I canned, I canned, and I don't care who knows it!

Canning is one of those highly domestic things I most likely swore as a teenager I would never, ever do. For one thing, I thought it was an elaborate, industrial process. For my family growing up, it was an industrial process that took all day, if not all weekend. The finished product was 100 + quarts of something or other, most often applesauce.

Fast forward to last winter, when I received a little gift from my visiting teacher at church. She gave me three small jars filled with lemon butter, pear jam, and plum jam. They were beautiful, simple, and delicious. My interest was sparked.

I did a little research, and discovered that canning doesn't have to be a long, drawn out process that requires a lot of special equipment that I don't have and don't really want to purchase at this point.

We were given two boxes of sweet, little italian prune plums. I made a tasty crisp out of a few, and we've eaten a few by themselves. But, they are quickly ripening. I decided the time had come to try my hand at canning. I've made freezer jam before, but our freezer is stocked with it already, thanks to my mother-in-law, and I wanted to make something I could give away as gifts.

I found a new kind of pectin at our little local grocery store that requires little or no sugar. You use fruit juice or juice concentrate instead. I opted to use grape juice concentrate with a little extra sugar. It was a good choice. I also decided to blend up the fruit in our vitamix to make a smooth jam instead of a chunky one.

The whole process only took an hour.

I went from this:

To this:
I opened one up the next morning for breakfast. It was silky smooth, thick, and wonderful. I think it's safe to say I will be canning again - maybe even tonight.