Making Strawberry Jam

So about a week ago my husband and I decided we would find a U-pick strawberry farm so we could make some jam.  Little did we know what we were really in for!

(isn't it cute?!)

Picking the strawberries wasn't the hard part and was actually kind of fun.  We picked a total of 13 pounds and had a great time.  This was the first time we took the boys to pick anything that wasn't from our garden so they had fun too.  We also learned that the strawberries were organic!  This wasn't advertised anywhere when we got there but I did ask just because I wanted to know what I needed to do to the strawberries before making the jam.  I was one happy mamma when I learned they were organic!

So here's what you will need to make jam and I made a double batch so you would need to double this recipe if making a double batch like we did- 2 quarts of strawberries (or 3 pounds) and 6 cups of sugar.  I didn't use pectin purposely because I didn't want the preservatives in my jam.  My grandmother never used pectin that I know of so I figured it was quite possible for me not to.  If you are looking for a recipe with less sugar than pectin is definitely needed.

When you get the strawberries home, wash them, and cut the tops off along with any bad spots.  I would recommend wearing gloves during this part or you will end up with very red fingers.  Strawberry stains, ya know!  Then you have to mash them down.  Do not use a food processor for this as you don't want a puree.  We used our potato masher.  The mixture should look something like this when you are done.

(just a red mess!)

Then add your sugar.  You want to bring the mixture slowly to a boil and then heat it quickly to gelling point.  The best thing I can tell you if you are using a thermometer is to heat it 8 degrees passed the point of water boiling.  If you aren't using a thermometer and only using your best guess, it should be the consistency of thin cream of wheat.  I didn't get a picture because it was hard to show the consistency.  This was also the part we couldn't figure out.  We were trying to follow the Blue Ball cookbook for gelling and it just wasn't working out that way.  We ended up cooking the jam for I know a better of 2 hours or more, which isn't really needed.  Finally we gave up and just placed it into jars hoping it would gel up as it sat and cooled.  Thankfully it did!  What no one tells you is that jams and jellies will be 'thin' before it cools.  As it cools, it gels into what you and I think of as jam or jelly.  The mixture reminded us more of a thick soup.  Make sure you also use a very large pot if making as much as we did!  We had ours over flow the pot we were trying to cook it in once it started to boil and had a big sugary, sticky mess on our stove!

Once you put it into the jars, you can skim off the pink foamy stuff if you want but you don't have to and then place the lid on.  Process the jars for about 15-20 minutes.  We got a total of 16- 8 ounce jars.

Then you should have some wonderful jam for peanut butter and jelly (or jam) sandwiches that everyone can enjoy!  My son did!