this is my jam

I made jam yesterday. I went to Chico this weekend for labor day to visit an old friend (like I've been doing for years). On the way back down I-5, I committed highway robbery at a farm stand in Winters, CA, and came away with this golden booty:


The peaches are ripening another day before I can them in syrup. But the plums, oh the plums. My mom used to make plum jam from a tree in our yard when I was a kid, and it was the bomb. I on the other hand had no idea what I was doing. But I picked up a copy of "Putting Food By" at the flea market a couple weeks ago and I'd been eyeing this giant canning pot at the hardware store and then it went on sale so like it was a sign. A sign to jam.

This is what it looked like:




Then my camera battery died, until the next morning when it looked like this: Jam!


Thanks to Elizabeth for some welcome mid-jam triage. Maybe I'll try homemade pectin next time (let's get real, i'm not that intense).

and here's the money shot.

now i gotta go look for more stuff to slather this on and put in my mouth (that's what she said).

my herbs, let me show you them

the set-up


chives, thyme, savory oh my.


sage babies


dill, garlic chives, parsley, marjoram.


mustard WIN!


and a big fat fail, peppers.

things and stuff, pt 2

i finished Infinite Jest, was pretty disappointed. i started school, am withholding judgment for now. berkeley is fine, my neighborhood is the safest I've lived in since i was 18. when i walk home from the BART late at night, alone, it smells like flowers and i can see the stars and no one bothers me. my neighborhood is 100% aging hippies with like a lot of equity in their homes and serious gardens which they water a lot despite the tremendous deficit in this state. inexplicably most places in california, water is included in the rent. meanwhile in the east coast you're charged for water and yet there is so much lately that neighbors are calling the skeeter police on each other to come suck up the festering pools just laying about. weird. lately i've been on a kick of watching movies about san francisco. i just watched 'the wild parrots of telegraph hill' and 'the Bridge' which were both depressing. i just netflixed Bullitt and Dirty Harry. i also recently started a subscription to the sunday Times because i figured adults read the paper and i'm like half an adult so why not. i can't seem to get through it in a week, altho i totes make time to read the wedding announcements which are hilarious. everyone getting married in new york went to the University of Pennsylvania. my brother went to the University of Pennsylvania and hated it there and joined a goth/metal frat. also, i planted an herb garden finally.

represent, pt 2

welcome to the yay area.

the emancipation of auto tune

i can picture Phoebe in like a sequin halter top and suede hot pants dancing on the bar at Big Bear to this.

dolores

SUNday at the park.

new home, still eating

click.