Like most things, when there’s an abundance of something (supply) and it’s availability at premium condition is shortlived…it’s a buyer’s market. Fruit season in BC means plentiful varieties of fruit such as raspberries, blueberries, plums, apples to pears to name a few. The issue for many of us city folk is how to store it when it’s readily available. Some fruits freeze easily and well while others require more effort. How many pounds of blueberries fit in your fridge freezer?

If you’re out of space in your freezer, how about your cupboards? Is canning and jam making a lost art? I’m going to give it a try this summer with peaches..make jam that is. A friend made some last year and it has inspired me to give it a whirl. I’ll let you know how it goes.

In the ‘olden days’ and in the ‘country’ cold storage (root cellars and cold rooms) were a great place to keep apples, pears and root vegetables crunchy and flavourful while nowadays few of us have such a thing in our home. I remember ‘helping’ to can cherries and pears, shelling, blanching and freezing peas, filling jars with the ingredients to make pickles and storing endless boxes of apples in the cold room. They all tasted pretty good over the winter.

These things take time and usually I’m exhausted by 8 pm in the evening but I’m determined to make the effort this summer. There are two reasons for me to try my hand at jam:

• I will know exactly where the fruit came from and how it was prepared
• I know that what I will pay for peaches now while they’re in season is a fraction of the cost at any other time of the year and they like peach jam!