Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Kivalliq (Oct 25/00) - Some of life's fondest memories come from warm moments spent around the kitchen table, spreading Grandma's sweet home-made jam onto bread still hot from the oven.

The sugar, the berries and the recognition of the effort it took all made the final product taste like heaven.

As snow begins to fall around the Kivalliq region, and berry season fades away for another year, it seemed timely to ask at least one of the region's cooks the secret techniques she uses to put up berries.

Rankin Inlet's Maggie Putulik is well-known for her aqpik jam.

Perfecting her berry emulsion for the last 10 years, Putulik said her invention was borne out of necessity.

"I didn't know much about freezing aqpiks and whenever we went out to pick them, we'd bring backs lots and we'd have to use them up," said Putulik.

She said at first she followed a raspberry jam recipe and simply substituted the aqpiks for raspberries until she felt confident to play around with the fruit.

"I started experimenting with different recipes and one year I came across a magazine which had aqpik jam recipes from Newfoundland," said Putulik.

Years later, she's practised enough at her craft that she can make the confection of liquid sweet stuff by sight, no recipe needed.

Putulik's mother-in-law has also helped her perfect her jam by explaining to Putulik that by using pectin, she could increase her yield.

"She told me it was better to use Certo because then the jam wouldn't evaporate as much. You'd get more jam that way."

Certo or not, Putulik's family didn't get any jam this year because she said she was just too busy to pick enough aqpiks. When asked if they were disappointed by the absence of their favourite condiment, Putulik said they didn't seem to be.

She added that her husband -- who loves her jam so much he eats it right out of the jar -- had worked out an alternate arrangement for the winter months.

"He'll probably eat his mother's home-made jams and jellies."

Maggie Putulik's Home-made Aqpik Jam Recipe

• take enough aqpiks (big apples or cloudberries)to fill a medium size bowl
• add about two cups of sugar
• add two tablespoons of lemon
• let sit overnight to bring out the flavour of the aqpiks
• simmer the next day until it gets thick
• put jam in sterilized jars
• spread jam on bannock, bread or eat directly from jar