From Basement to Kitchen

Yes, I did spend more time in the basement this morning, and if I'd been able to spend the entire day, I might have finished everything I wanted to do down there.  But another task called to me with a very insistent voice.

The phone.

We had ordered raspberries and during the morning I answered the phone to hear a cheerful voice telling me that the "Raspberries are in!"  That finished the basement activities for the day because raspberries wait for no one.  When they're ripe, you do what needs to be done immediately.  So we pulled out our aprons and jam-making materials and went to work. 

 

I won't tug on your patience by going through all the steps you probably know involved in jam-making, and if you don't, you won't miss anything because of the omission.  Making jam isn't difficult or terribly time consuming especially if you work as a team.  D and I have our assigned tasks and among his is the job of putting on the jar tops as you can see below (he also is in charge of mashing the fruit through the sieve that looks like a witch's hat - very messy and tiring on hand muscles).  I'm in charge of the cooking part as well as getting jam from pot to jar with a minimum of gooey mess.

Below you can see the old pink Kellogg glass measuring cup I use to pour the jam into the jars.  I have several of these measuring cups, and I really love them.  See the three spouts on it?  Very handy!  Also, the glass is much thinner than the Pyrex ones, and I think the Kellogg's version pours better - fewer drips.  Though to look at the state the cup in the picture is in, you'd be excused if you wondered about the drips!  All I can say is I fill the cup by immersing it in the cook pot to fill it with jam.  Hence its appearance.

 

We were able to make two batches and get 8 1/2 pints of jam (one of the jars didn't make it into the photo above) and still have 2 full half pints of berries left.  A great day, indeed!