a little about jam

I made a second batch of strawberry freezer jam this week ... and I just love it! It's rather easy (no straining out the seeds), it lasts for a while (it'd be pretty hard for my family to polish off five jars of jam in a few days ... unlike say ... cookies), and it's healthier than any jam I can find on the shelf at Rainbow. Plus, since the berries aren't cooked, I'm under the (hopefully correct) impression that the fruit still retains its vitamins. To top it off ... the jam is just as good slathered over vanilla ice cream as it is on toast. Actually, it's probably tastier on ice cream.

More about jam ... I've been stealthily picking some black-raspberries this week as well ... and to my surprise I've already gathered enough for what else ... but a tiny batch of jam! Last year, it took all of the berries I could locate just to eek out a tiny recipe of black-raspberry jam. However, I recently discovered another bush, and it produces pretty sizeable berries to boot! (I've also gathered a few dozen mosquito bites and a fair amount of scratches ~ but it's worth it.)

I only need two cups of black-raspberry juice to make two coveted jars of yum ... but it takes about five, maybe six, cups of berries to get the two cups of juice. So late last night, I spent fifty minutes just mashing the berries through a strainer to remove the seeds ~ and I had exactly enough! Can't wait to drizzle it over a big bowl of Blue Bunny! Pure YUM!


P.S. Blue Bunny PREMIUM All-Natural Vanilla tastes how ice cream really ought to taste! All it contains is: milk, cream, sugar, dry milk, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and vanilla beans! It can't be beat ... so we always get about eight cartons whenever it's on sale.