterday and I was just flat done.

Of course you readers are probably thinking:

What in heck does she need all the jam and jelly for??

Um, kids. Boys, to be exact. Ever calculate just how many PBJs they can eat in a week? My son spent the night over at a friends, and we sent along 5 pints-they have four kids and the mother does not have time (or inclination) to make their own. Later I will be dropping off at least a case at the sitters, since she too, has a ton of very active kids through her house regularly. We go through at least one pint every two weeks as it is.

Now, if I can just get the jars back..........