PRESERVED - A POP-UP JAM SESSION (2025-30)

If there's a set of shelves in your basement that holds a regimented army of glass bottles with metal lids, you're a lucky one.

If those metal lids have a date written on top, scribbled with a Sharpie pen in your mother's handwriting, you are extra lucky.

And if you are the child sent down to the basement to get a bottle of golden peaches, or a small half pint jar of jam with paraffin wax on top, you are divinely chosen. This is because part of the reward for running downstairs and fetching last summer's jam is getting to lick the underside of the paraffin before it's discarded.  

Back in the heat of summer, after mom had stirred up a hefty batch of jam, she gently poured 1/4 inch of hot wax on the top of each jar.  The wax cooled, sealing out the air and preserving the flavor. Now, mid February, she slips the tip of a paring knife under the cold wax and pulls it from the jar, a thin juicy layer of jam stuck to the underbelly. She hands the circle of wax to you. The raspberries from last summer rush straight to your tastebuds as you lick it off. Then you know, for sure, that all is right with the world. 

Jam sealed with paraffin needs to be cooked.
Freezer jam is not cooked, and tastes more fresh, 
but must be stored in the freezer.

Today my sister Ann Marie stopped by with a case of fresh plump raspberries.

"Where'd you get those?" I asked, "And how much did they cost?"

Ann Marie knows I'm always on the lookout for raspberries at a good price. We make hundreds of jars of freezer jam to sell at my concerts. The proceeds go to a beloved group of orphan children we help support in Kenya.

"I found them at Sam's", she said, "$2.88 a container. You want 12 of them?"

In our family we don't fool around with small quantities.

I dropped what I was doing and we drove straight back up to Sam's Club in Layton and bought what they had left.

On the way home, as she drove, I wrote a text to the parents of our neighborhood kids who belong to our church Primary Activity Days: 

I seriously only have that small chunk of time in the next few days, and fresh berries won't last. Not every worthy thing needs to be planned ahead, right? So Dave dragged cases of jars up from the basement. I cleared off the island and washed the dishes. Ann Marie dropped everything and came back down from her house to help. We had ourselves a pop-up jam session.

Ten-year-old Dominic came a bit early, so I set him to work washing jars. Graham and Leah joined us. In just over an hour they had washed, mashed, measured and stirred. 

4.5 C crushed fresh raspberries

5 C sugar

4.5 T Ball Freezer Pectin

3 T lemon juice

Graham and Dominic dipped the measuring cup and poured fresh jam into sanitized jars. Leah wiped the rims with a clean damp cloth and added the lids.  By 5:15 we had 20 jars of the sweetest, freshest raspberry jam you've ever tasted. 

At 5:15 Dave and I had to hurry to our granddaughter Gracie's piano recital, followed by grandson Timothy's Night of Percussion at the U of U.  Dominic and Graham walked home with a jar of jam each, and we dropped Leah off at her house with her own jar as well. Ann Marie stayed and cleaned up our mess... cuz that's how she is. The jam in our kitchen will sit out till morning, letting the flavors meld to perfection. Then into the freezer they will go until we sell them to our neighbors and church members. We will then use the funds to purchase cotton pillowcases and tie dye ink so we can offer a bit of love to children a world away from us. We like to think of those kids laying their heads at night on soft colorful tokens of love from children in America who want to follow Christ.

The math of compassion

When we decided to make these pillowcases as our service project this year, we wanted the kids to understand that meaningful service requires a level of sacrifice. No one generally hands you a wad of money and says do something good for someone else. We feel ownership when we work for it. Dominic kept a tab of what it cost us to make the jam, what we can sell it for, and how much we would have to sell to earn enough to buy supplies for our project. The kids figured we will have to sell 64 jars of jam to reach our goal. 

Besides learning together how to do a fundraiser, and how to make jam, they learned that sometimes you have to strike while the iron is hot. Some things have to be put aside when the fruit is ripe and ready to harvest. If you want to preserve something, other things need to be put on hold for a while. It's life, in a microcosm.

These most spectacular little humans left our house today with a newfound understanding of how there is cost and reward, and how to make the two work together. They also learned how to make a pretty darn tasty quadruple batch of raspberry freezer jam (which by the way tastes much more fresh than the jam kept in cold storage in the basement.) They learned how to pitch in and make an assembly line when you are making a large quantity, and that many hands make light work.

Tonight, as I folded the white chef hats I keep in my bottom drawer for times like this, I recalled the Yum's and Mmmmm's from their little mouths as they finally tasted the fruits of their own labor. My freshly wiped kitchen island has two sweet rows of freshly made jam setting up as I turn out the kitchen light. My heart has a batch of capable and loving kids tucked safely preserved in its innermost chambers. How sweet they are to me.

Update, two days later: We did it again with different kids. Millie, her friend Anna, Kali and Dean. We made 25 more jars of jam, plus four for them to take home. There was a lot of hand washing going on because they could not resist licking the spills off the counter. "Golden Rule- if you lick your fingers, you have to wash your hands with soap!"

Love these kids!