Last weekend, my daughter, Joy Burns Day and I made 41 half pints of strawberry preserves. This is had become a tradition for us to make preserves every summer. We make strawberry, plum, peach and I make apple butter. It all started when one of my former employees, Nancy, brought me a jar of peach preserves and my daughter tasted it on a biscuit and declared that it was the best thing she had ever eaten out of a jar. We bought peaches for Nancy as an incentive to come over and teach us her method of making peach preserves. We have been making various preserves now for about 10 years. Ken, my late husband, enjoyed it as well and so he bought us the big copper pot in the picture. Copper cooks so much faster than stainless steel. We each have our own chore in the process. I prepare the fruit and chop it in a food processor. Joy does the cooking. Kate, my 10 year old granddaughter labels the jars. This years batch turned out beautiful. Joy said “the preserves are so red that it looks like we added food color”.
I don’t know which I enjoy the most, eating the preserves or the family time together making them. Come to think of it, I love both.
