How to preserve summer into a jar...

The thing is with living on these southern Croatia islands where everyone sleeps the winters like bears and spends summer surrounded by fertile young people in swimsuits, peaches, squishy red figs, red juice cherries, red melons, apricots , all species of street scenting flowers, green botanic fat rubber plants and mischievous faeries. You do tend to assimilate. And as such. Firstly you also turn red. Than you turn brown. Its the natural process of many a ripe fruit. When brown you are ripe, for picking, however you may choose to interpret that.

Than you realise however hot it is here now in this ripe state, it is much better than the pale of winter, and you alike a true islander native begin the process of preserving the summer for the winter. You preserve summer into jars.

I have now made black cherry jam, sour cherry jam, peach jam, and apricot and peach jam.

To make jam simply take about 3 pounds of fruits and 2 pounds of sugar. add a few spoons of water and a juice of a lemon and than simmer until the fruits cook trough and evaporate most of the juice. Hot and liquid jam, pour into hot and clean old fashioned jars with those lids and the rubber seal thingy and there you go. You have your very own taste, smell and feel of summer to use when the sun goes for a break and gets hidden behind rain clouds.

We are spending insensible amount of time at sea. In the sea. 5 showers a day nor air conditioning can cool the sizzling and effervescing lava into which the human body turns to each time it takes a walk during a day here in the South. The sea the sea only an hour in sea water and looking at cool sea colours sets the body and mind into a controllable decent human shape.

The colours of the sea are the brightest jewels. Tasting the salt on the lips is immediate message to brain that all will be ok, that we shall cool down that in fact life is Divine.

To preserve the taste of the sea for the winter. Coollect sea salt of rocks. Take a spoon and scrape rough sea salt -sea salt flower of rocks next to the sea and put in to jar. Or in between swims collect capers.

The caper is planted by the sea-gulls who like the human adores it for the same sentimental reasons. The caper is actually the bud of the honey suckle flower. The plant grows in form of hairy leafy bush off rocks and walls at sea front, has pink white hairy splendidly scented blossoms.

To prepare the caper. Pick flower buds. Pop into a jar filled with sea water for two weeks to salt adequate. Than rinse the buds and refill jar with half water half red vine vinegar, and of course the caper pods. Leave a couple weeks for it to be ready to eat. Or leave til winter and nibble reminiscently.

See. There you are half way there summer is in jars and ready for the winter month. That done. You squeeze into your bikini and pop off to the beach again. Grab a coctail.

To-doo-loo. --