Marmalade and syrup and knitting, oh my!

(As you can see, my internet connection, and therefore my pictures, are still messed up. They're all vertically challenged. *sigh*)

I am so excited! I made a couple of firsts in the last couple of weeks. First of the firsts, I made orange marmalade:

Not actually a squat jar...

I bought the gorgeous new jam e-book from my friend, Robin. It's called "A Simple Jar of Jam" and it's as much a work of art as it is a how-to-make-jam book. You can get it (PDF) at Robin's Etsy site.

We were buying jars of marmalade that Robin made and got so addicted that I had to make my own (while it's citrus season) just to keep up hubby's demands. Now if I could only figure out how to make Vegemite, he would be the happiest guy on earth.

If you like to make jam, you should add "A Simple Jar of Jam" to your library (or e-library). If you don't want to make your own, Robin will soon be selling her canned jams on Etsy too. Go to her blog to contact her!

I'm very happy with the marmalade I made (a total of 11 8-oz jars, I think); I just wish Mom were still alive for me to share with her because marmalade was one of her favorite things.

My second first (is that oxymoronic?) was strawberry syrup!

I'd canned strawberry jam before but never made syrup. Hubby's been wanting a lower glycemic index sweetener for our waffles and he thinks fruit syrup is the answer. Who knows if he's right about that, but we only have one, spindly sugar maple on our property but we had a ton of strawberries to do something with.

I used the recipe for strawberry syrup from the "Food in Jars" book but didn't can it. I also consulted these three books below when I was making marmalade, but my favorite was Robin's e-book because of the scrumptious photos.

Let me know if you want to know the authors...things are hard to read in this photo.

Now that I'm armed with tons of books and some experience, I hope we get a bumper crop of wild blackberries, wild black raspberries, and blueberries so I can make tons of jams and syrup. If anyone has ever made jam with persimmons, please let me know how it went.

What about you? How do you preserve your fruits? Or do you just eat them all as you get them (the grasshopper method of food preservation)? ;)

EDITED TO ADD:
Well, genius here (*squirrel!*) forgot to talk about knitting. My buddy Michelle sent me a washcloth pattern and some gorgeous yarn so I started making a funky washcloth:

looks like the squashed pic problems are solved...yay!

This has been so much fun, I might make a bunch for gifts!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams