Juneberry Jam

The lake scene was typical for Grabers. Everybody's vehicle backed up to a semi central area, tail gates open and doors ajar. Coolers, towels, flip-flops, baskets, blankets, lawn chairs, and firewood from beach to cars. The men cooked. The girls sent the children off for water play and went looking for blueberries in the woods.
Elv and I pulled in through the sandy trail with the Jeep and added our own tailgate grilling.
The girls soon reappeared to show us their plastic cups half full of blueberries. But I was already noticing a pair of cedar wax wings playing in a Jack pine and in the reeds on the lake shore. They hardly seemed to notice us in their play back and forth. Apparently they were feeding on the red berries in the tall bush that Lisl eventually noticed right next to the bird playground. It was full of red berries and they tasted quite good.
    We consulted the work wide web on the spot (we thought Cheney Lake was in the boonies) to discover that our red berry tree was a June berry tree. Thus we ended up with enough berries for four small jars of beautiful jam.

Jam Making

 Jam making is a satisfying homemakers adventure. To wing it is to have runny jam, ie. a colossal fail. All that sugar, and stirring and guessing for...what can you use runny jam for, anyway! Follow directions, and feel the particular triumph belonging only to the chosen few who actually do.
Next week, we'd like to go back up there to pick several buckets of blueberries. We will take the Jeep up and our picnic lunch. Any bears hanging around, we hope, will take a hint from all of our noise and move off to the next county. It's been years since we picked blueberries in the woods.