Timing is everything.

First, you have to (finally) have a working kitchen, with enough counter space and working burners.

Second, you have to have a whole bunch of free time.

Third, you have to have fruit.

When we put in all those tomato plants this spring, I had dreams of harvesting great mounds of fresh tomatoes, and putting up my own sauce with what we grew in our tiny little garden. That, however, never came to pass, as the regular tomato plants stubbornly decided that growing actual, edible tomatoes was just not something they were interested in doing. So much for that little fantasy.

However, last week two members of my Thursday night knitting group sent out an urgent plea. They were being inundated by plums. Did anyone want any?

I did not waste a second. There was a three-day weekend coming up. The kitchen is now (99%) done. And I have been in *such* a mood to can.

So that is how I ended up with nearly an entire paper ream box full of sugar plums (in case you were wondering, that is a LOT of sugar plums). And this is how I spent a majority of the last three days.

That is three dozen jars of jam – one dozen of plain and two dozen of spiced (recipe is here). Richard had to go out and track down jars for me, twice (and apparently I was not the only one with a yen to do a little bit of canning this weekend, because every place we went was nearly, or completely, out of them), and also more sugar. Jam takes a whole lot of sugar. Richard also very nicely cleaned up the entire jar of jam I managed to spill all over the floor and the counter, because I could not do it because that was the *first* jar I had poured and I had an entire pot of jam that needed to be poured into jars ASAP. In case you were wondering, one eight-ounce jar of extremely hot jam can cover a very large area of floor, and cabinets, and also feet (ow).

The spiced jam is our favorite, and the only reason the first dozen jars were plain was because I hadn’t decided to try the spiced variation yet. With each batch I poured the leftover dribs and drabs into a small glass and stashed that in the fridge, and we’ve been eating that over cheese blintzes for breakfast. Delicious!