Ya’ll,
(I feel like I should say ya’ll now, since I’ve been in the south for nearly a month; however, I’m still confused on where to place my apostrophe. I’m sure “ya’ll – y’all” have opinions, so feel free to share.)
I made blackberry jam today.
#whatwasithinking
An hour into the ordeal, I thought I was going to lose my mind. I’m here to tell you that making jam is not as easy as it sounds. You boil empty jars, crush berries, boil them for one minute shy of an eternity (or until they become a gummy bear), fill the jars, and then boil them again. It’s germ warfare at it’s finest!
I gave myself a berry facial and it was berry good. Strawberry Shortcake would be proud.
Now, I need to get a job before I start making bread, or heaven forbid, peanut butter to go with my jelly.
I’m not cut out for the culinary life. I would not have survived two hundred years ago. I would not survive today if left to my own kitchen skills. Some crazy people are dropped into the wild, naked and afraid. I can stay in town, clothed and calm, but if I couldn’t get to the grocery store, I’d starve.
#coldhardtruth
I’m into hashtags lately? Can you tell?? It’s probably because I’m spending my days with a fifteen year-old goofball who hashtags everything. This is the same boy who couldn’t identify a pound sign.
#gofigure
#kidsthesedays
I’m not sure I should admit this, but it took me three solid hours to make six jars of jam, the small jars. I think I need intervention. Actually, cooking lessons may be more useful.
The first two jars came out super runny, so I wrote syrup on a label. Tomorrow morning I will make pancakes and pretend my making blackberry syrup was intentional.
I still don’t know what went wrong. The instructions said to rapid boil the berry concoction for one minute. I did that and got syrup, so I boiled the next batch for ten minutes.
My husband has taken to calling it tar.
#enoughsaid
Girls like me, we are the reason someone had to start the website farmersonly.com.
Despite the runny jam and the tar, I feel mildly accomplished today. I be jammin.
I switched from ya’ll to y’all after so many years of autocorrect changing it. I gave in.
You’ll see it both ways so do whatever you wish.
I’m from Virginia and it was always ya’ll.
This is why I don’t make jam or jelly or whatever. I buy. I freeze when absoluutely necessary. I use my mason jars for glasses. My daughter and SIL use our grapes to make jelly. I took pictures and blogged about it last fall. She married a boy from a midwest farm. Between him and his mom. she learned to can lots of produce. She actually likes it.
The jelly is suppose to be runny. It thickens once off the heat and it starts to cool. I bet it tastes great!!
Ha! First thing I noticed was the (incorrect: ) placement of the apostrophe. : D.
You all = y_ _ all” = y’all
See, I knew someone would set me straight! Thank you Brenda. Y’all are very helpful. 😉
Now see, I would have said it was ya’ll. That’s how I always spell it. But then, what do I know. I’m from Ohio. haha I say it much more than I spell it, even though I’m not from the south.