Putting up fruit



Hi there, Beth here. Jill and I got together a little early this year for our annual holiday gift making weekend. With Jill’s little one on the way we knew we had to get it done early or we wouldn’t have a chance. This is the weekend where we get together and mass produce as many holiday gifts as we possibly can in one 48 hour period. We try to make enough of whatever we’re making so that we’ll have gifts for co-workers, family friends, neighbors etc. etc. (you know how long that list gets!)

In past years we’ve made aprons, table runners and napkins and MILLIONS of cookies! Check out the photo of our cookie stash from last year! By the end of the 48 hours we are usually exhausted, disheveled and a tad sick from eating mass quantities of cookie dough – I just CAN’T STOP!!! Jennie was with us last year thank goodness – she’s been known to put ketchup on my personal cookie dough sampling stash because it’s about the only thing that will stop me. BTW, it’s quite an effective technique in case you’re looking for one.

Because we got together so early this year we had ditch the cookies and focus on something that will keep until the holidays. So we decided to try our hand at canning jam. We had tried making jam once before with less than perfect results BUT we had high hopes for better results this time. After lots of on line research and a trip to the farmers market we were armed with enough plums to feed an army! At the last minute we decided to throw some apple butter into the mix too (the apples are just SO good this time of year!)

The process started with blanching all those plums (taking the skins off so for those of you who haven’t gotten your fill of the Food Network recently). It’s sort of a yucky mess with the plums. Luckily, 7 year old Claire was up for the challenge! She did a fabulous job helping get all those pesky skins off of the plums.

We chopped boiled, thickened, sweetened and stirred ALL weekend!! I think I still have some sugar under my fingernails. At one point, I found a blob of jelly in my hair. It’s not glamorous work, Ladies! But I am very proud to report that at the end of it all we are proud to have “put up” as they say in the canning world, 20 jars of plum jelly and 10 jars of apple butter. YUM!!! The house smelled delightful!!!!

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www.LaBump.com was created by 3 sisters with the help of our mother, better known as “Amma” to all of our little ones. We believe that every woman should have access to fabulous maternity clothing and beautiful, gently used children’s clothing and gear. We spent years sending the same old box o’ maternity clothes back and forth to each other in an effort to share cute maternity wear among sisters. Finally, we concluded that there must be more women out there like us, looking for maternity clothing and gently used toys and items for their little ones. We started this site as a way to expand our own network and hopefully help other mommies do the same. As every smart mommy knows, one of the ultimate forms of recycling is recirculating gently used items for children and mothers. We have put a new spin on typical hand me down clothing by creating a network of women in your city who can buy sell and trade maternity clothing and accessories and gently used clothing, toys, and gear for our little ones.