Apricot Jam - 1st Trial :)

Today I made the leap into the canning world. It's been a goal of mine for a while now. I almost tried a few weeks back when the cherries I had picked off my friend Michi's beautiful tree had virtually taken over our fridge and entire counter top. But I didn't. We had been given a pretty big bag of Apricots earlier in the week and there was no way we were going to eat them before their expiry so I figured it would be a good try ... plus if I screwed it up too badly ... they were free :)

Here's how I did it ...

First I had to wash the glass canning jars that I had in the dishwasher to sterilize them. I had to put the lids into another pot and then I poured boiling water over them. Do this first so that they are ready to go when the fruit is ready.

Second I cut up all the apricots into small pieces and added them to my big soup pot. I added 1 cup of sugar for each pound of apricots. This seems like a lot but I was told it was the way it should be and so who am I to try and change it on my first trial. I also added the juice of 1 lemon to the mixture and 1/4 cup of water. Oh ya ... I wasn't sure how many pounds of cots I had so I weighed myself before and with the bag to see the difference :$ So it was a guestimate!

Third I left the mixture sit on the stove with no heat for 90 minutes to get juicy ... the liquid of the apricots gets pulled from the fruit by the sugar/water/lemon mixture.

Once the time was up I turned the stove on to around 7 or so and this just above medium heat. It starts to cook really fast and bubble. You have to keep stirring it the entire time it's cooking so that it doesn't burn. I could totally see how this could happen FAST. But it did not to me ... I was diligent :) I stirred and cooked it for 25 minutes.

Once the fruit was cooked I was able to spoon the mixture into the jars with a small spoon. The instructions said not to get any on the rim. And if you do ... don't wipe it away. Once the jars were filled with yummy apricot goodness I had to put the metal lids on and then the rims. Don't touch the lid and minimally touch the outer rim.

The last step was to seal the jars by flipping them upside down and setting the timer for 5 minutes. When the timer goes off ... flip them back over and let them set and vacuum seal the lid. You are supposed to hear a little pop to let you know but I had to do other stuff. I could see that the lids were sucked down when I went back to check on them. So no biggie.

So ya ... that's how it went down ... my first try. I think 3 jars was perfect. Of course I'll try again with something else but we'll see how this batch goes. I am starting to collect and freeze our tomatoes from our garden and will be trying to make our own tomato sauce with those eventually once I get a good gathering. I'll keep you posted.