Jammin' out

Yesterday was our last Crafty Kid Tuesday of the summer. We decided to make jam. Someone please take my temperature. I'm not sure what's gotten into me. I was not raised by jam making parents (at least not that I can recall) or even canning parents. How do I come up with these crazy ideas? The answer is simple; I had kids. It was Madelyn's idea. She was inspired by a friend who wanted to pick prickly pear fruit during a playdate a couple weeks ago.

After delaying our jam making operation a week due to inadequate supplies, we got busy. First, we picked 40 prickly pear fruit. We have it in abundance in our front yard so this task went quickly. Of course, it went quickly only after providing Sam with first aid for a skinned knee he got two steps out the door.
Then we singed off all the 'ouchy things' as we like to call them. We quartered the fruit and prepared it for boiling. Catherine was very concerned that her hands were stained pink. After cooking, we drained out the juice in this handy jelly press. I don't get the name of this contraption. Why is it called a jelly press when all the directions clearly state NOT to press the fruit unless you want to make the juice, and thereby your jam, cloudy?
After some combining of ingredients and a great deal of boiling, we have jam. The taste test comes later today. I suspect we just might have a winner based on the fact that there is more sugar than cactus juice in the recipe.
Crafty Kid Tuesday has been a lot of fun. We all look forward to continuing this tradition as the school year begins (GULP) tomorrow. It will probably be moved to a new day and time however. Stay tuned!