In a Jam

Take some friends and go to the local pick-your-own strawberry farm for some ripe seasonal berries.

Fill a bucket.

Put on your berry-themed apron and get out the tiny jam jars.

Put on your dotty aprons, tiaras, get out the sugar and get busy.

A little while later: one normal-sized jar and four teeny little jars, filled.

Doesn't it look good?

It was awful.

I have never made jam before in my life, and despite a phone call to jam expert Mom, we have ended up with burnt, wierdly caramelised, dark brown, overly sticky and overly thick jars of strawberry goo, and the jars didn't pop-seal like Mom said they should have. And I spent 20 minutes scrubbing a burnt pan this evening.