I love summer. I love all of the fresh fruits and vegetables. I love you-pick farms. There's something about getting my hands in the dirt that just feels so relaxing. I haven't gone picking yet this year, but I remember last summer spending hours out on the fields with the sun on my back searching for the perfect berries. I hated berry picking when I was younger. Maybe its because my mom would make me tag along to help. I'm glad that Ari enjoys picking with me so much. Probably because she eats half of what is put into the bucket.
Ari 2 years ago. Her version of berry picking
I picked mostly blueberries last year. The kids ate most of them. What they didn't eat I froze for smoothies and made jam with the rest. I am down to my last jar of blueberry jam. Honestly I'm surprised that it has lasted this long.
I am determined this summer to make more jam. Blueberry, raspberry, strawberry and possibly peach. I kind of missed the strawberry season this year. Something about the weather I think made it shorter. Luckily my mom found a stand that was selling flats of strawberries for a decent price, and she picked some up for me. Most of them were pretty ripe, which was perfect for jam.
I followed the recipe from the Sure-Jell box and stayed up making my freezer jam.
To start off, I sorted the berries. I filled one bowl with really ripe berries (for the jam), tossed the bad ones, and put the berries that were more firm aside.
Once my berries were washed and sorted I pureed the really ripe ones for the jam. Once they were pureed I measured out 2 cups. I had about a cup extra, so I put it aside.
Next, I added 4 cups of sugar to my strawberry puree (It always throws me off how much sugar is needed for jam). I set that aside for about 10 minutes.
While I was waiting for the 10 minutes to be over I washed a few containers and boiled my pectin.
Oh, and enjoyed the extra strawberry puree over some ice cream - yum!
The pectin boils really fast, and I was afraid mine would boil over the top of my pot. Next time I will have to use a bigger one, just in case.
After boiling the pectin for 1 minute it was time to pour into my strawberry and sugar mixture.
Stir until all combined, pour into containers - leaving at least half an inch from the top.
All done!
And I still had a bunch left over to freeze for my smoothies!
SureJell freezer jam
Ingredients:
- 2 cups crushed strawberries
- 4 cups sugar
-1 box Sure Jell fruit pectin
Directions:
1 - Prepare berries. Do 1 cup at a time using either a potato masher, or pulse in a food processor.
2 - Measure exact amount of fruit into a large bowl.
3 - Measure exact amount of sugar and stir into the bowl of strawberries. Mix well, and let it sit for 10 minutes; stirring occasionally.
4 - While the strawberry and sugar mixture is sitting, prepare the pectin. Measure 3/4 cup water and contents of pectin package and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.
5 - stir pectin mixture into strawberry mixture. Stir constantly until sugar is dissolved and no longer grainy.
6 - Pour into prepared containers, leaving 1/2 inch space at top for expansion during freezing.
7 - Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours until it is set.
* Last in freezer 1 year, and fridge 3 weeks
~ Enjoy!
