Did your mom make preserves? Mine did, kind of… although definitely not often and definitely not very enthusiastically. In general, my home was not a jam/marmalade/preserves home, which is strange, because Poles like to preserve and pickle (insert the obvious joke about pickling one’s liver in vodka). In fact, fruit jams are supposed to be one of Poland’s specialties, its longstanding and celebrated tradition. I like jams and I admire proficient jam makers, so much so, that I have just decided that this year will be a jam-making year. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to learn a new skill; so far my tentative list of skills to pick up included touch-typing and sewing, but let’s be realistic, it will be more fun to look back at 2010 and say: I was jammin’ that year… plus the skill comes with its own soundtrack
