Jananas

My mom bought me a flat of strawberries on Friday. We weren’t able to get to their place to pick them up until yesterday when we went up for a family dinner. In the way of the strawberry, they had to be used pretty much immediately so when we got home at 7:30 last night we got to work.

Strawberry Jam Recipe:

1. 13 cups strawberries
2. 1/2 cup lemon juice
3. 6 cups sugar
4. boil jam for 30-60 minutes or until set
5. process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes

We washed and chopped. End result, something in the range of 14-15 cups of strawberries.

While we were chopping away, we had the big canning pot on the stove boiling water to sterilize the jars and lids. Heating up that much water takes forever!

After all the strawberries were chopped, I juiced 2 lemons to get 1/2 cup of juice. I poured it through a strainer to catch all the pulp and seeds and then poured the juice over the strawberries.

Normally you’d cook and cook and cook the berries down so that they are soft and then you can mash them with a potato masher so that you don’t have whole berries in your jam. We no longer have a masher, so we cheated a little and ran the berries through the food processor for a few seconds to chop them up. Then we boiled and boiled and boiled away.

Once the berry mixture was boiling, I add 6 cups of sugar. I probably should have added a little bit more as the recipe I was basing mine off was 13 cups of berries to 6 cups of sugar.

We had friends over to hang out while we were making jam, so each of the five of us took 10 minutes turns at stirring while the jam was boiling. It made the work much easier and more enjoyable.

After 30 minutes, I tested to see if the jam was set. When I start boiling, I place a small plate in the freezer. I then spoon a little onto the cold plate and leave it for a minute. If the jam is no longer runny, then its set and you can start filling jars. Its an easy way to test your jam. Ours didn’t set right away, so we boiled for 10 more minutes & tested (repeated again).

After 50 minutes (and a little last minute pectin to get it to thicken a little more), we started filling jars. We got pretty much exactly 12 x 250mL jars of jam.

Having an assembly line makes this step go so much faster. I filled, Jason wiped edges and fitted lids. Quick and easy. These then went into the hot water bath and were processed for 15 minutes.

We’re glad to say that they all sealed (those pops are like music to my ears) and that our friends took home a selection of canned goods for helping out.

We’re planning a trip in two weeks to pick our berries. I’m thinking that we’re going to freeze some, dehydrate others, and can the rest. I can’t wait for my pantry this year!