Jam Recipe

The nights cool.
Bad dog ate a winter melon on Saturday.
The melon was larger than her four pound body.
I brought the last one to my sister - my nephews
ate it in their driveway without a napkin.
Juice running down their arms
Alex says, "I've never had one."
Every year I give them a few.
I hadn't planned on sharing with the dogs.

The last sunflowers
Gave to a friend diagnosed with cancer.
She asked me to talk about the
pros and cons of pursuing aggressive treatment.
The Japanese have an intense chemo and radiation that
either the treatment kills you or you recover.
Transfusions, lethargy, days by the toilet bowl are things
I never discussed before.
Surprised how open I could be.

The French plums
Mosquito netting over trees
Unattractive but effective - or
songbirds steal my crops.
I make balls of peanut butter and millet,
fill the feeders with black niger
and elaborate tricks to keep the mice away.
Funny there is barely enough to make jam.
I'll share the recipe with you below.

winter melon from the garden

French plums, perhaps they are Italian the first seed came from NONI

Wash then Cut in half and toss pits 12 lb of ripe plums
4 cups sugar
box pectin
tablespoon almond extract
8 pint jars - sterilized ( boil for 5 minutes jar and lid)

Put plum and sugar in large pot medium heat.
Allow to slow bubble for ten minutes.
Don't let it roll boil- stir to keep from getting a scummy top of bubbles.
Don't let it stick to bottom.
Use a pot with a thicker bottom.
Allow to cool
You are going to cook four times.
This may require a glass of wine and music
The last cooking add the almond extract.
Examine how thick the mixture is.
If it is dense as toothpaste you may not need the pectin.
There is natural pectin in the fruit -
all depends on the scientific qualities
of your soil, sun and water.
I'm an organic gardener.
I suggest you add half the box of sure jell
for the last bubbling to be certain the jam sets correctly.
Read about sterilization and keeping the jars and lids free of any bacterium or
molds.
(The complete jars can be placed back into near boiling water to super
seal them BUT sometimes they break and there you have claret colored glass
shards and sticky explosion...)
Label the jars and share the rich taste of homemade jam.

You can strain the skins with a colander on the second cook, (sounds
like Walter White lol)
but I prefer to leave them in. By the time you heat the plums the
fourth time the skins are tiny flecks of burgundy.