Cooking the Jam
I meant to write this a few weeks ago, but with the kids on vacation I have gotten behind in my writing. I missed strawberry picking last year because I kept waiting for the kids to get out of school so we could go and pick the berries together. This year I decided that if I wanted to have local, organic, strawberry jam, that I would have to go pick withouth them. As it turned out they did come pick some with me before the strawberry plants gave out. Graham came with me the second trip I made and he helped me pick two quarts of berries. He was a bit squeemish about getting his hands into the plants, but he picked a whole quart for me. On the way home we ate some in the car. He was so excited about being able to eat the berries he had picked himself. They were very bloated from all the rain we have had. The seeds on the outside of the berry were like dimples in the berry’s skin. They tasted so much better than the California berries we get at the grocery store. Picked at the point of ripeness and eaten right away, they are packed with more nutrients too.
When we got home, I got out the canning supplies, which had been in storage since last fall. It felt exciting to begin the preserving process for this summer, knowing that this is just the beginning of the fruits we will make into jams to supply us until next summer. I tried to do low sugar jam last year with our blueberries and raspberries, but they really did not turn out very tasty. This year I decided to just go with the full sugar recipe. I am still a little torn about this decision, because I do not think that it is good to be eating so much sugar. I did decide to use organic sugar though, not that this makes eating all that sugar any healthier. I set up my large canning pot and put the jars in to sterilize them, hulled the strawberries and crushed them a bit, then added them to the pot to begin cooking them down. It always amazes me how easy and fast it is to make jam. The berries cook down, you add the pectin, bring to a boil, add the sugar, boil again – done! Last year I struggled with trying to put the jam into jars without using a funnel, this year I got a bit wiser and bought a canning funnel. It made my life so much easier. Here are the final products. The rich red color is so beautiful to look at on the shelf!
Finished product
