I made jam!
Yep. jam. I canned it up beautifully too.
It was my first “real” canning experience. I was a bit intimidated. I’ve had the supplies for years and have used my cans for herbs, sauces with short shelf life, etc. But to can for real for real, I was scared.
Anyway. I did it and I was successful which felts like quite an accomplishment, to be honest.
So, why did I decide to jam it up last night you ask?
Well! for the past year or so I’ve been on this mission to significantly reduce my waste as much as possible… but since this current situation in the world I’ve turned it up a notch to not wanting to let any item I purchase go to waste.
It feels like a personal responsibility to me to not take what I have for granted. And food, good, delicious, healthy food is in fact a privilege, my friends.
Which has led me to make some fun and new things lately. Typically I just put fruit that’s about to go back in the freezer to use in smoothies later but let’s face it, one girl only needs SO many frozen bananas in her life. So last week I turned almost bad bananas into bread…I had the intention of freezing part of it but that didn’t happen. I ate it all instead.
This week I had 2 cucumbers, 1 giant zucchini, some carrots, some blackberries and a bowl of kiwi that were all teetering on the edge of ruin. I was very tired of eating them after 2 weeks, so I turned to the cookbook and Pinterest!
The zucchini was transformed into this delicious spicy cake, which I will freeze a lot of because it’s massive.
The cucumber was turned into ice cubes of yum for later. (peeled, cut, blended, added a little lemon juice and poured into ice cube trays)
The carrots were peeled, sliced, and frozen. (you’ll want to freeze them separated out on a cookie sheet overnight first, then put into your choice of freezer-friendly storage)
And then came the jam!
The Kiwi was turned into a big ole batch of jam that proved to be extremely finicky but I stay committed and we got to the right consistency and were good to go.
The berries were simple and jammed up easily.
I also successfully canned without burning myself so that was a bonus!
Conclusion: I have more treats in the fridge and freezer to keep myself fed and having an abundance of healthy choices at hand. AND I have enough jam to share with my family.
Moral of the story: Get creative, friends.
Be grateful for what you have and make the most out of it.
And if that means just continuing to be more prepared and more versatile in your skills than that’s just an added bonus!