At the Castro Farmers’ Market on Wednesday i was offered a deal i couldn’t refuse – a free flat of yesterday’s strawberries, a bit the worse for wear but still OK for jam, he said. So of course i said yes, got them home and started to work washing and sorting them and tossing those that had gone off.
I completed the first batch of jam that night, flavoring it with several teaspoons of some Thai red curry paste that had long been occupying precious shelf space in my refrigerator, and while that was cooking down i got the berries for the next batch stemmed.
Thursday morning i awoke early and got the second batch of jam going, this one flavored with some New Mexico chile powder. Prepped the final batch while that one was cooking, and finished jarring the final batch (this one without exotic additions) just before noon. Whew.
Took a break from this by going to the gym, where i encountered a new side effect from the jam making. See, i go to 24 Hour Fitness, a place so modern and cutting edge that instead of flashing an id card upon entry, you just stick your index finger onto this little reader, whereupon the screen displays “Welcome, Matte”. Except that this time it didn’t, displaying instead, “See Receptionist”.
Of course i could see her, she was standing right there, and she told me to try it again. So i did, and she observed that my fingerprint was so faint that it was barely visible, so the machine couldn’t read it.
And then it swept me. I hadn’t worked my fingers to the bone like our mothers used to, but in snatching three batches worth of hot jars out of the oven, i had seared my fingertips smooth.
So enjoy yer damn jam. It didn’t hurt that much:-)
Here’s some street art celebrating Easter at the corner of Haight and Laguna: