Jammin' (and Jellyin')

One of the things I really love to do is make jelly and jam. A couple of weeks ago I saw that peaches were priced low at the store, so I made two batches of peach jam and one batch of spiced peach jam, which is so heavenly, its like spreading cobbler on your toast. E1 is responsible for the artistic arrangement above. Maybe we can go into the food styling business when she gets older, huh?

Over the 4th of July weekend I made black raspberry jelly. We ate a little, and now I've hidden the rest of it until the first snowfall this winter. Which is why I made so much peach jam - to keep us out of the b r jelly . . .

This summer I'm also hoping to jelly some blackberries, and we also have some grapes coming. From those I will make jelly and at least one batch of spiced grape jelly, which is a bit different but very good. I'm toying with the idea of making some jalapeño jelly also. That would be good over some of our chevre to serve with crackers, I think. Then later this summer and into fall we will have quite a few apples, so I will make apple butter in the crock pot and put that up into jars as well. And I'm always praying for someone to say, 'we have extra (whatever kind of fruit) , could you use some?' Well my goodness, yes, and I'll start jammin'.