Homemade Fruit Jam

Aren´t they sweet? Literally sweet because of the great deal of sugar in it and the sweetness of living a simple life. These fruits are just falling on the ground from our garden and the neighborhood´s. Blackberries and oranges are fruits in season that you can get it here for free. Since we love fruit jam spread on our bread and crackers I decided to give jam making a try. Viola! Sweet fruit jams on our table for a month of consumption. Bestowed with a little creativity, these spread catch attention at the kitchen. Cute packaging.

 oranges pesonally picked by the author from her mom in-law´s garden

orange jam this much needed 10 peeled oranges, 3 cups (240ml) of sugar and 1.5 cups of water (240ml).

 they call it "amora" in portuguese. blackberries are very common in south america. freshly-picked by the husband from our client´s farm. they are sweet!

black berry jam. this size contain 5 cups of blackberries, 3 cups of sugar and 1.5 cups pf water.

Procedure (both jams)

1. boil the fruits in water until tender. around 30 mins

2. mix the sugar to the fruit mixture.

3. simmer until thickened. don´t overdo simmering as the jam will get chewy if overdone. I had mine for 15 minutes on medium fire.

When I get to the the Philippines I´ll do this for my Dad. He loves fruit jam for breakfast spread on pandesal or american bread or as dessert every meal mixing it on rice.

CRAVINGS

Women often crave for sweet-sour-salty food during their PMS. Satisfying my PMS cravings since I arrived in Brazil are oranges, a fruit that mostly bear during autumn/winter season. They are so accessible to me as we have them at our own yard. So when cravings set in, I can pick it from the yard and suck it (with salt) at its most fresh state. Never did I suck or drink fresh orange juice the as often as I can now. It is quite costly in the Philippines and we Filipinos choose ice tea over fresh orange juice more often than not. I remember my husband always ordering fresh orange juice whenever we eat out when he was in the Philippines.

On top of coffee, flipflops, and models, Brazil is also a leading country in citrus business. They are the largest producer of orange juice and 98% of orange export came from Sao Paulo.

Lucky for my husband 'coz when I get pregnant most probably it will still be oranges that will satisfy my cravings. He once said what if you crave for filipino fruit during your pregnancy?..Well, that's another story to tell.