I'm Jammin', I hope You Like Jammin' Too...

That's making jam of course!  This was my very first time making jam!  I used Pomona's Universal Pectin, which is made from citrus fruit peel, and honey!  For my first batch of jam ever, it was delicious!  I gave some away so we didn't have much to enjoy for ourselves but I did freeze some apricots (processed in the food processor and lemon juice added to help retain color) so I can make more when needed!!!

Making jam seemed daunting at first.  I had the pectin on hand for about a month, pulling it out from time to time to read the directions, only to fold them back up and put the little box back into the pantry.  Our plethora of apricots were just the thing to muster up the momentum I needed!  I didn't want any apricots to go to waste so I quickly took care of them by splitting them to take the seeds out and chopped them in my trusty food processor and made jam!  The process included mashing four cups of fruit mixed with 1/4 cup of lemon juice, and 4 tsp of calcium water (sounds complicated, I know - the calcium comes with the pectin and you add it to water via the directions - easy) then heated to just boiling.  Add 1/2 to 1 cup of sweetener (I used 3/4 cup of honey), 3 tsp of pectin mixed into sweetener, then added to the fruit/lemon juice/calcium water mixture,  stirring constantly for about two minutes until the pectin is dissolved.  Bring to another boil then pack mixture into jars of choice (the directions call for eight 8oz jars but it only filled six)!   Next, boil jars to seal the canning lids for about 10 minutes - time specified for jar size.  And you are finished!  Total time to make six 8oz jars of jam was approximately 30 minutes - WAY easier than I thought!

Have you made jam before?!  What flavors?!  How about any good "jammin'" stories?  Now that I am confident that I can produce delicious jam, I am looking forward to making all sorts of flavored creations!