Making Strawberry Jam

Here's a tutorial (more for our documenting purposes for the future) on how we made this year's strawberry jam.

First the picking.

 And the tasting. :-)

Supplies: plastic bowl, canner, small saucepan, and large 8 quart stockpot.

Supplies: my grandmother's biscuit cutter (which works great for chopping strawberries) or a potato masher, a magnetic lid grabber, funnel, hot jar lifter; jars, rings, and lids.

Product: Strawberries!  We actually used only one basket plus the small bowl of berries we got from our garden for this batch.  That amounted to about 4 quarts of berries.  We'll use the other basket to make some pies with next weekend and just enjoy fresh.

Product: 14 cups of sugar, two boxes of pectin, and 1/2 cup of lemon juice.

Process: Hull, rinse, drain, and chop strawberries.  I chop mine up really well, because I don't like a "chunky" jam.

Hailey loved helping with the chopping!

 Process: Combine the chopped strawberries, pectin, and lemon juice in the large stock pot.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Process: Once at a boil, add the sugar, stirring to dissolve.  Bring back to a rolling boil (watch pan carefully as the product will rise as it heats).  Boil at a rolling boil for one minute stirring constantly.

Process: About the same time you add the sugar, prepare the jars by adding very hot water to them (almost too hot to the touch) or heating them in a large pot of water.  This prevents them from breaking when adding the hot jam.

Process: Remove from heat and skim off the excess foam from the top.

Process: Using a ladle and the funnel, put the jam into the jars.  Using a wet cloth or paper towel, wipe any excess jam off the rim which would prevent the lid from sealing correctly.

Process: Add a lid (which has been heated in a small saucepan) and then hand tighten a ring around the top.  Place on a towel until all jars are filled.

Process: Boil for 10 minutes in a water bath.  Remove from bath and place on towel to cool off and listen for the "popping" noise to confirm they have sealed.

This batch ended up making 21 1/2 half pints.  It's always good to have a few extra jars ready in case your batch makes more than the recipe calls for.  The containers with the purple lids are plastic containers and not seal-able so they will go to family to eat up.  Once they cool, I'll make sure they've all sealed, wipe off the hard water film, label them, and then store in a cool, dark area.