Wednesday, August 18, 2010

In a Jam



My fig tree has been very kind to me this year. It must like all this hot weather. I don't.



This is my third batch of jam. The first batch was my simple jam that is just figs and sugar that is cooked down to mush. I keep it in the fridge and use it fresh. The second batch was from a recipe I found on the web. It calls for lemons and pectin. I'm not too crazy about it. I want to taste figs, not lemons. The third batch is with pectin and NO lemons.



I decided to use my ancient canning skills to actually "put up" the last two batches rather than just stick it in the fridge. I knew I couldn't eat that much in the recommended month's time so I bought some jelly jars and processed it. It's been years since I have done this and it was easier than I thought although I totally freaked out when I discovered that my jams were cooling down into the consistency of rubber. I have never used pectin before and I feared I had used too much, although I followed the directions on the box carefully. After opening a jar this morning, I am happy to report that the consistency is just fine. I now how have a dozen little jars of fig jam and the tree is still full. Now I'm going to have learn how to dry them.

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