First, start with two adorable farmgirls to help harvest the berries.
Second, wash and sugar the berries.
Third, bring to a slow boil, taking about 2 hours.
Fourth, separate the strawberries from the syrup, placing in a shallow pan, and bring the syrup back to a boil for about 8-10 minutes.
Fifth, let set overnight before reheating and ladling into sterilized 1/2 pint jars. Then pick more berries and begin process all over again.
2 comments:
Did all those strawberries come from your garden? How many plants did it take to get that many? I'm having a hard time finding pick your own strawberries around here that haven't been sprayed.
Hope all is well.
Yup, they all came from our bed, which really isn't that big, but it's producing like gangbusters. Not only are we eating fresh strawberries out the wazoo, but I made 38 1/2 pints of jam and just gave our CSA members a lb of fresh berries a piece.
I'm not sure how many plants I originally planted—I'd have to pull my records for that. I want to say 12 plants each of 4 different varieties, but it may have been a few more than that.
I was really good the first year and pinched off nearly all the berries, though we did enjoy some from the late round that got away from me. I also left all the daughter plants in place, which I really wasn't supposed to do. So, we have way more plants than the originals. And they're absolutely delicious!
The best part is the kids love the jam. Whew! It's always a crap shoot, ya know? They told me it tastes just like store bought, which I guess is a good thing. The nice part about it is that the only ingredients are our organic strawberries, organic/ fair trade cane sugar and fresh sqeezed lemon juice to boost the acidity and help preserve the color, I'm guessing.
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