Apricot Jam

We have a small apricot tree in our garden and about two weeks ago, the apricots were ripe and ready to be eaten.
Unfortunately, nobody wanted to eat that many apricots... So I decided to make jam!

Unless you've got an apricot tree in your garden, you'll want to buy some.
And some other things you'll need for this:
-apricots, about a pound of them
-sugar, about half a pound
-1 cinnamon stick
-1 star anise
-3-4 cloves
-some black peppercorns (whole)

Wash the apricots, halve them, take out the pit, halve the halves and put them into a pot.
Set the heat to medium-high and add the sugar. Stir the fruits and the sugar regularely, till they release their juice and then lower the heat to medium-low.
Now add the spices.
Let the jam simmer for some time, stirring all 10-20 minutes, then lower the heat some more and let it simmer some more, till the jam reaches the consistency you want.

Remove the cloves, the cinnamon, the anise and the pepper, then pour the jam into a jar.

Tips:
1. Add more sugar, if you want it sweeter, I halved the "normal" amount of sugar you use for jam.

2. Try the recipe with differen fruits and spices. How about plum and cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves? Or berries and lemongrass/peppermint?

3. If you have fruits that aren't perfect (too sour, too ripe, not ripe enough, ugly,...) for eating, use them for jam. You can balance out sourness with sugar or leave sugar away, if the fruits are too sweet and no one will see that the fruits used to have some bumps in them after cooking...