🌼The arrival of flowers means jams are coming soon🫙

Welcome to a new post, dear Hiver!

This year everything has been different; somehow I feel like everything has fallen into place and now I can enjoy some things.

One of them, which worried me a lot, was the guava harvest.

When Dad lived here, he sold most of it, keeping some for the family.

But I don't have his connections, so I only managed to sell part of the harvest, keeping a large portion for myself. Because of this, I had to freeze them, and eat the rest as fast as I could.

This made me think I needed to find a solution; that's why I decided to start a small-scale jam business.

For now, the business is seasonal, since I use the fruit I grow in my own yard. This way, I've been able to use all the fruit without any going to waste.

This morning I saw some small petals on the ground and knew this beautiful season was coming. This made me smile and at the same time think about everything that has happened this year. It's simply wonderful.

Each batch we harvest is processed and turned into delicious jams that we sell.

Until now, I've been selling them to people I know. But this season, I'll start online sales through Facebook Marketplace and my website, which is currently under construction.

I hope my sister can finish it by the start of the harvest season. And I'm confident she will. She's in charge of it because she's a professional in the field; I, as you can see, am a romantic who sells things online (perfumes, accessories, stencils, and now jams), writes, and grows flowers.

Since the beginning of this year, we've been experimenting and discovering everything about jams.

One of these things is the preservatives. We use sugar, not artificial preservatives.

This left us wondering how long they would last. To find out, we tested the jams we use for our own household consumption.

They last a month well refrigerated and packaged; I could say they would last longer, but we use 8-ounce plastic containers. With glass jars and vacuum sealing, they would last even longer (and yes, I'm seriously considering it; I just need to find a place that carries glass jars for entrepreneurs).

I've also been reading a book we had at home about jams; I've learned some techniques I didn't know that are very useful for our business.

In this way, I'm gradually improving. Learning how to preserve the fruit and doing the best I can.

I can now say that preserving fruit is an art, a very beautiful one. It's not easy, because making jam takes a good amount of time. But it's an art that yields very satisfying results.

So all the learning this year will be even more productive next year. If I'm lucky, which I hope I will be, I'll be able to put what I've learned into practice with other fruits and vegetables.

This way, I'll expand what I produce at home, both for my household and for others.

As you can see, this is a small project, but it's a very big dream in my heart.

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