It’s that time of year again! Strawberry season! Yeah toast with Strawberry Jam! Brian & I were able to make it out to the U-pick day at the strawberry fields (Forrrrrever.) of a nearby farm in our area, Circle S Farm (Circle S Farm facebook page). We met the owner who is a really sweet woman & we hope to get to know her better since we live literally a mile down the road.
Finished picking strawberries
Back to the strawberries. We picked for about an hour yesterday morning & were able to leave with about 16 quarts. It will last us a long time for sure. After work, I started getting everything ready to prepare for the jamming season. No, not like this. More like this. Okay… not either of those… AT ALL. Anyway, we bought a recipe book from the King of Canning– the Ball Canning Company. You can find the book we bought here & you can also find quite a bit of recipes on their website.
I decided to make Strawberry Jam last night. I made about 9 (8 oz) jars of strawberry jam. It takes roughly an hour & half to make that many but it doesn’t help when you’re distracted along the way by this. It doesn’t normally take that long.
8 cups of whole strawberries for the recipe
STRAWBERRY JAM
makes about eight 8-ounce jars
7 cups sugar
8 cups of whole strawberries (approx)
4 tbsp lemon juice
1 package (1.75 oz/49 to 57 g) regular powdered fruit pectin
- Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside. (Note: When heating your glass jars, use either a canning rack or use extra lids & place them at the bottom of your pot. You do not want the glass of your jars to make contact with the heat source which will cause the glass to crack.)
- I used my big measuring cup to measure out 8 cups of strawberries. You’ll need to hull the strawberries (for those who are saying, “what?”– remove the green leaves). I just used a small knife for this.
Smash strawberries with a potato smasher (do 1 cup at a time)
- Next, you’ll want to measure out 1 cup of hulled strawberries & place them into a flat-bottomed bowl, I use my glass pie plate & it works great. Take a potato smasher & smash up 1 cup of strawberries at a time then add the over to a saucepan that’s appox 6 to 8 quarts. Do this step over until you have 8 cups of smashed strawberries in your saucepan. Gradually stir in pectin. Over high heat, bring mixture to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, stirring constantly. (Note: Don’t let it burn to the bottom of the pan or else you’ll taste burnt strawberries in your jam!)
- Add entire measure of sugar, stirring to dissolve. Return mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. DON’T LET IT BURN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE POT. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary.
Finished with 9 jars! Yummy!
- Ladle hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip-tight. Don’t tighten it really tight.
- Process in a boiling-water canner for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.
Notice the bin on the left. See that little dint I made. Yeah, I still have a LOT of strawberries still to go!
If you decide to make yourself some strawberry jam, be sure to make extra! You’ll find yourself giving them away as gifts or in some cases, your friends & family will be begging you for them……… not naming any names………. *cough* mom *cough* 