jammin', jammin', Jammin' till the jam is through (or all day long)

Well, the train ride to PA was unsuccessful, although I suppose you could argue that it was successful if by successful you mean that it arrived. It did arrive. It just arrived two hours late, making me miss not one, not two, but three trains to Lansdale on SEPTA. So, where I was supposed to arrive in Lansdale by 3:00 so that we could go pick blackberries, I didn’t get there until 5:00, making it impossible to do the picking. While I was sad, I was also exhausted from the very long day (8:20-5:00 on trains), and the idea of picking blackberries did not appeal anyway.

Friday night, then, was spent relaxing and hanging out with an old college friend where I was spending the weekend. Her two children, C and K, were friendlier than I would have expected a 5- and 3-year old to be, given that it has been at least a year since I was last here. I would not have expected them to remember me well or to be comfortable around me. Apparently, however, I have the “let’s climb all over her” persona, because I was immediately mistaken for a jungle gym.

Saturday, we had to rise earlier than the rosters (well, ok, 8:00am) to be sure we had time for the berry picking. C went with us to pick, and he did very well. By the time we had spent nigh but an hour at the farm, we had 12 pounds of blackberries. This is many more than we would have expected. We bought some peaches, and the dregs of the blueberries, which they (unfortunately) were no longer doing PYO because of the scarcity of their crops (on a side note, as a result, I’m a little concerned about the possibility of picking blueberries at home – which I’ve been counting on for my blueberry jam).

After the berry picking outing, we all piled into the van and went of to the Goshenhoppen Folk Festival, which was a celebration of all things Pennsylvania Dutch; the primary purpose of the festival seemed to be to demonstrate the early days in PA, including sawing wood, wood art, corn husk doll making (and other doll making), needlework, blacksmithing, etc. The kids seemed to enjoy it a lot.

After, we went shopping for jam supplies (i.e., sugar, pectin, jars). After dinner, we made two batches of blackberry jam, all of which successfully sealed .

Sunday morning brought rain. I was happy we had picked the berries the day before, because otherwise, I wouldn’t have blackberry jam this year (and it’s been a very long time since I had blackberry jam). In addition to rain, it brought A LOT of jam making. Two batches of black and blue (blackberry/blueberry) and two batches of blackberry-peach jam later, and I am jammed out for the weekend.

After being crawled upon for two hours while watching Handy Manny (don’t ask) to keep the kids out of the hair of their parents for a while, I am once again tired. They are still running around with pretty much the same amount of energy they had when they woke up (not surprising, I know, for kids, but tiring, I also know, for me). I am looking forward to bed time (unfortunately, they chose to forego their baths tonight in order to have them tomorrow morning with their grandmother). So, it looks like there is still at least another half hour until bedtime. But, given that I am currently not being climbed on and used as “their bed,” they are not bothering me at all right now. Pretty sure, however, that as soon as their parents see the mess they are making right now, the kids will be unhappy. But, hey, what can I do about that?

Tonight I hope to type some recipes from my friend’s cookie cookbook, specifically those that call for jam (at this point, recipes that use jam are probably going to be very very useful over the next year). I’ll be searching for cookie and cake recipes.

Annoyingly enough, I cannot figure out how to get my computer on their wireless network here. I wanted to try to communicate with my friend who is, unfortunately, spending way too much time in a hospital room, but without being online, I can obviously not use Skype. I think I’ll be able to post this note later today, but of that I’m not even sure, as I’ve been typing it into my own computer and unless I can find a thumb drive to borrow, I will be unable to get it to my friend’s computer. This living without wireless access is more difficult than I would have expected. I’m not used to this.

Tomorrow, I’ll be getting a train from Lansdale to Philly and then from Philly to my parents home in central PA (well, not quite to their home, but close by). What I have learned from this experience is that it is HELL to take a train from Boston to my parent’s house. Thus, in the winter, when I will travel again without my car because I don’t feel it necessary to drive the car that far when it could be snowing anywhere from here to there, I will be flying. In comparison to 10 hours on the train with only 20 minutes leeway between the two trains, the two flights are but 5-6 hours of total travel time, including the layover in Philly. At their cheapest (that I can see today), there is about $100 difference between the two (with the flight being more expensive), but in addition to the 10 hours of travel time on the train, I’d also have to be in the car for a total of 2 hours (maybe longer) rather than the about 40 minutes I need to be in the car on the other trip. Granted, I have to arrive at the airport early, and I would like have to also have a cab take me to the airport, but all in all, it’s just so much easier this way. Plus, after being 2 hours late on the last train the 20 minute leeway between trains is way too worrisome.

I need to look for a gel mat for in front of the counter when cooking. There are some other things that I may want to look for as well after this weekend; one of those things is this really digital cool cooking thermometer that my friends here have. That’s probably it for the time being, but they both are very interesting as possibilities.

I know that this is a very long update, but hopefully it provides at least some humor, and some level of interest, to my friend – whom I’ve been thinking about a lot – who has spent way to much time in the hospital this past week. I hope the trip home comes soon.