Sylvia Jorrin's October 2005 Farm Story

October 2005 part one

Pumpkins are coming today. Pumpkins to look at. Pumpkins to rejoice over. Pumpkins for jam. Pumpkins for prune and pumpkin pie. And pumpkins for soup. The color of pumpkin jam is astonishing. A clear orange. Stained glass orange were there ever orange in stained glass. This morning I shall rewash the jam jars, polish my big copper confiture pan, find my ladle, take out the jam labels and get, in all ways possible, ready for the adventure. I carried that big, unlined copper pot home from France the last time I was there. It is relatively shallow and very wide. It calls for two burners on the top of the stove, but fits very nicely in my oven. The recipe I use is an adaptation from an old one from by . It calls for a very sharp knife, which is always a problem as I lose knives more often than I find them. A big bowl in which to marinate the thinly sliced pumpkin and sugar. A wide mouthed pot so some of the liquid evaporates quickly, not sacrificing flavor to over cooking. Sometimes I cook it too long with the result that I get pumpkin candy rather than jam. However, candy or jam, it is among my favorite things in winter on . The color pleases me as well, more than any of the other jams I make here.

My larder is newly painted, a hard white enamel. It has been rebuilt this summer. I narrowed the shelves giving me more room to walk in, and, for some strange reason, there is more shelf space. I think the deep shelves were inefficiently used. There remains to be a shelf for the white enamel bread box. Next to it is plenty of room for the deep orange jars of pumpkin jam. Beside them shall go jars of deep black prune butter with flecks of orange peel. The ginger pear jam suits another shelf. But that is another story.