The great JAM adventure...

So tonight at 6 pm we went berry picking.

As of 11 pm:

1. we drove the roughly 45 minutes home.
2. went to the grocery store.
3. ate dinner.
4. gave Finn a bath (YKW).
5. cleaned and de-stemmed EIGHT pounds of strawberries (me).
6. put Finn down for the night (YKW).
7. went back to the store.
8. flash froze & bagged up 2 quarts of strawberries for smoothies at a later date.






9. blogged Strawberry Fields Forever.
10. canned 16+ jars of strawberry freezer jam!
11. cleaned up the whole mess... well there are a couple rogue dishes to do in the morning.

That, my dear readers, is a full night, let me tell ya. OK. Without further ado, here is the strawberry jam making process. You need to FOLLOW the recipe to a T for which ever pectin you're using. We chose to do freezer jam simply because I have heard it keeps the freshest taste AND we have a wonderful lovely freezer in the basement thanks to the inlaws generous Christmas.

I used Sure-Jell and here is basically what we did...

1. boil the jars (you can use the plastic freezer canning things too)
2. mash the berries (do this in smaller-ish batches) - use 2 cups mashed
3. measure the sugar - use 4 cups
4. mix the berries and the sugar, let that sit for 10 minutes
5. pull jars out of boiling hot water trying not to scald neither yourself or your husband who is only helping out because he loves jam
6. put the pectin and 3/4 cup of water in a pan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, boil for 1 minute, then pour into the strawberry goo
7. stir goo and pectin mix for 3 minutes
8. jar it up (leave 1/2 inch of space at the top for freezing), put tops & rings on
9. let sit for 24 hours at room temp until set up, then put in the freezer.

It will keep for 1 year frozen, 3 weeks refrigerated. Allow to unthaw in the fridge before eating. We made 3 batches of jam and it's enough for the whole year plus a few jammy gifts for our grandmas and a select few other special peeps.