OK, this project didn't take me the whole week plus that it has been since I posted, but it did take me at least three full days. One day to get ready.. One (16 hour) day to bottle... One to recouperate on the couch. Brandi and I got together and did (drumroll please) 80 pints of apricot jam. We also did 22 quarts of apricot nectar. We started the day at a 6:00am picking assignment out at the church farm. They let us glean some of the overripe and too small fruit, but most of our apricots were from Golden's grandma's house. We met our friend Echo there and she came over later to learn how to bottle jam. It was a fun, unexpected treat to spend some time with her. We had the kids washing and cutting apricots while we measured sugar and pineapple, stirred and stirred to prevent scorching, washed jars, and processed fruit. Thanks Golden for setting up the camp chef stove, that made it so nice! We didn't have to heat up the house so much and with more burners available, we could keep more batches going. By the end of the day everything was sticky, I had burned my fingers with hot jam, cut my hand with a knife, gotten stabbed with a stick at the orchard, and smashed my pinky with the canner (that one was the most painful.) All of this may make us sound insane for even trying, but let me tell you, there is nothing like the sight of bottles filled with fruit lined up on the counter. "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear!"
2 comments:
When you look at it like that it is really worth all the time and effort. Thanks for all you did that day and letting us invade your house.
Adam mentioned that I had this to look forward to :) Burning cutting stabbing....sounds like an "R" rated murder mystery movie!
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