This morning I pickled 5 pints of garlic scapes and made 4 jars of jam. All before noon.

What are Garlic scapes? See the previous blog entitled Garlic Scapes.

What kind of jam? Well I guess you could call it mixed berries. Yesterday we picked our fruit that was ripe; some currants, raspberries, strawberries and cherries. I didn’t have enough of any of the berries to make a batch of jam so I just decided to combine them all. Unfortunately there was no recipe for this in the Ball Canning Book, the Betty Crocker Cookbook, or the package of sure jell. So I kind of had to wing it. I found a recipe that called for mixed berries, and while it listed different types of berries than what I had, I used the proportions for that recipe. When I came up a little short on the berry amount, I added a partial package of frozen raspberries that were hanging out in my freezer. Well, the results are fabulous. While this is not the way Betty Crocker would do it and I’m sure it’s not the way Martha Stewart would teach you, I am certain this is the way my grandmother (and probably yours) would have done it.

Just don’t ask me for the recipe.