i said, she said

Melissa hasn't posted in a month of sundays, so when she told me that she was gonna post about our strawberry jam challenge, i just KNEW that she was gonna tell HER side and so i would have to tell MY side...

King Soopers had a sale on strawberries - $.99 per pound

woo hootie hoo!!!

so i left Melissa to pick out some berries whilst i chose a couple of lemons and limes...

when i met up with her, she had four big packs of juicy red goodness 

and i was totally okay with that many strawberries...

till we got back home and i realized that we were gonna hafta do something with them soon, or they would make both of us crazy with watery eyes and itchy noses...

so we decided to make strawberry jam - but i didn't want to use pectin, and she did... 

i cleaned the berries, quartered them, carried the hulls out to the backyard and tossed them for compost, 

and told Thumps* to enjoy himself with the scraps, but to get the h-e-double-hockey-sticks outta the garden, and take his girlfriend with him... 

then i divided the berries into two bowls - half for me and half for Melissa - and started my jam...

which took for freakin' ever!!!

the stupid jam never did get to 220° - it topped out at 207° and refused to get any hotter - grrr!!!

in the meantime, Melissa took a shower and fluffed her hair and put on her makeup and got dressed and put on an apron

 and waited

 and waited

 and waited for me to vacate the stove...

when i finally gave up on the concoction EVER getting hot enough, i ladled the jam syrup into four pint-sized jars

floating fruit and lottsa foam

and started cleaning up my mess...

and before i had the red splatters wiped away, 

Melissa was ladling HER jam into jars - pointing out that HER jam was already getting thick 

and was a lovely color of red

no floating fruit, no foam, no fair

and tasted oh so DELICIOUS

it does, i'm not arguing that fact

and, look!!! there's no FOAM ... and the fruit isn't floating to the top!!!

 she ended up with three pint-sized jars of gorgeous, sweet, thick strawberry jam...

and i would be ever so jealous 

if i didn't know that my strawberry syrup will taste really, really good on ice cream and angel food cake and pancakes...

*i was not opposed to Thumps the Rabbit munching away - as long as he stayed away from the garden and the strawberry plants...

well...

last year i noticed that the strawberry plants had pretty much disappeared from the backyard, so i ordered $100 worth of Stark Brothers strawberries, and Melissa helped me plant them...

we planted twice as many as i thought we'd really need - half for us and half for the Wild Things...

the new plants were thriving...

till they weren't...

gone...

disappeared...

and not just the berries - entire plants disappeared

no berries, no leaves, no roots...

it was a mystery till i spotted Thumps munching strawberry leaves 
and chased his little cottontail outta the yard...

so, yeah, i may have given Thumps mixed signals when i took the strawberry hulls out for compost - i don't care if he eats them all and poops out strawberry seeds ... but he really needs to stay outta the garden...

i'm just sayin'...

If you ever find yourself in a jam, just take a moment to sit and think; calculate things, look at every angle, and then wonder where all that jam came from.

Melanie Kay Taylor