Yeah baby, it's Strawberry picking time! One of the coolest things about living here in the Lehigh Valley is the "Pick your Own" farms. We have two near by and my favorite offers pick your own strawberries in the month of June. So the very first day of the season I gathered the troops and drove right over. We picked about 5 pounds, very exciting!! But, what to do with the strawberries! Make Jam of course!
So making jam and jelly seems very intimidating and I'm sure you've heard someone say bip bam boom, it's easy. So I'm not going to say that. What I will say is that canning is just one way of preserving your food to get more use of it. You can also freeze strawberries whole or diced, sprinkled with or without a little sugar. To be used for smoothies, mixed drinks, over pancakes or waffles, in yogurt or on ice cream, or throw them in a cake or muffin recipe. I like canning. I think it's fun. I like to gift strawberry jelly, gave some to my daughter's bus driver and her Kindergarten teacher.
Here's my how to.
So the 4 elements you need are sterilized containers, fruit, sugar and pectin and you'll have to read the directions on the darn pectin box. (Did I mention I have a hard time reading the directions on boxes but that's a whole other story, okay focus.) Can I also mention that the jam/jelly making directions on the pectin box are kind of intimidating. Dont let that scare you.
I pulsed my Strawberries a little before cooking.
So,Since my kids ate most of what I picked and all of what they picked, I was left with a little more than 4 cups. Which is less than what the recipe called for-uggh. But that didn't stop me, Nope! I just tossed the directions and cut my recipe in half. Which only required a little, simple (not simple) culinary math.
Can I throw this in? In Culinary school math class was the most feared by everyone, seriously! You have no idea how many people had to retake that class.
Okay- back to the business.
So once I realized there would be math involved, I decided to wait till the babies nap time. Smart Mommy! Its hard to think with a little person hugging your leg.
Alright, at nap time I pulled it together and cut the recipe down for the 4 cups of strawberries I had and added half the amount of sugar and pectin. Then I just cook the strawberries down till they're at a rolling boil.
Then I took the hot jars out of the boiling water and filled them with the hot jelly, put the lids on tightly and turn them upside down. Once the jars are cool the seal on top the jar should be down. Sometimes they don't go down, and this is the stressful part. All I can say is, don't stress. Put those jars in the fridge and wait. These jars may not be completely cool. Once they cool the seal almost always goes down. If not put that bad boy in the fridge and crack it open later to taste test. Taste testing is good!
Now, I said making jelly/jam isnt easy, and its not. You have to sterilize the jars, and that seems scary, how long do you boil them for? Don't be scared! Just boil the jars until your not worried anymore. Then there's measuring the fruit, to sugar, to pectin ratio. Yup, that's tricky. It's gotta be just right or there is no jam! Aaah no, there will be jelly no matter. Look im just making the point that this, is, EASY!! You can't screw it up, just looky at what I did, all my issues. Still made jam!
So if you can make jam and not worry, and have the precise ingredients you need to just follow the recipe, than your not like me!
Make jam it's easy!
