Jamberry!

I'm not quite sure how the idea got into my head...I think it was a combination of walking past two full plum trees on the way to campus every day...my parents talking about freezer jam...my cousin's blog entry about homemade apricot fruit leather, jelly, and juice...staying on campus late one day, hungry, and getting distracted looking up recipes for plums, and stumbling on inevitable recipes for jam and jelly.

So I made last Saturday Jam Day. And goodness, it took all day.

I had never made jam or jelly before, except for helping my grandma make wild plum jelly one summer when I was maybe eight, during my pioneer phase (I dressed up in my pioneer clothes for the event). After tasting what we had created, I decided wild plum jelly was one of the most divine things on earth, and on Saturday I was pleased to discover that domesticated plum jelly has a similar taste.

I started at about 7:30 in the morning by going across the street with a bucket and filling it with plums. I probably should have asked. I didn't. Then I spent a long time cutting them up. I messed a few things up, but I was pretty pleased with myself in the end. Especially since I didn't have fancy jar-grabbers, and the biggest pot in the apartment definitely did not fit one to two inches of water above the jars, but all of them sealed anyway.

I finally finished late. It was hot and I was sweaty. There wasn't a open space on table, counter, or top of refrigerator in the teeny-tiny kitchen. I had succeeded in making two whole batches of jelly and jam, and I realized I was now the proud owner of more of it than I think I have consumed in my entire life.