Monday, November 10, 2008

Good things are meant to go together

I don't know if it is this way all over Colorado, but Jefferson County has a lot of land and funds dedicated to creating and maintaining "Open Space". The open space includes tons of parks, trails, ponds, etc. We love that there is a new trail and park to explore everyday. Best of all, there are some nice trails within walking distance of our apartment. One of our favorite trails is lined part of the way with pear trees. Ollie and I have been watching the pears ripen this fall and wondering just who they belonged to. Well, finally I took a friend on the trail and showed her the pears, she informed us that the pears belonged to the community. So, that afternoon Oliver and I took the bike trailer to the pear trees and loaded the thing up with the pears that had fallen to the ground (the trees were much too tall to be able to pick the fruit off of them).

We decided to make some pear jam and I found a great recipe for pear raspberry jam. Raspberries are not really cheap this time of year, but when the local grocery store cut the price from $5.00 to $1.00 a pint, we knew it was meant to be. We invited the Koyle's over and took turns watching the toddlers and stirring the freezer jam. It turned out super yummy and we had enough left over to make some pear cherry jam as well! Thank you Jefferson County Open Space for the pears and thanks to King Soopers for the raspberries, it was a match made in heaven!

2 comments:

Seth and Emry Gubler said...

I need to learn how to make homemade jam! Sounds yummy!

Stephanie Shumway said...

ahhhh... that is so awesome. I wish there was yummy fruit here for jam making. Ok, I take that back- I could've gotten the prickly pear cactus fruit a month ago when it ripened but I was too lazy to go and get it while watching my son so he didn't get pricked. Oh well, I guess I'll have to get a babysitter next year and go get it- you've inspired me :o)