Apricot Jam in Bijeljina, Bosna

There is no better satisfaction that growing and producing your own food for your family. Particularly when it is of the quality that this fruit is. Can you almost taste the rich almond scented flesh? This fruit is gorgeous.

Two years ago, the trees were just planted, and look at them now!

After our morning coffee, we had a project: to make apricot jam during the cool morning hours. By 8 am it was already 30 degrees Celsius. Truly! We shook the branches on one of the trees and got eleven and a half kilos of beautiful perfect fruit. They took no time to “œpick” and wash in the outdoor sink.

Then the three of us took out the pits which was also effortless and quick.

I really do not like being in any of my own photographs, but my husband insisted on there being evidence that I was actually here. Can you see me melting?

Once they were all pitted, and the green ones separated from the ripe, they were weighed.

Pave really has her system. As the outside is so hot, she uses the “œsmoke house” to cook in during the summer months. She has a regular stove in there, and a cook top. She has a wood burning oven in the outdoor garage that she uses for all of her winter salads and preserving. But first, a step she uses that I do not, is that she grinds the fruit and skin.

Or one of her sons does”¦ and then it is placed in her special enamel pot on her fire burning stove to cook. But first, she mixes 2 tablespoons of sugar with each package of Certo (Zelin) and then brings it to a boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

Vanja had a bit of trouble starting the fire, then remembered he hadn’t opened the flue. See it there in the front of the left photo now pulled out?

Here is the sugar and zelin ready to go into the fruit”¦. (Look at that sweet mother and son bonding!)

A bit more wood is needed on the fire from the stock behind the shed.

There, all mixed in and ready to boil.

Jars are sterilized and sitting in the stifling sun which definitely keeps them warm! Lori keeps cleaning as she goes in the outdoor sink.

Time to add more sugar: per kilo. And, boil for 10 more minutes, then skim off the scum, place into the hot jars and turn upside down.

Quite a little kitchen set up, isn’t it. Not too much mess to clean up after, doesn’t heat the house, and it works!

There you go, son! Lori is in the garage stirring up the last batch.

VOILA!

We started at 9 and were completed by 11. She got 15 jars out of today’s crop, and there will be as many, or more to do again tomorrow! Now that’s a celebration of the harvest, and  the people in this region really understand the value of hard work and the worth of their food.