Yesterday was an impromptu jamming day. I had originally planned on spending the day finishing up our camping laundry and getting things put away from vacation, but then the e-mail came in. The local strawberry patch announced their last day of picking, and because it was the last day, the berries were only $1.oo a pound. I could not pass that up, so we headed out and picked berries. Of course, that meant the rest of the day was allocated to jamming and freezing, and when all was said and done, I ended up with 5 quarts of sugared berries in the freezer, and 20 pints of jam. By the way, if you need a step-by-step Jam Tutorial, I happen to have one for you right here!
As I looked at the jam, I knew this was a much smaller quantity than normal, but to ne honest, I couldn’t tell you what normal was. I’ve been making jam for years, but I’ve never actually paid attention to how much jam we go through. What do we use ourselves and what do we give away? I have no idea, other than knowing that 20 jars of jam was not enough. As I thought on this, I also thought about how I have no idea how much salsa I made last year, how much blueberry jam, and on and on. So I came up with a ridiculously simple way to keep track this year.
Super simple- I taped graph paper to the fridge and labeled it. One side is for canning, the other is for produce that goes into the freezer. As I can or freeze through the season, the quantity will be noted here on the sheet. If I give something away, that will also be noted. That way, when all is said and done, I can get a rough idea exactly how much jam/salsa/pickles/canned fruit we go through. Another benefit to keeping track is that I can also see how much of my home canned goods ends up being given away.
Such a simple idea, but one I haven’t thought of before, so I thought I’d share. Sometimes it’s the simple things that can make a huge difference.