Okay, as promised, my first strawberry jam making experience!
I tend to consider us "urban homesteaders in training". As I have mentioned before this has developed over time as I want to live a more environmentally respectful and purposeful life and my dear husband Shane, is preparing for the zombie apocalypse so, it works well for both of us! As a result, I have a growing interest in canning and preserving the food we grow or buy locally when in season. At present, I am a.) petrified of ruining perfectly good food and b.) killing us with a mutant form of botulism. So, when the Whole Living Magazine came with a super easy recipe for strawberry jam after I had just talked to a friend about freezing canning, AND I had strawberries that would go bad before Shane could eat them while I was on my work trip it seemed like the perfect chance to try a few new things.
The recipe is as follows;
- 1lb of hulled strawberries mashed
- 1/2 cup of sugar (or another substitute like honey or agave nectar)
The process is as follows;
- combine ingredients.
- heat on medium for about 15-20 minutes until bubbly.
- skim foam and discard (or compost!)
- ladle into jars, label and store.
* The jam can be refrigerated for up to a week and frozen for up to a year. That's it!!!!!
I actually doubled the recipe and my "jam" came out a tad more like thick and chunky strawberry syrup which is still lovely and has been enjoyed on ice cream and scones! I also froze mine so that we could enjoy it when I got home from my trip. After my little experiment I learned that strawberry is a low pectin fruit and I probably didn't mash them up well enough to bring out enough of the natural pectin in the berries so it wasn't as "jammy". So this weekend I plan to try another batch of jam and add pectin thanks to a little internet research.
I have also been freezing (and using) my bountiful herb crop which I will share in another post very soon!
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