Mmmm. August.

We set the raspberries we'd been collecting for the past three weeks out of the freezer to warm up a bit, and placed the clean jars and bands into a boiling water bath, then Daughter and I walked over to Ace Hardware to pick up some new lids (that's the one thing you cannot re-use with home canning). I had noticed we had enough berries to try making jelly (which is nice, because it is 'relatively' seed free), so I also got some cheesecloth. The low-sugar pectin had been purchased on the last grocery trip. On our return, we rested a little bit from the heat, and then started squeezing the berries in the cheesecloth bag. With a little work and effort, we managed to squeeze out the necessary 4 1/2 cups of raspberry juice, and tossed the seedy pulp in the composter. To the juice we added 3 cups of sugar and a package of pectin. It was an excellent opportunity to show daughter what a rolling boil looks like.

The stove had a bit of a tantrum about all the boiling pots on it (it complained that there was steam in the electronic clock gizmo... but as long as it kept working, I didn't worry too much about it).

When we finished with the raspberry jelly, we realized we still had some jars, bands, lids, sugar, and a box of pectin left, and the plums on the bush outside were ripe. So we picked a gallon of sour plums, washed them, and cut out the seeds. Daughter ground them up while I washed and reset the cooking apparatus. We mixed 6 1/2 cups of plum pulp with a box of pectin and 4 cups of sugar.

The finished jars of summer produce are now in the pressure cooker's boiling water bath. But not all made it into jars: some we poured out in bowls to taste.

This is the result. Mmm, August tastes delicious.