A Jammy Weekend

 

Calamondin Marmalade

On Saturday, my daughter and I made calamondin marmalade with the fruit we had picked from our tree, earlier this year.  Daughter had halved and deseeded them and frozen the prepared fruit.  We let them thaw for a bit and blended them.  I know that for proper marmalade, one needs to slice the rind into thin strips, but, we omitted that step this time.  It's a whole fruit marmalade.  Six pounds of prepared fruit mixed with an equal amount of sugar and cooked until the mixture started to gel. 

While daughter stood and stirred the fruit and sugar mixture, I washed and sterilized the jam jars.  I'm planning to give the calamondin marmalade as gifts this holiday season, so, I chose small 4 oz. jars for the majority of the marmalade and a few half pint (8 oz.) jars for the remainder.  We made twenty-four of the 4 oz. jars and six 8 oz. jars, plus one extra 8 oz. jar filled to the brim with the leftover marmalade to be kept in the fridge for home use.  The rest of the jars were canned in a water bath.  They all sealed, so that's good.

Calamondin Marmalade

We made a batch of peach jam on Sunday evening.  Again, the fruit was from our garden and daughter had cut and peeled the peaches earlier in the summer and frozen them.  The bag contained 8 cups of sliced peaches.  I added the juice of three small oranges that had fallen from the tree before they had a chance to ripen, 6 cups of sugar, and some cinnamon sticks.  We made a dozen 4 oz. jars and four 8 oz. jars (with a little leftover which went into another jar for home use).

Peach Jam

Daughter will make some labels for the jars of jam and marmalade, later.

I am also planning to make a batch of blueberry jam, later on.  My plan is to give a trio of jams to several people on my gift list at Christmas and New Year.  Currently, I have approximately 25 people on my gift list; family, friends, and neighbors.  Most of the adults will receive jams and/or chutneys. They make frugal gifts because I am using homegrown fruit, so the only costs are for the jars and lids, the sugar, and the gas to cook the jam.  The homegrown fruit is a blessing.  I still have to figure out gifts for the children, but, they will get toys or games.

This weekend, I am grateful for:

- The calamondin, blueberry, and peach harvests
- Daughter's help with preparing the fruit and

- Daughter's help with the jam/marmalade making
- Being able to preserve the bounty from the garden
- Getting started on the holiday gifts

Besides making jam, we also vacuumed the house and did laundry.  Daughter also watered the back garden and planted some winter vegetable seeds.

It was a good, productive weekend.