This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
In conversation with my mother.
Maureen: What kinds of trees did you have in your yard growing up in Ohio?
Mom: We had a mulberry tree, we had a quince tree, we had an apple tree—a huge apple tree. We had a cherry tree, and of course we had an apricot tree. My grandparents, who had lived next door, had a pear tree in their yard. I never knew them because they died before I was born. But my sisters said that when they went over to her house, my grandmother told them to stand right there in the doorway and not to go any farther. She had nice oriental rugs and a shiny floor, I guess.
Not much of a grandmother.
No. So we had a lot of fruit and we ate all of our own fruit. My mother canned everything she could get her hands on, and she just never sat down. She used to core and freeze the coosa. She made a lot of fatayar and put them in the freezer so she could pull them out for company. She used to use purchased biscuit dough, roll them out, and put the filling in. They were very flaky and good. That was later on; when she was younger she did everything from scratch. I remember her beating and beating and beating an angel food cake to fluff the egg whites. All by hand. I’d stand there and she’d say, “Put the sugar in. Now put more sugar in. Now put more sugar in.” She had a big balloon whisk.
Funny, that’s exactly how we learned to do it in cooking school. Do you want to sit down now?
Oh, I don’t sit too much. My mom always put paraffin on top of the jam to seal it. We’re not doing that. We don’t need to seal anything. Just simple; make it and refrigerate it and eat it. You can also freeze it, and we should make more so we can have some during the winter. I love apricot jam the best. I always have strawberry and those others, but they pale. They just pale in comparison.
These apricots are going nicely honey. It’s doing it, it’s getting thick and it’s still chunky. That’s what it’s all about, getting a nice big piece of the fruit on your toast so you can really taste it.
