"Forty three jars of jam. Are you sure it will be enough?" A look of concern came over my son's face, then a grin. He's not old enough to do sarcasm convincingly.
In my mind, there are three reasons to make jams and jellies.
The first reason is economical. I started the day with what I considered to be an ample amount of three of the four ingredients I'd need to make strawberry jam-- water, sugar, and Sure-Jell (the fruit pectin that helps jams and jellies thicken). By noon, I had way more strawberries than other ingredients. Mid-process, I had to make a supply run to the grocery store. While there, I did some comparison shopping.
My strawberry jam costs $1.35 in materials. Jam produced with the same ingredients and a fancy label costs $4.59. The cheapest jar of jam was $2.46 and contained the following ingredients: strawberries, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sugar, fruit pectin, and citric acid.
This brings me to my second reason to make my own jam. I want to know what is in the food that I feed to my children and I DON'T want any high fructose corn syrup in it. I also would like some reassurance that the berries used in our jam are not soaked in pesticides and herbicides. Picking my own guarantees that I get fruit that meets my standards.
My third reason for making me own jam is the satisfaction I get from doing it. I honestly had a good time doing it, laughing long distance with a friend, singing Bob Marley tunes ("We're jammin'. And I hope this jam is gonna last."). Plus I get to entertain and impress my children. My oldest takes jars of jam and loaves of homemade bread to wrestling matches for his friends' favorite PB&J sandwiches. My youngest son gets to laugh at his crazy mom's strawberry jam stash and know that he picked most of those berries. My five year old daughter took notes in her notebook and made a pictorial recipe for strawberry jam.
The jam that we use all year long is economical, ecologically friendly, HFCS-free, and full of happy memories and Bob Marley tunes.
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