Monday, June 20, 2011

Strawberry Jammin' - like Gramma used to

The boys (daddy too) and I went strawberry pickin' yesterday for Father's Day. We go to the most beautiful place - Scantic Valley Farm in Somers, CT. The views that they have there while you are picking are amazing!


One thing you have to keep in mind is once you go picking fresh fruit it HAS to be processed as soon as possible. Otherwise your hard earned money will go to waste.

So,today I vacuum packed 2 pints and made 9 jars of strawberry jam!

First I washed and cut the strawberries, following the Certo pectin directions.

That totaled 5 cups (you'd be surprised how many strawberries that takes).

Then I MASHED them.

Then I put the strawberries and pectin in a extra large sauce pan to boil while I measured the sugar and my cutie 6 yr old stacked the jars on top of one another.

Once it was boiling I stirred in the sugar and got the jars ready.

Meanwhile, I got my OLD fashioned canner boiling with about 8 inches of hot water. I love this old thing.

A view from high....

Boiling...

Once it has boiled for one minute, take it off the burner and skim off the froth. And ladel it directly into your clean jars and close them up!

Then put the closed jars into the canner for 10 minutes.

A beautiful FINAL PRODUCT!!

Did I mention I have another whole tray to do? LOL.

3 comments:

  1. MMMMmMmmmmmmm!! My favorite!!!

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  2. I am doing more raspberries today. Thanks for the photos, I will use this as a guide. I can't get pectin here in Japan, though. Do you know if it help preserve or just gel? I'm okay with something between a sauce and a jam, but want it to keep. Mostly we mix it into yogurt (we make our own), put it on pancakes, etc, so a little on the runny side is good. I guess I will just try and see what happens. Yours looks yummy! I am really looking forward to blueberries, corn, and peaches in CT this summer! Your outdoor photos make me homesick ( in a good way).
    Alexandra

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  3. Alexandra, a thinner sweet fruit sauce sounds good to me! I would say the thing you need to be aware of is making sure the jar seals tightly so bacteria doesn't grow, although the amount of sugar we use should certainly hinder it! Send me pictures of your garden!

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