Jamming Berries and Craniums

2014-09-06Uncategorized Standard

[Written 16 December 2014. Don’t tell anyone but this actually happened on 6-7 September 2014! ]

I’d only been at my new job for a few days when an email went out reminding everybody to submit their homemade jam for the jam-making-contest the week after.

Now, I have never made jam. Ever. But, I’m eternally competitive, so I was determined to try. (12 images total)

Saturday 6 September 2014

I’d seen a redcurrent bush (rifsberjarunna) by one of the local playgrounds that I figured might still have some berries, so I took the kids there one fine Saturday. We were in luck, because although almost all the obvious berries were gone, there were still juicy clusters hiding down low, and inside the big bush. Anna and Bjarki were a huge help in picking from inside the bush, and Emma helped by not running away.

It’s hard to take photos up into the air when you’re sitting/squatting/lying on the ground.

Emma carefully eating berries. They were very ripe and sweet.

Lucky for me, the big kids had just made redcurrant jam with their Grandma Anna, so Anna knew to tell me that we’d need the stalks and green berries to for the jam to congeal on its own.

Sunday 7 September 2014

The Sunday had a dramatic start, with Emma kicking the booster-seat-containing chair she was sitting on away from the kitchen table so that it fell backwards with her in it. She hit the back of her head pretty hard, and screamed bloody murder for a good long while.

I called the medical hotline to ask about the guidelines for head trauma, because I can never remember these things (can she fall asleep or no? if so, for how long? yadda yadda…). The nurse told us to bring her in if she started vomiting, which is exactly what she did as soon as I tried to lay her sleeping body down to rest.

So, Finnur and I hopped in the car with Emma, leaving the older kids home alone. They were on the computer, meaning they would barely move three inches until we came back home.

We got super lucky in that the ER was essentially deserted when we arrived, so the wait was short.

Emma was a bit woozy, but quickly started rallying. As expected, this turned into a game of wait-and-see, because that’s non-severe head trauma for you. We were directed to a children’s waiting room, so the medical staff could peek in once in a while to see how things were progressing. This is where Finnur watched Frozen for the first time, pretty much from start to finish.

Emma with her hospital band. I have such a hard time keeping my phone camera-lens gunk-free!

Shortly after noon, they decided to give Emma something to eat to see if a) she had an appetite, and b) whether she would keep it down. Half an hour later the answer to both questions was yes, so we were given the green light to take her home, after spending about two hours in the hospital. The official diagnosis was a ‘mild concussion’.

Later in the evening, after the younger two were in bed, Anna showed my how to make a redcurrant jam. All you do is weigh the berries and stalks, and put them in a pot with an equal weight of sugar. Bring the sugar and berries to a boil while crushing the berries, and let boil for a few minutes (I think?). Strain the sugary goo into clean small jars and close the lid. Put in the refrigerator and hope it congeals as it cools. 🙂

I realized after the fact that this recipe is probably meant for berries that are less ripe than we had (unripe green berries are almost preferred, and we hardly had any), so I think we should have used slightly less sugar. Oh well, you live and you learn, right?