Some things in my adult life I've never done. I've never made jelly. At home on the farm as a child we always canned and made all sorts of things. I was always made to help! Canning of any kind was always a big job. It took all hands of every age.
So having said all that -- my Dad has raspberry bushes and this Spring and Fall he has had a bumper crop! So he gives his favorite daughter :) the berries which he knows I dearly love!!
At first it was great! Eat a few, freeze a few, give a few away, eat some more....YIKES!!!! What am I going to do with all these raspberries???? Make Jelly a little voice says. Then the fear sets in --- I've never made jelly by myself!! I wouldn't know the first thing about it. So I call my sister, Suzanne, who is an expert at everything cooking! "Oh, it's not hard at all. You can do it!" (Yeah, right) Only with her help I say!!
So yesterday was the day! My Mom, Suzanne, Rebecca (my niece) and her baby daughter Chloe and I stared out making jelly. It takes a village we determined -- all that work! Cooking berries, putting them in a cloth and squeezing the juice out to have beautiful seedless jelly, measuring sugar, cooking, stirring, cooking some more, stirring, washing and scalding jars and lids, stirring some more then pouring juice in the jars and putting the lids on!! Whew -- crazy -- we were crazy!! I miss measured the first batch of juice/sugar ratio and so we ended up having to cook that batch a really long time but what else did we have to do? I think I was busy talking and not measuring....imagine that?
Really it was such fun and the jars of jelly were so pretty with the sun shinning in on them on the counter -- it was great! I felt one step closer to Martha! :) Except we had so much more fun than Martha would have I'm sure!! During all of this we bounced the baby, had lunch and entertained my brother who had to be in on the fun and to come visit with his Mom and 2 favorite sisters !! It really, really was a great day!! The jelly is perfect!!
(Guess what? I still have berries left in the freezer and juice too! Hey, Martha......)
So having said all that -- my Dad has raspberry bushes and this Spring and Fall he has had a bumper crop! So he gives his favorite daughter :) the berries which he knows I dearly love!!
At first it was great! Eat a few, freeze a few, give a few away, eat some more....YIKES!!!! What am I going to do with all these raspberries???? Make Jelly a little voice says. Then the fear sets in --- I've never made jelly by myself!! I wouldn't know the first thing about it. So I call my sister, Suzanne, who is an expert at everything cooking! "Oh, it's not hard at all. You can do it!" (Yeah, right) Only with her help I say!!
So yesterday was the day! My Mom, Suzanne, Rebecca (my niece) and her baby daughter Chloe and I stared out making jelly. It takes a village we determined -- all that work! Cooking berries, putting them in a cloth and squeezing the juice out to have beautiful seedless jelly, measuring sugar, cooking, stirring, cooking some more, stirring, washing and scalding jars and lids, stirring some more then pouring juice in the jars and putting the lids on!! Whew -- crazy -- we were crazy!! I miss measured the first batch of juice/sugar ratio and so we ended up having to cook that batch a really long time but what else did we have to do? I think I was busy talking and not measuring....imagine that?
Really it was such fun and the jars of jelly were so pretty with the sun shinning in on them on the counter -- it was great! I felt one step closer to Martha! :) Except we had so much more fun than Martha would have I'm sure!! During all of this we bounced the baby, had lunch and entertained my brother who had to be in on the fun and to come visit with his Mom and 2 favorite sisters !! It really, really was a great day!! The jelly is perfect!!
(Guess what? I still have berries left in the freezer and juice too! Hey, Martha......)
