Furnish them each with a bucket or pan and tell them you want some fruit to make jelly. They are usually very willing, because they like to hike and seek out the berries. Sometimes they will have to travel a mile or two so they will go to the field, catch the horses and then ride to where the berries are. Picking choke cherries is easy, because they grow in big clusters and your bucket will fill up fast. Currents are a little harder to pick and your bucket doesn't get full so quickly.

        Take the berries home to your mother who will wash them and put them on the wood-burning stove to stew. She will then put them in a flour sack and hang the hot berries under the kitchen table, on the board that is there. The sack will hang there for a day or so or until all the juice drains out into the pan that is set under it.

        Then your mother will boil the liquid down, about half and then add a bunch of sugar. When the juice sheets off a spoon the jelly is ready to put into the jar and seal.

        After the cider is made in the fall, your mother will fill the big copper kettle with cider, build a fire outside, place the kettle over the coals and boil the cider with a big wood paddle that your father has carved out of a big stick. You must keep the liquid moving or it will scorch and spoil the whole batch. This is a long process, since you have to stand there and stir and stir, until the liquid gets ready to add the 50 lbs of sugar. Then boil the liquid until it is jelly. You know when it is done when the liquid sheets off the wooden spoon.

        Then you must wash and sterilize big half gallon jars. For 10 kids and two parents it takes a large amount of jelly. Don't fuss with pints of jelly, because they won't go very far. When the jars are full take them into the house, where it is warm so the jars won't crack while they cool.

        This process is repeated for plum jam as well. Also when the Blue Damsen plums are ready, after they are frosted and sweet, make jam with the stones and all. This will make a wonderful flavor, but when you eat the jam tell the kids to watch out for the stones. You have to sort the stones out as you spread the jam on your buttered bread. GOOD!

        Your mother might want to cook up a few apples, make a sauce and then boil it a long time, add spices and then this is called apple butter. This is a rare treat for the 10 kids. When the jars of jelly are cooled your 10 kids can carry them, carefully, over into the cellar that you put your potatoes in. While you are making the jelly your father has been busy making shelves for you to set them on. Then it is time to can your peaches.