I'm in a Jam

Berries and Jars and Certo, Oh My!

Actually I am in a kitchen that smells like jam and is full of jam making 'stuff'. Now before you get all proud of me and my domestic jam making skills, I have to admit that my mom has been here for two days making the jam. I'm just an innocent bystander really. A bystander who gets to help her sister cut the tops off 6 flats of strawberries. A bystander who gets to wash dishes and try to keep things semi clean. A bystander who points out the jam splatters on the pretty new walls to her mother and who thinks her mother might actually prefer using the bystander's kitchen all alone. So not really a bystander at all, more like a sarcastic pain in the ass helper. Whatever. I have 70 jars of jam to choose from now, and more will be coming tomorrow on day 3 of the jam marathon.

It's kind of a give and take venture. I give my kitchen and storage space for the jam and I take whatever amount of jam I can use in a year. It's a win-win situation I think. My kids LOVE my mom's Nanking cherry jelly! They probably go through a jar every week or two. Beth helped pick the cherries this year. Of course by help I mean she picked about 7 and then went and played with the dogs and the kitties while grandma and grandpa picked enough to make, hopefully, a years worth of jelly. Katie picked a bucket at her other grandma's house this year as well and these were delivered to my mom for freezing for future jam use.

A fun, hot, sticky, tiring time was had by all.

That's my mom on the end. The rest of the ladies just came with the Certo.

Well, not really.