I’m getting into the preserves business and this is no joke. My mom is known for her amazing jams and few other preserves. Every year you can find her at the local craft sales around Christmas time and if you are lucky you’ll find her at a garage sale or two.

She has reached such popularity that some people who don’t even know her first name will stop her on the street and try to order more jams.

All year round my mom is collecting the materials and making more jams. She will scour the store for the best deals on the mason jars as well as watch for fruit to come on sale. She has even gotten to the point where she has basically built a celler, which is cool and dark, to keep all that she makes.

So how do I fit in, well first, after seeing her success I just wanted to grow her business into something real, not just found at the craft sales. But with my love of cooking as well, and if you hadn’t of guessed my mother is my biggest mentor, I too wanted to try my had at the preservatives but not the jams and such that she makes. No, I want to make the jelly spreads.

To help me understand the process of jarring stuff my mother helped, well actually she did most of the work as she too had never really made jelly.

We were making Red Pepper and Garlic Jelly.

To make the jelly we had to finely chop up 2-cups of red peppers and 3 cloves of garlic and mix it in with vinegar, sugar and pectin.

The hardest part for me was to remember how long it had to boil and skimming off the foamy bit once it was boiled.

What we did find, was that once the mixture was boiled our recipe instructed us to quickly pour it into the preheated mason jars but when you do this all the peppers float to the top. We found that if you let it cool for a moment or two you have a better chance at evenly dispersing the jelly in the jars.

Now what can I make next.