Apple Pie Jam

Recently I was listening to NPR and heard a great story about a blogger whose specialty is canning.  The best part about the story was listening to the sound jars make as they vacuum seal after their water bath.  That really brought back memories!  The blogger featured in the story  is Mrs. Wheelbarrow, and her blog was really interesting.  That set me off on an internet hunt for interesting or unusual jam recipes.  I found two I really wanted to try, one uses frozen unsweetened strawberries and fresh cranberries, and is called Christmas Jam, and the second was a creation called Apple Pie Jam.

Imagine my surprise when, within a few days of deciding to make apple pie jam, Mrs Wheelbarrow herself featured that recipe!  I had to make it!  We had apples aplenty from our trip to the Community Apple Orchard.  Last Saturday was a day crammed with lots of fun things, including a trip to Pella and to the local farmer's market- it went by so quickly, as most of my Saturdays do.  It's the one day I don't work at either of my jobs, and I try to make sure to spend just enough time to get the laundry done and do minimal housekeeping so I can have some play time.  Here's what we picked up Saturday:

We had a very late lunch, and then weren't very hungry for supper.  I had dinner in the crockpot anyway, so we decided to just let it continue to do its thing while we made the jam.  Halfway through, I realized that my grandma's ladle wasn't anywhere- Jeffrey had left it at a work potluck on Thursday (and now it's missing, which makes me very sad).  Jam also takes a lot of sugar, and if I wanted to make two batches, someone would have to go to the store.  Jefrey got elected, while I finished up the first batch and started peeling and chopping apples for batch #2.



I had everything ready by the time Jeffrey got back from the store with a new plastic (ICK!) ladle and 2 bags of sugar.  I put this batch into itty bitty gift jars.  Here are the results of our labor.  The color is very dark, because of the brown sugar and spices in the recipe. 

I had just enough  warm jam left over to pour over a little dish of vanilla ice cream for each of us.  Delicious!

Peach Jam

I learned to make jam when I was about 13, in my local 4-H club.  I was a "townie" 4-Her, the "country kids" 4H groups back then were more for those who lived on farms, had horses to ride, or livestock to raise- mostly boys.  My club was all girls, and the focus was strictly on home economics. 

I loved my leader- I swear there was nothing Mrs. Kohns didn't know how to do!  She lived in the country, outside the little town in northwest Iowa where I grew up.  AND she had a player piano with tons of music rolls- very entertaining!  I loved the meetings that were held at her farmstead.  I learned how to crochet, knit, sew, and cook.  One of my favorite things was making jam.  One year my best friend Laura and I even made mulberry jam, because mulberries were plentiful and free.  It was awful! 

Peach jam is great, though, and very easy to make.  Earlier this month I bought a lug of Colorado peaches, and froze 5 quarts of peach slices for later.  We'll enjoy them on blustery, cold, snowy winter days, when it seems like spring will never arrive (if we can wait that long!). 


Bringing the jam to a rolling boil


The peaches were so good that I bought a second lug, and made my first batch of jam last night.  Jeffrey was baking cookies at the same time, so my prep area was restricted to a little counter top that is only 24 inches wide- and I still had enough room to peel and dice the peaches.  I also had the clean jars soaking in hot water in the kitchen sink, taking them out and drying them as I needed them.  I used the same counter space to ladle the cooked jam into the jars for processing.




The finished product!


We have a glasstop stove, and so I couldn't use my old blue spatterware enamel waterbath canner- it's so big it can't fit on the alloted burner space (I'm told trying to do so could burn out the burner element).  I made do with a stock pot that allowed 1-2 inches of water to fit over the jarred jam, using a new plastic basket contraption that made lowering and raising the jars into the boiling water possible.  All my jars sealed, so my efforts were successful!

I've got my eye on a recipe for Apple Pie Jam next, to use some of the Paula Red apples we got in Fort Dodge.  Do you have a favorite jam recipe?  Please comment below, and share!