Sweet Plum Jam~

When I grew up my parents had a huge garden.

I didn't realize at the time all that I was learning...

picking and snapping green beans, watching tomatoes grow,

helping my dad make the furrows and plop down the seeds.

Those are cherished memories to me now.

My mom preserved the harvest mainly through freezing and canning.

I remember that the kitchen would always be so HOT when she canned.

But, boy, was that grape jelly, tomato sauce, and frozen green beans...

good come the middle of winter!

Now, I find myself in my own HOT kitchen, canning~

And, I L.O.V.E. it!

There's just something about preserving food~

I wish I could grow all my own produce and preserve it, but my 'small' garden

this year is a humble beginning to the beautiful, large one dad & mom had.

But, that's okay, small beginnings is okay by me.

I took my 'root cellar' inventory last week and came to find out that I still have an ABUNDANCE of salsa-anybody want some?

Seriously.

I think I overdid it on that one :)

However, I'm at the end of my tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and I only have a couple quarts of stewed tomatoes left.  So, I aim to do about the same this year, if I can.

Now for the 2011 year, I just started our canning season.

I had ordered some lovely organic sweet plums.  I froze a few and decided to make jam with the rest~

I've found that labeling not only the contents,
but the month and the year is helpful in the order
I use up our stash.

I absolutely LOVE Pamona's Pectin.  You can use sucanat, honey, or even fruit juice.

Directions are clear and precise.
Last year we used this for all our jams and it worked great!