My Beautiful Failures

I should be kicked off the internets. Really. Yesterday I grossly misrepresented myself with a status update and photo of some gorgeous jars purporting to be blueberry-rhubarb jam and raspberry jam. People “liked” them so much. Someone even offered to pay money for one of them.

But this morning I sat there shifting the jars back and forth and realizing that, while the blueberry-rhubarb jam was sort of passable, the raspberry jam is definitely syrup. Not set.

I was much better at making jam when I didn’t know how to do it. Back then I was forced to follow a recipe. And I consulted it many, many times during the making of the jam.

This time, I used a recipe on my own blog!! So, you see, it gets worse. I not only misrepresented, I have also grossly misled people. And I was feeling really good about myself, too, because the photo on the original post of the blueberry-rhubarb jam is my one photo that got picked up on Pinterest. And it is all over Pinterest. It rules the blueberry-rhubarb jam category on Pinterest. And that batch really was good.

But going back this morning to the Ball canning recipe, I see that one should not do as I instructed and after boiling the fruit and sugar for one full minute take off the heat and add the pectin then put in jars. One should add the pectin and then bring to a full boil while stirring constantly for one minute. Doesn’t that make more sense? And the people at Ball (who made the jars so must know what they’re talking about) also cook the fruit and lemon juice down first, then add the sugar all at once, incorporate, and add the pectin when it gets to a full boil, stir for one minute, then put in the canning jars. Everything about that makes sense.

In the final analysis, these jars are full of berries I picked myself at the peak of ripeness and on the same day mixed with sugar, lemon juice, and 1/2 Tbs of butter, then put in jars and boiled until they sealed. The contents will be delicious on pancakes and on ice cream and oatmeal and on yogurt. It can even be drizzled onto Popovers and on English muffins. Last night I spread some of the remnant blueberry-rhubarb stuff on a graham cracker with cream cheese on it. The stuff that dripped off, I just licked up with my finger. Problem solved.

Oh, and this afternoon, I was simmering some wonderful blueberry-thyme syrup and while it was going, I decided to just do a quick walk around the garden. Nothing big. Didn’t even take a bucket.

Got distracted and harvested most of the onions (55, so total of roughly 75 this season).

When I came back, it was more like jam than syrup. I dutifully strained it and put it in a fancy bottle that used to have vinegar in it. When I mixed it in my seltzer for a taste, it sank straight to the bottom. Enough stirring, though, and it cooperated. And with a sprig of thyme in it, it looks so fancy.