I had some friends give me 2 tall kitchen garbage bags full of rhubarb! I love rhubarb, and so yesterday and the day before, I’ve been busy making what I call “Very Rhuberry Jam.” I made 6 batches total, amounting to 54 half-pints of jam. Jam making and canning is mysterious to some, but to me, it’s addicitve. I find several rewards from canning… I love giving my homemade jams to people for every occasion, people are always suprised and it’s like a bottle of gold to some and they hord it. I love the actual canning process, following delicious recipes to a tee, not to change a single thing so that they will turn out perfectly, or, when I find a recipe that is “pretty good” I like tweeking it with my own creativity until it turns out to something that simply cannot be improved upon. I think the most satisfying thing that addicts me to canning, is after I process my filled jam jars (process = boiling in a hot water bath for the given length of time (according to altitude) necessary to kill any remaining bacteria), is after removing them from processing, when they sit on the counter and they being to cool, hearing the sound of the vacume seal pulling the top of the jam jar in. It sounds like the click you can make by pulling your tongue from the roof of your mouth to the bottom of your mouth…. *click*.

This is the beginning of the summer harvest of fruits and vegetables, and I’m lucky that it’s addicting. After I finish up with the rest of the rhubarb tonight, I’ll wait till the raspberries are ready so that I can make raspberry jam, then the strawberries, blueberries, then the apricots from our friends tree, then I think I’ll try making applesauce this year, then the angelo sweet peaches, and then the tomatoes will be kicken in and I’ll be able to can salsa and tomato chutney. My kitchen by the end of the summer will have at least 4 stacks of jar boxes at least 8 boxes high, filled with nearly every concoction you could think of. My good friend says I’m “prolific”…. but she just hasn’t learned well enough to get addicted.

What do I do with all of these you ask? Most of the salsa we keep and eat ourselves, because it’s so good… but, every now and then, I will share a jar of it with someone, but they have to be REALLY special. Much of the jam is given away for gifts with bread, or by itself, depending on the occasion. It’s our tradition to give homemade jam away for Christmas gifts as well. It’s funny, no matter how much I seem to make, by the time of the new canning season, everything is gone. Many friends are accustomed to returning their empty jars as a deposit for the next bounty, so I usually have a good start of empty jars.

Here is the Very Rhuberry recipe:

6c. rhubarb cut into 1″ pieces
5c. sugar
3/4 c water
1 21oz blueberry pie filling
2 3oz raspberry jello

Combine rhubarb, sugar & water. Bring to a boil over med heat. Boil in a full rolling boil rhubarb uncovered for 6 min.,stirring constantly. Stir in blueberry pie filling. Return mixture to a full rolling boil, boil for another 6 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in gelatin, return to boiling, boil for 3 minutes. Ladle into hot jars and place prepared lids, wipe if necessary, then place on bands. Process in hot water bath for 10 min. (depending on your altitude). Yield 9 half-pint jars. Do not double recipe. Variations: substitute 1 21 oz. can of Raspberry pie filling instead, and use one Rasp. jello and one Strawberry jello.