In A Jam

It seems I just keep saying this but there are some things that are worth the effort.  I seldom buy a jar of jam or jelly at the grocery store unless I am using it for a baking project.  If I am going to be eating it myself, I never buy my jam at the store.  You will never know what a grape tastes like if you only experience it through commercially made jelly and I do not even think you can find my favorite jam flavor, strawberry rhubarb, in the jelly section along side the peanut butter.

When I was young, my mother and aunt would go strawberry picking every year when the berries were ripe at the local farm.  It was a task that I longed to help with when I was too young to be allowed in the fields and later learned was too much like hard work when I got to an age where I was expected to participate.  It is inevitably a hot, sweaty and tedious job.  Especially when we were trying to fill four large baskets in order to then get a fifth one free.  The berries were then split between my mom, aunt and my grandmother who used them to make jam she would later sell to lucky townspeople.

You might ask, why not at least buy the berries at the store if not the jam?  Again it is just worth the effort.  My most recent trip to the strawberry fields last summer was particularly hard work as the berries were small and it took twice as many to come home with enough for a couple of batches of jam.  But picking each berry at the peak of its ripeness and going straight home to cut them and cook them results in capturing all of the flavor and jewel tone colors.  It is a bit of summer that can be enjoyed throughout the year.  I view strawberries, much like an ear of corn, I need to see them in the field in order to trust what they will taste like on my tongue. 

Whether it is strawberries or grapes or peaches, you get the best fruit at the peak of the season and usually just need sugar and pectin to transform it into something that is divine.  That season of perfection may only last a couple of weeks so be sure to grasp the moment.  And if you have never made your own preserves, have only ever had the overly jelled and processed jams and jellies from aisle 5, find a way to beg, borrow or steal some and you will never look at a PB&J the same way.