How many of you have read the cookery books of Jane Grigson or Elizabeth David and discovered the incredible recipes for preserves and soft fruit jams and jellies? And how many of you have heard of a young, energetic woman named Christine Ferber from Niedermorschwihr, a village in Alsace, who makes some of the most delicate and tender and subtle confitures I've ever tasted in her small shop, Au Relais des Trois Epis?

And who among you has tried the incredible artisanal jams that come from Sicily (blood orange) or Devon (raspberry or blackberry) or Corsica (lemon marmalade) or Provence (chunky apricot)?

If you haven't savored the best jams and jellies atop yogurt, or sandwiched between two slices of great country bread with butter, get out your pots and pans, canisters of sugar, jam pots and Mason jars, jam-pot covers and screw rings and lids, and start mashing berries and pitting stone fruit.

There are many excellent recipes to be found, but once one has mastered proportions of fruit to sugar and cooking times, one can invent and experiment freely with rarely a mistake. If a jam is a bit too soft, spoon it onto cottage cheese, or cook it down a little and use it, strained, as a glaze for an apple tart. And remember, jelly does not have to be just sweet: it can be minty to eat with roasted lamb, or peppery to eat with soft cheese and crackers, or firm — almost a paste — to eat with cream cheese.

My daughter and a friend were visiting recently, and over breakfast we started talking about preserves. Alexis loves pure raspberry jam on toasted brioche, and pure strawberry jam in "peanut butter and jelly" sandwiches.

I started making preserves at a young age. We would go as a family to pick berries and fruits at local orchards and farms in New Jersey and Long Island. Mom was a really good jam maker, and she showed me how to extract clear juice using a jelly bag (for years ours was a cloth diaper), and how to pit and cook small damson plums from the neighbor's tree and turn them into my favorite sweet-tart jam.

When I married and began growing all sorts of fruits and berries, I made lots of jam, enough for my own table and to give away. I used my red currants for the clearest ruby-red jelly (strained through a thick felted-wool bag I found in England), my white currants for an indescribably delicious jelly and my quinces for pale-pink jelly.

I loved making blackberry, crab apple, elderberry, mulberry and raspberry jams; red pepper jelly and Concord grape jelly; and Seville orange marmalade, too. I tried different techniques: using pectin, not using pectin, using quince or apple or gooseberry juice as pectin, longer cooking, shorter cooking, more sugar, heated sugar, less sugar.

I recently started collecting vintage French jelly jars, beautifully shaped, heavy glass jars thumb-printed on the sides. They do not have tops, so I cover them with melted paraffin and cellophane jam-pot covers held tight with rubber bands. I use these jars just for preserves for my own consumption, and use half-pint Mason jars with screw rings and flat lids for gifts and storing.

All my tools have been carefully collected — the shallow steel pots, the funnels with wide holes that fit into the jars, jelly bags and more. This year, I am experimenting with a variety of new flavors and combinations. As I write this, the bushes and trees are laden with unripe fruits, and once they are ripe, I will be at the stove, stirring and skimming and filling and labeling. I hope you will be, too.

RASPBERRY-ORANGE ZEST JAM

Makes about 4 cups

3 pounds fresh raspberries

4 1/2 cups sugar

4 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Pinch of coarse salt

1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest

1. Place a few small plates in the freezer. Stir berries, sugar, lemon juice, salt and 1/2 teaspoon zest in a large, heavy stockpot. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar and mashing lightly with a potato masher. Skim foam from surface. Cook, stirring more frequently as jam thickens, until it has the consistency of very loose jelly, 8 to 9 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. Remove a plate from freezer; drop a spoonful of jam on it. Return to freezer for 1 to 2 minutes; nudge edge of jam with a finger. It should hold its shape. If jam is too thin and spreads, return it to a boil, testing every minute, until done.

3. Strain about half of the jam; discard seeds. Return strained jam to pot; stir in remaining teaspoon zest. Return to a boil. Remove from heat. Spoon hot jam into hot sterilized jars; cover immediately with sterilized lids.

APRICOT-SAUTERNES JAM

Makes 4 to 5 cups

2 1/4 pounds fresh apricots, pitted and cut into 1-inch chunks

2 3/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup Sauternes or Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise

Pinch of coarse salt

1. Place a few small plates in the freezer. Stir together apricots, sugar, lemon juice, Sauternes and salt in a large, heavy pot. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar and mashing lightly with a potato masher. Skim foam from surface. Cook, stirring more frequently as jam thickens, until it is the consistency of very loose jelly, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove pot from heat.

2. Remove a plate from freezer, and drop a spoonful of jam on it. Return to freezer for 1 to 2 minutes, then gently nudge edge of jam with a finger. If jam is ready, it should hold its shape. If jam is too thin and spreads out, return to a boil, testing every minute, until done.

3. Return jam to a boil. Spoon hot jam into hot sterilized jars, and cover immediately with sterilized lids.

BLACKBERRY-BAY LEAF JAM

Makes about 4 cups

3 pounds fresh blackberries

4 1/2 cups sugar

Zest of 1 lemon, plus 4 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Pinch of coarse salt

1 or 2 dried bay leaves

1. Place a few small plates in the freezer. Stir together berries, sugar, lemon zest and juice, salt and bay leaves in a large, heavy stockpot. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar and mashing lightly with a potato masher. Skim foam from surface. Cook, stirring more frequently as jam thickens, until it is the consistency of very loose jelly, 10 to 11 minutes. Remove pot from heat.

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2. Remove a plate from freezer, and drop a spoonful of jam on it. Return to freezer for 1 to 2 minutes, then gently nudge edge of jam with a finger. If jam is ready, it should hold its shape. If jam is too thin and spreads out, return to a boil, testing every minute, until done. Remove bay leaves, and discard.

3. Press about half of the jam through a medium sieve; discard seeds. Return strained jam to pot, and stir until combined. Return to a boil. Spoon hot jam into hot sterilized jars, and cover immediately with sterilized lids.


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