The berries are starting to slowly ripen. Before we had two small patches of blackberries growing in our yard, now we have rows upon rows of different types of berries. Now that summer vacation is here, these berries have come in handy. Since we are now working on a ‘just moved’ budget, this summer is a frugal one. No day camps or special classes, no swim passes, none of that fancy stuff for the boys this summer. Instead I have been trying my best to fill our days with both directing them towards working/playing on their own (so I can get a few things done) and doing things together. This is where the berries come into play.

Sending little boys outside to pick berries can kill a good hour. Between what they eat, the competition to pick the more than the other, running between berry patch to berry patch they have a grand time and I get a little quiet time.

Fueled by six years of hearing Jamberry over and over again (such a great book!) our oldest asked if we could make jam with this little bowlful. Well, hmm, sure, why not?

I’m sure our quickie version would make jam enthusiasts raise their eyebrows, but under the time constraints of a four year old’s attention span and the last few minutes of a baby’s nap and we made a very fast, tiny batch of jam. Which fit on exactly four pieces of toast. A perfect morning snack. And a great start to summer.

(to make our super fast jam, we put about a cup of mixed berries with a tablespoon of water and two tablespoons of sugar. we stirred and smashed and let it simmer down until it coated the back of a spoon. about five minutes. let cool and serve on toast!)