Here in the Northern Hemisphere, August is the month of preparing jams and preserves. So could there have been a more appropriate topic than sweet preserves or jams when I signed up to host this month’s edition of Sugar High Friday? Not ever.
IMBB may be the father of all food blog events, but SHF, in analogy, would be the mother of all – obviously equipped with a sweet tooth! Originally brought to life by Jennifer, the Domestic Goddess herself, back in October 2004 with the topic white chocolate. Meanwhile the whole food blogging community has indulged in 21 different sweet events, featuring basic ingredients like honey and puff pastry or themes like spices, custard and aphrodisiacal desserts. No matter which, they all were a huge success!
This month’s edition is taking place on Friday August 25th and is a good opportunity to preserve the taste of summer: It’s totally up to you, take your favorite fruits, preserve them, refine them, work with them, your creativity is the limit. Stick with your grandma’s proven strawberry jam recipe or experiment with an exotic fruit and spice mix, add liqueur, nuts or herbs. You live on the southern half of this planet? You’ve got no excuse, there are plenty of seasonal fruits available for marmalade and similar! You have never preserved anything sweet in your whole life? Well, this is the right time! Of course you can always venture out and buy your favorite June Taylor or Christine Ferber jam – given you live in the right places. But once you’ve enjoyed and fallen in love with your very own product, there is no way back. You are commander in chief concerning the amount of sugar, the quality of fruits and the size of the fruit pieces (which is key to picky people like me…). JUST GIVE IT A TRY!
That’s it? No, not quite. There are two more things I ask of you, both are absolutely voluntary! Firstly, in case you’re cookbook aficionado like myself, I’d be keen to hear about your preferred Canning And Preserving Cookbook. Secondly, if you’re up for more creative fun, design your own packaging to go with your preserves. This includes handwritten or computer-designed labels, bright colored ribbons, anything that would make a nice homemade food gift an even nicer one.
Here’s the roadmap:
Can. Bottle. Preserve. Go overboard with everything sweet!
Write about it, share your recipe and take pictures (if possible). If your schedule permits, you may (optionally) recommend your favorite Canning And Preserving Cookbook to your readers and design a nice custom packaging (labels etc.) for your jars.
Tell us about your entry! There will be a very simple and convenient entry form (requiring your name, location, URL of your SHF post, title of your creation) available via the Sugar-High-Friday-Button in our sidebar to accept your submissions as of August 24th CET (one day before SHF). Submission deadline is August 27th CET (two days after SHF). All participating blogs and entries can be found at round-up on Monday 28th…
Aug 5th,
2006
Yay! I just made my first batch of jams yesterday, and I can't wait to try more! What a great idea!