Strawberry Jam

Last Saturday we drove out to Van's Strawberry Farm and picked a bunch of fresh strawberries.
And then....get this: I made homemade strawberry jam.
Just like I did last year. And the year before that.

And now I'm going to tell you how.

Come on....don't be afraid, it's not hard. Really. And it tastes SOooooo much better than the store bought stuff. Besides, who wants high fructose corn syrup and red dye number 51 in their jelly??

So....one day this weekend, make it a family affair and go out and pick ya some strawberries. Or heck, buy some at Publix. Or pick up some frozen ones - I won't judge you.
It's not as hard as it sounds, and it doesn't take too long either.

First you have to wash and hull your strawberries. I had actually picked about twice as much as this, but then I left them to sit on the countertop for 3 days and a bunch of them got MOLDY. Gross. Fresh strawberries do not last long, people. So if you pick 'em, better be ready to eat or can them within about a day to maximize freshness.

This is all that I ended up with, but it'll be plenty - you'll see. This is just a big mixing bowl of 'em.


You'll need a few basic supplies too. Canning jars like the ones below, for starters. There's a bunch of stuff that you can use to be a pro canner, but I try to keep it simple (i.e. spend as little money as possible) so I just have the basics.

Supplies:
Canning jars
A BIG pot. I use a lobster pot that we as a wedding gift.
Canning Tongs
A funnel of some sort

And that's about it. If you're keepin' it simple. Like me.

You'll also need the following ingredients:

Sugar (LOTS of it, if you're going with the full-sugar recipe - like 2 full bags from the grocery store)
Lemon Juice
Pectin (located next to the canning jars at the store)




1. First, you have to smash up your strawberries a little bit at a time. I used a potato masher, but you could use the bottom of a clean plastic cup. Or your hands. Whatever.

2. Then, we have to do a little prep work.
-Sterilize your jars by washing them in the dishwasher or in hot water. Keep them in some clean warm water - we'll use them in just a few.
-Put the lids in a pan on the stove with some water covering them and heat them up (no need to boil, just heat them up so the underside gets pliable and gummy).
-Fill your lobster pot 1/2 to 3/4 full of water and start it boiling.

3. While all that's going on, your strawberries are just sitting there, waiting patiently to be cooked. Measure out the correct amount of smashed stawberries, per the instructions in your box of Pectin. Mine called for 6 cups. So that's what I did. Because I follow directions like that.
Dump your strawberries in a large saucepan or pot and combine it with the pectin. I always put in a little more pectin than the directions call for - about 20% more. No need to measure, just open another package and dump some more in there. Stir it up and bring it to a full boil.

4. While those are heating up, you need to measure out your sugar.
Now, when you buy your pectin you can buy low-sugar kind or just regular kind. If you dont mind the high calorie count of jam made with regular pectin, you're going to need about 6-7 cups of sugar for each batch of jam.
Low-sugar pectins use juice and Splenda to cut the calories. Sometimes I make one batch of low-sugar and one regular, but this year I just did all of them full of sugar. Yum. Sugar.

5. After your berries and pectin are at a full boil (the kind that can't be stirred away), dump in your sugar, about 6-7 cups (check your pectin directions for the exact amount). Bring it to a hard boil again for one minute.

6. Remove from heat and then scoop off the foam from the top with a spoon.
7. Now, if you're a freak about your chunks of stawberries being evenly distributed throughout your jam, then you'll need to do this OPTIONAL STEP: Let the pan of jam sit for 5 minutes and then stir it up completely again. This helps the jam settle so the berries won't all float to the top after jarring them. I skip this step, because I dont have the time to mess with evenly distributed strawberries.

7. We're almost there! Now, pull your jars from the warm water you've been keeping them in (keeps them from breaking when you fill them with hot jam) and fill your jars, leaving about 1/4 inch of room at the top. This is where that funnel comes in handy.



8. Use some tongs to pull the lids from the pan of hot water and put them on the jars and screw on the rings. Once you have them filled up, place them in your lobster pot of boiling water for 10 minutes. That batch of jam gave me 3 pint-size jars and 2 cute little jars to give away.



9. After they've boiled for ten minutes, use your canning tongs to remove them from the pot and then set them out to cool. As they cool, you'll hear the jar lids pop and you'll know the jars are set and sealed.
After i made that batch, I started all over and made one more batch, so I ended up with a total of 7 big jars and 4 small ones.
They'll keep for about 8months to a year and they are REALLY yummy.


See?? It's not that hard. And it doesn't take very long either. After I washed and hulled the berries, it only took me about 2 hours start to finish to do all these jars.
My first year canning jam, I went a little crazy with the berries and had about 5 million jars of jam. Okay, not that many, but about 20. Good thing is, if you go overboard and get sick of making jam you can just throw the berries in the freezer and do them some other day.

So try it! it's a fun family activity and you'll have some great jam when you're done.

Of course there IS this small matter of the sink load of sticky messy dishes.....

We'll just leave those for Steve.