Plum Jam

I found gorgeous plums at the farmers market yesterday. The only problem was that most of the quart was overripe. Not so good for eating but wonderful for jam making. I cannot remember the last time I made jam. It might have been when I had small children at home. I remember the year I was pregnant with my son -- we discovered an ancient blackberry bramble on the property where we lived. The berries were big and beautiful and sweet. People knocked on our door to ask us if they could pick. The year before I said yes. That year I said no. 

That August I must have made gallons of blackberry jam. I gave it for Christmas gifts a few months later. Best gift I ever gave. I also had jars of it for two or three years. The year before, I made strawberry jam. It was my first jam-making experience. The ladies at the church got together and made it for a Strawberry Festival. After that, I made freezer jam as long as I could find good strawberries. I didn't want to go through the whole boiling jars thing. The year of the giant blackberries I was all in. The next year we moved.

Over the years I've made cherry jam and peach jam, apricot jam and raspberry-apricot jam. I think I've also made blueberry jam. I'd like to try my hand at rose hip jam.

I'm usually up for a good adventure. Whether it's learning to make jam or learning to kayak or striking out into the desert for the first time. And my life is always the better for it. 

The Great Summer Writing Retreat of 2019 continues. One hundred days of writing unedited ideas and following a prompt to its sometimes illogical conclusion.