Strawberry Jam

Recently my good friend Holly and I (along with her 2 month old son Jonas) went to a local U-Pick farm.

 

We ended up picking nearly 24 lbs of fresh strawberries.

We each took 5 lbs to eat/freeze and used the rest to make 30 jars of jam and 2 pies.

It was our first time making jam unassisted (although I did make a quick SOS call to my Gramma to ask about Paraffin wax, which Grampa graciously sent a picture of so I could find it easily in the store).  


This recipe makes 8 cups of jam.  We filled 8-250 ml jars of jam per recipe.

Ingredients

- 4 1/2 cups of strawberries*

- 1 box pectin crystals (we used Certo)

- 1 tsp butter

- 7 cups sugar

* We also threw in some fresh rhubarb into a few batches, it turned out awesome!  We used about 1 cup rhubarb and 3 1/2 cups strawberries instead.

You will also need

- Jars for jam equal to approximately 2 l (2,000 ml)

- paraffin wax (only if you don't have proper seals and canning jars, ie are using recycled jars).

Directions

The jars should be warm when you pour the jam into them.  Some people like to boil the jars first.  Being the modern cooks that we are, we ran the jars through the dishwasher's 15 minute rinse cycle while we were making the jam.  Whatever you choose to do, be sure that you dry the jars well before using.

Rinse the strawberries and cut into halves (or quarters, depending on the size of your strawberries).

In a large bowl, mash strawberries using a potato masher.  How well you mash them depends on how chunky you like your jam.

In a large pan, stir together fruit, pectin crystals, and butter.  Bring to a rolling boil over high heat.

Add sugar and bring mixture back to a boil, stirring constantly.

While mixture is still hot, pour into warm jars and seal.  Be sure to keep the seal and rim of the jar completely dry or it won't seal properly.

You should hear the seals "pop" about 30 minutes or so after you seal the jars.

If you don't have canning jars with proper sealing lids (ie you are using recycled containers, etc.), melt some paraffin wax and pour a layer onto the top of each jar to seal.

Enjoy!