With our mild weather, our hummingbirds are still here. Please, if you have hummingbird feeders out, keep them filled with fresh syrup to feed the little hummers as they will migrate down south soon. Your little ones may fly, but keep the syrup filled for those travelling and looking for food. I so love to watch them all summer long right outside of my kitchen patio door. I feel they are part of my family!
THE RECIPE FOR HUMMINGBIRD SYRUP:
Boil 1/2 a cup of granulated sugar with 2 cups of water, just for a few minutes to dissolve the sugar. Cool to room temperature and fill you hummingbird feeder with this.
I have been making jam all of my married life. My first jam was a three fruit marmalade using oranges, lemons and grapefruit. Then I made raspberry and strawberry jam and blackcurrant jam and apple jelly. My Mum, bless her dear heart, taught me the old fashioned way of making jam with only the fruit, lemon juice and white sugar. I have a brass and cast iron jam kettle that was my great-grandmothers. She worked in a bakery in England when whe was only seven years of age. She had to stand on a stool to reach the countertop. Can you just imagine that? The family story goes that she made better apple jelly using only the discarded skins and cores of apples while the baker used only the peeled and cored apples. My great-grandma’s apple jelly was more flavourful and deeper in colour than the bakers jelly. She lived to be 96 years of age, a real sweetie! I make my apple jelly the very same way!
Now, back to the present! My friend Morris actually invented this new jam combining fresh, ripe peaches and pears. He brought me a jar of it. What a delicious treat! Gary and I enjoyed it spread on our toast the next morning. It is a wonderful flavour combination. Of course, after tasting it, I had to make some too! Luckily, I had some ripe pears and peaches leftover from my chilisauce recipe I had made a few days previously. This is a truly delicious jam and would make perfect Christmas gifts to give to your loved ones at Christmas. Try this easy and fast recipe. You use liquid Certo to thicken the jam and the whole process will be completely done in less than one hour. Thanks Morris for caring and sharing, one more time!
The recipe will make 9 – 250 ml. jars.
INGREDIENTS:
4 cups of peeled and finely diced combination of ripe peaches and pears (I probably had closer to 5 cups of diced fruit. It worked out just fine.)
I used 4 ripe pears and 6 or 7 ripe peaches (this amount will depend on the size of your peaches)
1/4 cup of lemon juice (I just used bottled RealLemon juice.)
7 – 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
1 box of liquid Certo pectin, use both pouches from the box.
METHOD:
-Peel and core and stem the pears and cut them up into 1/4″ dice. Place them in a 4 cup glass measuring cup.
-Peel and remove the pit from the peaches. Once peeled, I cut the peaches from top to bottom about 1/4″ apart. Then I cut the peaches going across the same distance. This way, the peach was almost completely cut in a small dice while holding it right in my hand. The pit then fell out of the peach. You can then place the chopped peaches on your cutting board and chop any pieces which may be too large.
-Place the chopped peaches in the measuring cup along with the chopped pears. I scraped up any juice from the counter top and added it into the measuring cup. I must admit that I had a very generous 4 cups of fruit, probably closer to the 5 cup measure.
-Wash and sterilize your mason jars. I ended up with 9 – 250 ml jelly jars. *But I always have a few extra jars washed and sterilized, just in case I need them.
-To sterilize my jars, I wash and rinse them in hot water. stand the jars upright on a cookie tray with sides. Place the tray in a 250 degree F. oven for 15 minutes. Then, turn off the oven and keep them warm inside the oven as your jam is cooking.
-You can also sterilize the glass mason jars by placing them in a large canning pot of boiling water for 5 or 10 minutes. If you don’t own a canning pot with the metal insert to keep the jars off of the bottom of the pot, my Mum showed me that you lay a folded tea towel over the bottom the pot. That way, the jars are not directly over the heat of the element of the stove.
-You must boil the snap lids and jar rings for 5 minutes just before your jam has finished cooking. Always use new snap lids. You can re-use the metal rings but never, ever the snap lids.
-Now for the jam:
-In a large pot, place the prepared chopped fruit, lemon juice and granulated sugar. Stir well.
-Over HIGH heat, bring the mixture to a boil. Once at a full boil, boil hard for 1 minute.
-Take the pot off the stove and stir in the 2 pouches of liquid Certo pectin.
-Stir and skim off any foamy skum which floats to the surface of the jam. Stir the jam constantly for 5 minutes. By stirring for 5 minutes, this will prevent the fruit from floating to the top or your jar once the jam is ladled into the jelly jars.
-Use a canning funnel, ladle the hot jam into the hot, sterilized jelly jars. Fill the jars to 1/4 ” from the top rim of the jar.
-Wipe the rims of each jar with a clean, damp paper towel or tea towel.
-Place the boiled snap lids on each jar and screw on the metal ring tightly.
-Wipe the glass jars using a damp clean cloth in case there are any drips of jam. Write the name of the jam on each snap lid and the date as well.
-I turned the jelly jars upsidedown and right-side up every few minutes to have the fruit float evenly throughout the jar. After about 20 minutes, the jam was set enough to hold the fruit in place.
-Enjoy this fast and easily made jam! I know you will love it too!