Jam Making

Today we made a plan to make plum jam without preservatives or chemicals. Last year, we had made litchi, plum and apricot jam. It was delicious and since we made such a huge quantity, what we made lasted for more than six months and we had jam with bread and roti regularly. 

We started by learning videos on how to make jam from youtube and other resources. I, Utkrishta and Ronij watched and did some research while my other friends others took the plums and the apricot, rinsed them, removed the top and checked each and every fruit for damage, rot, or insect holes.

After everything was ready, we all went outside to the dining table. We collected the plum we had bought. Shaswat had brought apricots and probably sat on them because many of them had gone squishy. We set the fruits to boil. This time the plan was just fruit and sugar. No gelatin or peptin was used as plum and apricot are jelly like due to their citric nature. 

 

After plum and apricot boiled we took it out carefully and removed the seeds. We also made sugar syrup. We made sure we used the fruit skin as well. We went in the kitchen and we put the fruit in the hot sugar syrup very cautiously with the help of Sabita didi and our instructors. I also helped to stir the mix.

My instructor was in a hurry and spilled some of the mix on his hand. He was in pain. Pallav sir said it was a first degree burn and should be okay. He warned us that we should be careful and only do this when instructors was around. After the jam was ready, we tasted and it was yummy! It was delicious jam we prepared. I would love to do this again and it was a very nice experience. We made jam of 10 kgs (20 pounds) worth of fruit at least and we are looking forward to make more jam and have more fun this year.

by Nitya Poudel

17 June 2016