Freezer Jam

I grew up in a home where we canned and froze fresh food all the time. I even helped with the process, particularly the eating part. I was really good at the eating part. When I moved to college and was a newlywed my mom made sure to keep me supplied with canned peaches, pears, and frozen jam.

Now, I don't know at which age you are supposed to begin making things for yourself. I imagine it was a long time ago and I've been mooching off Mom for longer than I should. It was time at last to grow up a little more and make my own jam.

My biggest fear was that the sugar wouldn't dissolve and it would get gritty. This seemed to happen at least once each year to my mom, and she is an expert! Oh well. It was an expensive risk, but I had to take it.

I picked up my raspberries (I bought WAY too many.) I only had to call Mommy Dearest once, when I was picking out a box of pectin. After that, I worked on my own!

This is what was left over...Oops.

I was originally going to use a recipe off the internet but everything I found had scathing comments from people who had tried it! Everyone was criticizing the amount of sugar--whether too much or too little. Since I was a first timer I decided to follow the pectin box recipe. That mean box, though! It had so many warnings on it like "Don't do this, or you'll mess it up forever!" that I was beginning to worry it wouldn't turn out. I even considered doing the straw-rasp-jam but chickened out and stuck to straight raspberry. Don't want to get too arrogant.

No one thought to give me a potato masher for my wedding (woe is me) so I had to use a slotted spoon. It worked splendidly, although it took longer than a fancy masher would.

I almost...ALMOST put the sugar in with the pectin. The horror! I'm so grateful I read the directions nine times and on the ninth finally comprehended this part. I would have given up.

The finished product... Ta DA! Yes, I put my jam in an old pickle jar. I'm poor, remember? Pinterest would be ashamed. My other containers were frosting cups and peanut butter jars. Don't judge.

 I did add the sparklies but I was so excited and so gosh darn proud that there might as well have been real fireworks.

P.S. Have you read this book? It's my berry favorite. Great for a jam-themed day with your kids.

Jamberry on Amazon

Addition...Revived.

I'm afraid I've left all of you hanging. I announced the plans for our home addition in the fall and haven't blogged about it since. Allow me to explain...

When my husband and I first purchased our rock house we knew from the beginning that we would need to add on to it. For those of you thinking of purchasing a home, this is not a good thing. Never buy a house that won't meet your needs for at least the next ten years. Our plan was to live in our home until we were desperately cramped and then add on.

At the time, however, we had no idea how difficult it was to build onto a home. It's harder than buying an already built house, by far! We invested nearly $1500 in the process only to be told that in our situation, it couldn't be done. It was more expensive to add on than to buy a new house. Needless to say, we were intensely disappointed.

Six months later,we put our house up for sale. We had several promising showings over the weeks, but the feedback always came back the same. It was too small. Apparently everyone else is a lot smarter than we were.

When you're selling your house you tend to look at it differently. You see it through the potential buyer's eyes and begin to feel a strong attachment to it. We were feeling a budding desire to stay put. We loved our house!

It's so close to the main part of town, which means we can walk to all of Wellsville's fun summer events. It's on a corner across from a picturesque duck pond that we visit daily. We can see open fields out our windows and have amazing neighbors. Not to mention--the Wellsville Founder's Day Parade strolls right past our lot and we don't have to go anywhere to see it!

We talked and prayed about it for about a month and decided to try again. It was crazy, we knew, but we were willing to take the risk. We ordered another appraisal, filled out paperwork AGAIN, and did a lot of praying. We had paid off our second mortgage and saved up some money so the number we needed to hit was (thankfully) much smaller. When we got the results back- we were only $3000 short. Perfect. We could scrounge up $3000 before we started easily enough. I can't tell you how excited we are! It was really going to happen!

And thus, the blog is back. In the wake of disappointment that followed our first adding-on attempt, I had stopped blogging. One of my main motivators (our addition) was gone. Now I'm going to keep it all recorded for whoever may be interested. I imagine I'm not the only one out there obsessed with old houses, additions, and/or Wellsville. I hope you enjoy following the journey!...(again.)