Ginnie's Fig Jam

Ginnie is my sister, and she grows figs.



The other day she showed me how to make fig jam!  So now I will show you!



For a great tutorial of the recipe that inspired Ginnie's, click here.  I'm not doing a tutorial - just an overview to give you an idea of the process.



We started with a whole bunch of fresh figs from Ginnie's trees.



Have you ever seen this kind of fig?  It's delicious and so pretty.



Lucy also really likes them.



So to start, we washed the figs, removed the ugly parts, and quartered them.



We combined lemon juice and water on the stove top and added the figs. 



To that, we added organic sugar and pectin (shown below)...



... and we stirred all of that until it boiled.



The pectin comes from fruit (apples, commonly) and helps the jam to thicken.

 

This is what boiled fig-water-lemonjuice-pectin-sugar looks like (above).  It's pre-jam.  It's what turns into jam once you pour it into jars!



So... the jars - here they are (above).



Very important when you're canning anything is to wash and sterilize everything that will come into contact with the food.  



The lids have to be heated as well - partly to soften the rubber part that will seal the jar closed as it cools. 



Keeping the jars hot until you're ready to pour in the jam prevents the jars from cracking. 



You even have to sterilize the funnel -- can you believe that?



Once the jars were filled with jam, we put on the lids and boiled them - the final step.  
Then the jars just need to sit, untouched, for 24 hours - and they're done!



Ginnie wanted to re-do her label, so we worked on it together and came up with these (above).  I took both photographs and then created the label using Photoshop Elements (PSE).  I'm getting much better!  I can do lots of stuff with PSE now - though I'm still learning, of course. 



If you're interested in purchasing some of Ginnie's homemade fig jam, click on the "email" button at the top of my blog!