Peter Payack
The Jam
Mary wants to make some jam, so she buys 1000 mason jars: 700 quart size, 200 pint size, and “for variety” 100 half-pint. She likes making jam. Next she goes to the fruit stand and buys an orchard of peaches, but at 4 pounds to the dollar she feels “it’s a steal.” The fruit stand delivers the peaches in a truck; it dumps them into the kitchen. The kitchen is getting a little cramped with a ton of peaches and all those mason jars. We phone all the people we know to borrow canning pots. We rent a U-Haul 16 footer to pick them up. We get our sugar directly from Cuba. It costs a little more, and the diplomatic procedures are horrendous, but Mary feels “it’s sweeter.” For the next 72 hours we peel, dice, and boil peaches, sterilize the jars, and add gallons of pectin which we bought from a wholesaler “at a bargain.” After all the jars are filled, we realize we forgot to buy the lids. We call all over, and find that there are none to be had. As the jam begins to spoil, I grow desperate. But not Mary. She feels it was all worth it. She says, “I like making jam.”
From issue no. 66 (Summer 1976)
