Let Your Life Turn To Jelly

August 1, 2020,

Just a touch will do. We don’t want too much sugar but we love the taste of jelly or jam on our toast, muffins or pancakes to go along with our coffee.

Which must have cream. Nicely stirred. Fairly hot. We can smell it now.

Do you love jelly or jam? We sure do. If so, what is your favorite flavor? They go by many names.

Including fruit preserves.

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Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits and sugar, often stored in glass jam jars and Mason jars.

Many varieties of fruit preserves are made globally, including sweet fruit preserves, such as those made from strawberry or apricot.

We absolutely love grape and plum jelly as well.

The ingredients used and how they are prepared determine the type of preserves; jams, jellies, and marmalades are all examples of different styles of fruit preserves that vary based upon the fruit used.

A fantastic company that has extensive experience creating and producing some of the most delicious jellies and jams is Smuckers.

At their home smuckers.com they share their delicious story. “For more than a century, Smucker's has been helping to make family meals more memorable. It all started in 1897 when Jerome Monroe Smucker pressed cider from his mill and, shortly after, sold his first jar of apple butter from the back of a horse-drawn wagon. Today Smucker's offers a broad range of fruit spreads, ice cream toppings, syrups, peanut butters, and more, including low sugar and sugar free varieties.”

Smile and smucker up.

That’s quite a variety. There’s more.

“Inspired by more than 120 years of business success and five generations of family leadership, The J.M. Smucker Company makes food that people and pets love. Our portfolio of 40+ brands, which are found in 90 percent of U.S. homes and countless restaurants, include iconic products you’ve always loved such as Smucker’s®, Folgers®, Jif® and Milk-Bone® plus new favorites like Smucker’s® Uncrustables®, Café Bustelo®, and Rachael Ray™ Nutrish®. During the past 15 years, we’ve grown rapidly by thoughtfully acquiring leading and emerging brands, while ensuring we have a positive impact on our more than 7,000 employees, our communities, and the planet. For more info, visit jmsmucker.com.”

That’s a good point. Whenever we’ve been served jams or jellies at restaurants, they always seem to be from Smuckers.

Sounds sweet.

Part of our love of virtually all jellies and jams is that they can be so comforting to eat.

One family in our circle had an abundance of plum trees in their yard and the wife made jars of plum jelly and gave many to neighbors and friends, including us. It was so good to the taste.

During these pandemic times, when so many of us are spending more time at home, have you ever thought about creating homemade jellies or jams? Perhaps teaching your children how to do so? It may be more straight forward than you think.

We have a visiting female writer willing to share some tips. Please meet Ms. Sally Kimbel. She has quite a resume.

She shares, “I find vintage dinnerware, china, flatware, ovenware and similar items and connect them with people who love to use these wares. I also provide some complementary new goods, such as stoneware and glass, to help people bring their creative table setting ideas into being. This in turn helps them have more enjoyable parties, family gathers and entertain in style.

I also write about pizza (a major food group) and housekeeping, which is important in this time of greater focus on economic living, doing more with less and frugality. We can take care of the home front and live comfortably with some information and techniques drawn from earlier times, mixed with modern tools, gadgets and equipment.”

Sounds very creative and energetic.

Our muffin needs some jam? It appears we’ve come to the right place.

Make Homemade Jam to Learn Home Preserving

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Summertime is a great time to start, or rekindle, your interest in home preserving.

Making homemade jam is not difficult, but like many other things, it will work best with the right tools and some understanding of why certain steps are necessary to the process.

If you want to teach yourself home preserving (generically called canning, though you most likely will be using glass jars, not metal cans), making strawberry or pineapple jam is a great place to start. These are popular fruits. If you have another favorite, of course, certainly that would be good for you.

Jam is basically fruit, sugar and pectin. Why use processed products to make your jam, if your mission is to leave out all the unnecessary additives?

Basic Tools to Start Home Preserving

The big enameled pot called a canner is large enough to do quart jars as well. For the water bath method, you need room around the jars for the boiling water to circulate.
The rack that goes in the canner is designed to keep the jars from jostling each other in the boiling water. Also, it is very efficient to lift the jars in and out of the water. The handles move further apart, and they have a hinge designed to allow you rest the rack on the rim of the pot. Remember that this will be a load of hot glass jars, so you will want to be efficient.
The jar lifter is a large tongs, with a curved section in the middle to fit around the neck of the jar. It has heat-resistant handles and rubberized grip designed to give you a firm hold on a jar.
The wide mouth funnel is very handy, too, because you want to be efficient in filling your jars, and you want to keep food off the rim. The jars won't seal properly unless the edges of the rims are clean when the lids are applied.
A supply of canning jars, bands and lids are needed to store your product. Canning jars are often sold in boxes of a dozen, and some of them come with one set of bands and lids, but be sure to check. There are jar sizes starting at a half pint, all the way up to a gallon. Pints and quarts are very popular, but the small sizes are great for jam and jelly.

Use good quality fruit, proper tools and techniques, and you can have a beautiful row of jars, sparkling with homemade jam to eat at your house, or to give as gifts.

This can be your starting point to preserving many foods at home. The list of fruit-based preserves alone includes jelly, marmalades and chutneys. Then there are tomatoes (plain, and all the variety of sauces), pickles (a huge variety), vegetables and many others, for your exploration.

If you enjoyed this article, please see my blog at [http://KimbesasHomekeeping.com] as well as product information on my Squidoo lens on preserving at http://squidoo.com/home-preserving-homemade-jam. Both have more articles to help with practical housekeeping, the best of today applied with the best of the past, to help you keep a comfortable, economical home.