When fruit ripens, it's time to start making jam and jelly. Cherry jelly is precious, if only due to the work that goes into pitting them. They came ripe about the same time as the currants-red and black.

We had a break in fruit production of two or three days and now are in the midst of collectiing Manchurian Apricots as they ripen and fall. They are tarter than eating apricots, which make them perfect for jam.

We took a trip out to the sand barrens to see if the blueberries were ripe, but the bears beat us to them.

Butterfly weed blooms when blueberries ripen.

We still have elderberries and apples and wild plums, but those are fall harvests. If we are lucky, we will find choke cherries in August.

I figured that it costs about $1.50 to make a jar of jelly, if you have to buy the jar. That does not include the fruit we grow or forage, or our time. An equivalent amount of jam at the store costs about $3. The difference is: you can't readily find black currant, elderberry, wild plum (which doesn't taste like anything in the store!), choke cherry, or the wonderful apricot jam we make. So we make more jelly and jam than we could possibly eat, and if you are lucky, you might have a dab on toast, or yogurt, or as a glaze on pork or duck...or maybe just a small spoonful straight from the jar... if the bears don't beat you to it.