Last month I was able to get quite a deal on apricots, something like 99 cents a pound. So I decided to make apricot jam, something I haven’t done in what seems like forever.

I think I bought about wow, well, I forget how many pounds now. Maybe twenty? Got my jars ready. Got my canner out. Got plenny sugar. Then I went to work. I put Hawaiian music on my iPod, and while all my favorite artists were singing mele like Ho‘oheno Kēia Nô Beauty and Kalama‘ula, I just sang along while washing, pitting, and chopping up the apricots, fully convinced that singing in Hawaiian makes any flavor mo bettah!

I didn’t used to put jam in a water bath canner. Now I guess the powers that be have decided that unless we do, we will undoubtedly get some horrible disease and end up either really sick or mahkediedead. I did use the canner, but mostly to make sure the jars and their contents got hot enough to seal tight. Which they all did. One of the things I love best in this world is hearing that little ping! when the jars seal.

I am very easily entertained.

I think I ended up with about fifteen pints. One of my nephews, when he read my post on Facebook about making the jam, told me he hadn’t tasted homemade jam for over twenty years! So I sent him and his ‘ohana a jar. I also sent a jar to Cousins in Bozeman, Montana. I loved sharing the wealth, and my nephew’s wife let me know that theirs was gone in less than two days! (Only get three in their ‘ohana, too!) Cousins let me know that they watched each other carefully to make sure that neither one got more than the other! Love it!

Then I photographed the jars with a special lei that a friend made for me, because… because, well, I just thought the colors looked good together. That’s why.

This winter, when the days are long, gray, and dreary, I’ll open up a jar of apricot jam, spread some on a piece of toast, and remember the long, sunny, summer day when I made jam for the first time in a very long time.