Hot summer days made for a little bit of family bonding as our apricot tree and our plum tree both had ripe fruit ready to pick. We decided to try our hand at making some jam. Emily's first batch was combination apricot-plum...and it was so good! But our little apricot tree doesn't pack on the fruit yet but luckily our neighbor's tree was loaded. On our way we decided ask our other neighbor if we could pillage their plum tree. (last year they just let all the fruit fall to the ground.) We got a huge bucket and didn't even make a dent in the amount of plums still hanging.
Then we attacked the apricot tree. The apricots were so ripe that every time I reached for one, two would fall off. Luckily, Isaac had brought the butterfly net so we held the net under and caught the little apricots that were trying to get away.
Isaac was a trooper. He was a willing picker. Esther made a token attempt on the plums but Eve had better things to do.Emily became the master jam maker. All the jars were beautiful and set quickly. (unlike last year's grape jelly which is still very sweet juice.)
And the masterpiece!
