Juice and Jam

I'm wanting to clear the freezer in the house, amalga-mating the contents with what's in the "garage" freezer.  That's where we store all the fruit picked, before it's turned into juice, jam or wine.  So I took three gallon ice cream buckets of cherries into the house this morning and, with the help of the steam juicer, turned them into these 6 quarts of delicious cherry juice.  Nice for with meals, and also available to turn into cherry syrup or jelly.

Then I picked up an ice cream bucket of raspberries, added about the same amount of sugar, set them to boil in a 15 quart pan and turned them into 8 pint jars and 2 one cup jars of jam.  At least, I hope it will be jam.  It's not entirely cooled off yet, and it's still pretty runny.  Well, if not jam, some kind of syrup or topping.

All that activity has, hopefully, made enough room to take what's in the house freezer and be able to fit it into the garage freezer.  One freezer will take much less electricity than two!

Earlier in the day I was able to finish up a project for my friend Med: two dust covers for their monitors and keyboards.

It always feels so good to finish projects!  Yesterday I sent the "Grandmother's Fans" quilt out to the Continuing Care.  I had finished the machine quilting on that on Monday.

Tuesday we had friends visiting for dinner.  Since the house had not been dusted and vacuumed for over a week--what neglect!--I first cleaned, and then cooked.  We had a very nice visit, and then they continued on their way.  It was nice to have warning of a visit, so that I could have a good meal ready, but I also do love unexpected company.  There's always something in the freezer that can be turned into a tasty meal!