What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do

From an early age, I had two major goals in life. I worked on those goals during the majority of my adult years, investing time, money, and a lot of effort in the hopes of achieving them. Despite all that effort, neither goal came to pass. To say I was--and still am--disappointed is an understatement.

I'm a Type A person who loves to be busy and to produce. At a time I expected to find myself working hard on the other side of my met goals, I instead found myself with very little to do. Getting forced to stay inside a house in a rural region during a pandemic didn't help. So I did what I could do. I started a large crochet project. I learned how to make and can strawberry and peach jam (I tried blueberry, but it kept coming out more like candy than jam.)

Though I don't play the piano, I memorized a couple of songs that could be useful in church, since we lost our high-risk pianist to concerns over COVID. I made a few masks for people at church. I cut out pieces for a purse that I've yet to put together because sewing construction is hard. I started a new crochet project after completing the previous one and read until my wonky vision made both impossible to do (one cataract surgery down, one to go, so please pardon any typos I made.)

I watched TV, started listening to podcasts, took bike rides and walks. My husband bought a big garden box for me and I planted vegetables in it. Now, I've turned my attention to learning how to make small quilts. I do anything I can to produce, because I can't stand feeling useless.

Some may call that being busy. While it is, it's busy work, filler, with some ministerial applications, since I did some of it for others. None of it is what I feel I was meant or called to do.

God places His people on this earth for a purpose--to minister to the Body of Christ around the world, to do good works that will glorify His name, to teach others about Him and more. What my purpose is, I don't know yet. Maybe the busy work is it. Perhaps, like a quilt or that purse I've yet to pin together to sew, I'm gathering all the pieces and tools I'll need for whatever it is I'm supposed to do. In the meantime, I'll keep learning and doing stuff.

That's My Jam

Learning to can has been on my bucket list for several years. We live in an agrarian community and farmers at our church constantly bless us with the fruit of their harvests. Actual fruit is also grown around here. Since berry season began during the pandemic, quarantine seemed a good time to try my hand at making jam and preserving it.

A friend, a long-time canner, warned me up front to read all the instructions. I had watched a few videos and knew the basics, but the tone of her message prompted me to do more research. Botulism can be an issue with canning, and I wanted to do what I could to avoid it.

To this end, I downloaded the Kindle edition of Ball Canning Back to Basics: A Foolproof Guide to Canning Jams, Jellies, Pickles, and More and read the intro and first chapter. It explained a lot about the canning process and how botulism can form. Armed with that knowledge, I made my first batch of jam.

Strawberries were growing in abundance during that time, so we went to a local farm and purchased fresh-picked berries. To my surprise, making jam is extremely easy, and pectin isn't always needed to thicken the mix. I used a recipe for a small batch of non-pectin strawberry jam. It looked and smelled wonderful.

The canning process turned out to be a simple process as well. I still botched it and had to refrigerate/freeze the jars immediately and use them within a week, but I learned what not to do.

Blueberries were coming into season, so I tried that next.

During the cooking process, the jam looked too thin, so I continued to cook it. Consequently, after it cooled, the jam was too firm. Very tasty, but almost like candy. I could slice the stuff. I now know that when the candy thermometer hits 220 degrees, stop cooking regardless of how thin the jam looks.

Peaches came in early this year. When we discovered our local fruit stand had South Carolina peaches (absolutely the best) I thought, hey, peach jam. Applying all my lessons learned, I made and canned peach jam using the recipe in the Ball book

Not only did I use fresh peaches, I included all that good juice. It tasted like peach cobbler, and despite already having jars of strawberry and blueberry jam in the refrigerator, we opened a peach and pretty much gobbled it up.

I had hoped to can vegetables, but due to the lack of acidity in veggies, I would need a pressure cooker to can those. For now, I'll stick with fruits. That's fine, because now it's my jam.