We were out with the kids. We went to an apple orchard with my wife’s sister and her son. Had a great time, and on the way home we stopped to show our kids my wife’s old house, the one she grew up in. So we went there and looked at it.
It just sat there.
But next door was my wife’s old neighbor, who happens to run a Raspberry farm. So, I thought, let’s go visit and, while we’re there, we can pick a few berries for the kids. We parked, we said "hello," we talked for a while and asked if we could pick a few berries. He grabbed three LARGE trays filled with little plastic berry baskets. He said, “We’ll see how much you guys can pick.”
Okay.
So we picked. And we picked. And we picked some more. We ended up with a lot of berries, which made me a bit nervous as I only had a ten in my pocket. I thought, well, we picked some berries for the guy. He can sell them to someone else. But what he did was give us the Raspberries. He wouldn’t take a dime. It was an amazing kindness that was totally NOT expected. It blows me away how nice some people are, especially considering how nice some people aren’t. And in case you ever read this: Thanks again Mr. B.
My wife’s sister took some of the berries, but she didn’t want much, which left a lot of berries. A lot. My kids ate some, but they couldn’t eat all those berries. So, what do you do?
You make jam. Isn't that what you do? You make jam.
I Googled for jam recipies, figured out the basic ingredients, and decided to do “cooked” jam so it would last longer. I recruited the wife and we stumbled through four and a half jars of Raspberry jam, boiled the jars before and after and all that. Burned myself a few times. It was chaos. Didn’t think ahead of time about how I was going to get the jars in and out of the boiling water. Apparently they have tools for that, but I didn’t think about it until after the water was already boiling and the jam was cooking. So there you go. We figured it out. We used some plastic tongs and whatever we could find. It was madness. But...
Right now, in the fridge, are some jars of pretty incredible Raspberry jam. I had some on toast and, I’m telling you, it’s very tasty.
By the grace of God.
P.S. Yes, the picture is what we made, not some internet fake. Also, while writing this post, my spell correct taught me that they are called RASP berries. Not RAS berries or RAZ berries. You learn something new everyday.
© LW Publishing 2010
That stuff is the best! My Grandma makes it every now and then, and I steal as many jars as she'll let me!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great story Dave it brought many smiles to our faces and giggles to the room. I truly believe that raspberries are my favorite fruity delite. So I am just thinking if you have too much of that jam I would gladly take a jar off your hands. :)
ReplyDeleteYour friend,
Rose P. the Queen of Raspberries
Grandmas obviously make the best jam, but we do what we can. We don't have too much, but you can come over and share some jam slathered toast with us. I'm thinking of getting into jamming more often. Even though we made a huge mess and I injured myself ever so slightly, it was pretty easy and would be a lot easier with the right tools. Then I could subject people to it. I mean, we could share it.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm still here next year and you want to try some blackberry jam, I will have plenty. 5-10lbs of berries went un-picked this year because I couldn't get to them fast enough and nobody else came to get them.
ReplyDeleteSounds good to me.
ReplyDeleteDid I ever mention that raspberry jam is my favorite? I will see you in a little while!
ReplyDeleteThis is the gramma that could have coached you through, I have my own patch and there are lots of shortcuts. But it probably wouldn't have been nearly as much fun and and by doing it on your own together, you have sweet jam and sweet memories.
ReplyDeleteI will always say RAZ berries. That looks like great jam!
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going for blueberry next time, if I can find them fresh? I don't know the seasons.
ReplyDelete