It’s that time of year. I have an urge to make jam. Particularly raspberry, but maybe something else, depending on what I can find. There are apple trees on public land on my commute, so maybe I’ll make some apple jelly as well.
Are you guys preserving or jamming this year? If so, what are you putting up?
My spouse makes Raspberry and Strawberry jams most years - but it is a freezer jam, not cooked. I like it! Of course, when the freezer dies mid-season, you must eat jam until you burst. Life is tough.
I was gifted with a bag of pears, so I put up about 6 pints of pears with ginger. Wonderful on pancakes or ice cream. I also made some duck sauce when my friend’s plum tree went into overtime production and she couldn’t keep up.
Freezer jam is too sweet for me. Mom used to make it from time to time.
Yeah, we have a little revolution sweeping the land
Now once more everybody’s making homemade jam
So won’t you call your friends up on the telephone
You invite 'em on over, you make some jam of your own
You’ll be making jam
Strawberry jam
If you want the best jam
You gotta make your own
I am lusting over the apples. Dave and I will go tomorrow and pick some. Crabapples, too!
I forgot, I wanted to add this link. It’s lyrics to Greg Brown’s song “Canned Goods”. I heard it the other day on CBC, and it took me right back to my childhood. The chorus:
I kinda miss the old days of the cold room, but I know there’s no way I could maintain a garden that would feed my family over the winter like my aunties did. I still love home-canned pickled beets and dilled carrots, and if my kids would eat them I’d make them every summer.
Today, Blue_Kangaroo and I made two batches of apple butter and a batch of raspberry jam. We’ll be making peach jam next week, and whatever else pops to mind.
I made three berry jam, and Blue_Kangaroo and I made peach/orange liqueur jam. A lot of it.
This thread is making me homesick. 
My mom’s not a particularly outstanding cook, but she makes great jams. I love her frozen strawberry or frozen raspberry jam and her appricot, peach and other jams.
She’ll make most of them again this year, but I’m not there to eat it.
My dad made some awesome strawberry jam this year, and I made garlic jelly and red pepper jelly, because you can’t have enough wiggly food products to put on top of cheese 
Jam’s pretty easy to make, Tokyo player. Can you buy pectin there? If not, you can make your own from apples.
I’ll be making jam, but I wait until January. When fruit ripens, I prepare it (peel it, pit it, hull it, whatever is required), bag it in the correct portion and freeze it. Strawberry jam is heavenly, but it is truly a labor of love, boiling jars and fruit in the heat and humidity of July. I’d rather wait until the days are cold and the air is dry. I am also able to combine fruits that never ripen at the same time; strawberry/peach jam, for example. The only trouble is finding canning jars and pectin in January.
In the freezer right now: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, tart cherries, gooseberries, currants, peaches and plums. It should be about two full weekends of work.
I want black currants! Red currants too!
Actually, I’m really getting a kick out of the jam making, and I’m really glad Ginger invited me over to do this. I hope to do more, but we’ll see.
I’ve been contemplating making a hot pepper jam, but I haven’t found any good recipe’s. I just don’t know what to do with all these jalepeno’s I have. I love hot pepper jam, but it must be pretty hot. Also, what is the difference between making jam and making jelly?
I found a recipe for sweet pepper relish here, but I’ve never made it, so I don’t know how well this would work for hot peppers.
Effectively, not a lot once preparation is done. There are a lot of nuances between what defines jelly, jam, preserves and conserves, and I’ve seen enough variations to think that the definitions may be a bit flexible. In general, however: jellies use the juices of the prepared fruit whereas jams use the whole fruit. Examples: You would crush down grapes and strain the juice out to make grape jelly.* You would hull and crush strawberries and use the entire berry to make strawberry jam. Once you have the fruit or juice, jelly/jam making is really the same.
Just to clarify, I use store bought pectin in my preparations. You can do it without, but it is a lot more demanding. If you want to go that route, this book was recommended to me. I haven’t read it, so can’t offer advice.
*Oh yeah, forgot, grapes will be ready next week so that’s one more I’ll be making.
So far I’ve made one batch of mango jam (the farmer’s market had them at $5 a case!) and one of raspberry-nectarine. Yummy.
My brother-in-law also just brought over some chokecherry jelly.
Oh man, chokecherry. Haven’t had those for years.