Skum n' Bread

Ok, so you're already bleched out. But really, it's not that bad.

When I was a little kid, it was just standard stuff that strawberry season = homemade jam. We'd go off to school in the morning quite unsuspecting that it was a special day. But then we'd come home to the luscious smell of hot strawberry jam filling the whole house. We'd scarcely get the back door open before yelling, with ridiculous, child-like glee, "SKUM 'N BREAD!"

Ok, so see, when you make jam out of red berries ~ strawberries, raspberries, even strawberry/rhubarb ~ you have to skim it. This is because, as you cook the berries, a pink froth appears on the top of the hot jam. The more you cook it, the more pink froth just magically appears. When I first asked Mom what that pink stuff was, she replied, "skum." I don't know if she was trying to gross us out so we wouldn't want it, or if it just followed for her that the stuff skimmed off jam was skum. But there it is. And it was good. Mom didn't have to knock herself out making a big dinner after making jam. The kids, at least, were already full of skum and bread.

When I make jam, I skim... to a point. If I just kept skimming ~ endlessly ~ there'd be no jam left, so when most of the skum is off, I bottle up my jam. That pink coating on top of the last jar? Well that's the one I keep for the fam, but if there's some pink fluff on yours, donworryaboutit.

It's just skum.

It's all good. :)

Eat jam responsibly. ;o)

Strawberry Jam

6 cups cleaned strawberries, cut the bigger ones in half

4 and 1/2 cups refined sugar

2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Put into a large saucepan and cook till it's jam. Bottle it up in sterilized jam jars, and place sterilized lids on top. Enjoy.