I be jammin'

So yesterday, I did something I have wanted to do for a VERY long time (talking years here, people).

I made jam.

I have wanted to learn how to can since I read about it in The Tightwad Gazette some 7 years ago. The idea of being able to not only grow my own food, but also store it has great appeal. It means one day I can live out on a farm in themiddleofnowhere and be closer to being 100% self-sufficient, thus also improving my chances of surviving in the coming zombie apocalypse.

I had also read that canning is a skill that can be used to save money-more on that later.

So for the past 7 years, I have been reading what I can about canning. A very useful resource for food preservation in general is Preserving Summer's Bounty, a book I was very excited to receive, but disappointed that, while it did include excellent and clear canning instructions, it pretty much discouraged it as the most efficient method of food preservation and tends to advocate the freezer as the most efficient method of preservation.

However, this does not take into account the cost of using a freezer or the inevitability of spending countless hours canning, only to have a major summer or winter storm take out your electricity and destroy your supply of stockpiled food.

So why did it take me so long to can? Well, I thought you needed special equipment. And my kitchen is small and lacking in counter space. And fruit is expensive. And jam is cheap. And I don't eat it that often. And then there's the b-word-botulism.

Then I came across a great article about canning in the June edition of Bon Appetit. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a copy to post it here, but I am sure it will be posted on epicurious soon. For the time being, I will just say that the author was so enamoured of making jam that she made the process seem almost pornographic. And she made it seem so simple.

This, combined with a nice sale on fruit at Giant this week (99 cents for a pint of blackberries!!!) made it seem worthwhile to give it a whirl.

Because I have been reading about canning for so long, I already had all of the materials on hand. It was just a matter of cooking up the macerated berries (raspberries and blackberries in case you were wondering) and putting it into sterilized jars.

It didn't take more than an hour, not including the macerating time and the result was amazing. It was so easy, I ended up making that night's dinner at the same time.

As you can see, it came out gorgeously. And I have NEVER had any type of berry-related thing that tastes as good as this does. This morning, I had it on toast with butter and jam. I am going to try to mix some with yogurt to make my own berry-flavored yogurt (and maybe freeze some later to make popsicles for the coming summer weather.) Even though I am not fond of pancakes, I am thinking about making a batch just to have my jam on top of them. And peanut butter.....can't wait.

So, was it cost-effective? While the blackberries were on sale, the raspberries were not-altogether, I spent $12 on the fruit alone. I ended up with 32 ozs of jam. I can buy 32 oz of Smuckers at Costco in bulk for 99 cents. So clearly, it did not save money.

That said, it is not yet berry season here in the mid-Atlantic, but will be soon. I have never really priced out cheap sources of berries here, but will be scouring farmer's markets and PYO farms soon. Even if it is not cost-effective, I have to believe it is healthier-the only ingredients in my jam are berries, lemon juice and sugar. No preservatives of any type. And it tastes 50,000 times better than any other jam I have ever had.

Furthermore, the author of the Bon Appetit article said it was easy to swap out the fruit. So talk to me again in July when Maryland's delicious peaches ripen.

The prospect of enjoying home canned summer fruit in the middle of January 2009 makes me almost look forward to the winter.

Oh, and by the way-I have been totally stoked about jam for the past 24 hours (can't you tell?) and have been mentioning my excitement to Michael constantly. This morning, (while I was enjoying jam and butter on wheat toast) he says "Of course you would make good jam-it's in your name. Jam-ee." And he grinned.

And people wonder why I constantly threaten him with divorce.