Make jam from handpicked berries

“Picking strawberries went fairly well, though I’m sure any seasoned picker would have shaken her head as we hopped from plant to plant, forgetting any kind of systematic picking and taking lots of breaks to eat and take photos. I tried to stop my son from eating the strawberries out of the basket, but moms know that babies have more persistence than their mothers, so I soon gave up. Finally, as we were getting ready to leave, I mentioned to my friend that I’d read something about needing pectin. We discussed what pectin could be and why we might need it. I decided to ask the woman weighing our strawberries if we needed pectin to make jam. With what seemed like judgement and pity, she informed us that we would need pectin to make the jam gel. We grabbed a few more cartons of pre-picked strawberries (because we didn’t pick nearly enough to make jam) and hurried away with only a small amount of shame at our ignorance and poor picking skills.”

“Today was so freakin nice. I was so nervous. I had invited her to pick some raspberries that grew in my backyard and to make it special I wore a cute floral flowy dress. I lost count how many times I blushed today. When there was a berry I really wanted but couldn’t reach she jumped so fast to get it like like y’all the butterflies in my tummy like omg and she’s so cute and we made jam and I walked her home and it was so freakin nice and omg I can’t stop smiling!!! [...] And also berry picking is surprisingly very calm and relaxing, 10/10 recommend”