I had to use an exclamation mark in my title, because we do not just have strawberries. We have strawberries! Lots and lots of beautiful, red, ripe, locally grown* strawberries. Two flats of them, to be exact (that's 24 pints). Yeah, so I went a little crazy at the strawberry stand today.
But you see, my girls love jam. That may be an understatement. Perhaps I should use an exclamation mark with it, too. My girls love jam! They eat toast with jam probably five or six mornings out of the week. When Lucy eats toast, instead of holding it horizontally in front of her and inserting it into her mouth edge-first, she holds it vertically in front of her face and basically buries her mouth right in the middle, for maximum jam contact. We also use jam pretty frequently for PB&Js, and my husband has been known to eat it on pancakes. We are a high-jam-consumption household.
Every year, I make homemade jam, and every year, we use it all up before fresh fruit comes into season again, and we have to resort to eating store-bought jam again instead of the yummy homemade stuff. So, I figured I would make 2008 the Year of Enough Jam.
I've jammed up one entire flat so far, resulting in 16 jars, and am planning on another night of jamming tomorrow. Will 32 jars (that would give us nearly three jars per month) be Enough Jam? Only time will tell.
* So I haven't been an active participant in the Local Eating Challenge the last few weeks, mainly because I had a baby and haven't really had time to make it to the Farmer's Market or one of the local produce stands. It's been more of a snatch what I can while running through the grocery store with three children kind of thing. I'm spending a TON of time breastfeeding, though. Does that count? I mean, forget local farms or even backyard gardens--we're talking about a food source that is produced and served within my own body. I don't think it gets more local than that.
3 comments:
That's so funny... when I first wrote the Week 2 Roundup post, I linked to your "Milk Machine" post. But then I second-guessed myself and thought you might not appreciate it, so I deleted it! But, yes, you couldn't get much more local than that. :-)
goodness, gracious, yum!
yay for fresh jam! I made my own for the first time this year... so worth it. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it, because we don't really eat that much jam. But we've done about a jar a week since I made it since it's so good. :) I realized I have no desire to eat store-bought jam and always opted for honey on toast and occasionally on sandwiches. My other option was my mom's amazing assortment of homemade jam, whenever I could steal a jar or two off of her, but then we had to ration it out and make the jar last till we saw her again. :) But now we, like you, have jars upon jars of yummy jam to enjoy with plenty to give away too! (glad to hear you oregonians finally got some strawberries. :))
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