Jam Day on the Homefront

Know what's amazing? Strawberries. Know what's better than strawberries? Picking them yourself. Know what's better than picking strawberries? Turning them into jam. Know what's better than homemade strawberry jam? NOTHING. Or heaven. One of those. If there is strawberry jam made by angels in heaven than yes, heaven is the only thing better than homemade strawberry jam. 

My mother and I did take my three-year-old twin sisters and one-year-old brother strawberry picking yesterday. We didn't even fill the 10 pound weight capacity on the cardboard flat we were given upon arrival at the local strawberry farm. Strawberry picking is fun. And watching little kids try to pick and mostly stuff their faces is fun. But finding quarts of already picked strawberries cheaper at a roadside stand on the way home is even better. You should give it a try some time. Either strawberry picking or looking for roadside stands. I dare you.

We turned those quarts of wonderful, juicy, bright red, sweet, super juicy berries into what's going to be (since I haven't eaten any yet) the best jam ever. Here's how we did it.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

2 quarts strawberries, rinsed and hulled

6 cups white granulated sugar

4 wide-mouth pint canning jars with corresponding lids and rings

1. We started with a mix of smaller, more tart berries along with larger, more sweet berries. Rinsed them well in a colander with running cold water, and hulled them (removed the leafy green top). Our tips on hulling: don't slice off the top of the strawberry! Instead, insert the tip of a small sharp knife right underneath the green top and twist around to remove the smallest amount firm white "middle" along with the green top. While I was hulling berries, Mom had her extra-large canning pot filled about 2/3 of the way with water on to boil, and put all our jars and rings into the dishwasher (no soap) to sanitize them and get them nice and hot. We also had our lids in a bowl of hot water getting steamy.
2. Measured 2 quarts of the berries into a large bowl and smashed them up good with a potato masher. They were quite juicy so there was a lot of liquid along with the berry mash. The little girls got a little carried away with this part. Thankfully, I covered the table with newspaper first and had extra paper toweling on hand.
3. Poured the berry mash into a large soup pot and added the sugar and stirred it up. Don't skimp on the sugar! Its an important part to the "gelling" up process. If you want to go a little "healthier" you can substitute some light honey, but I've never tried it that way. 
4. We brought the sugared berry mash up to a boil, stirring occasionally. After it got hot the mixture foamed up and then we would stir it constantly. When the foaming died down we went back to just watching it and stirring occasionally.
5. Those berries cooked and simmered down and reduced as the water cooked out, concentrating its sweetness and entering into the jam consistency. It took about 45-50 minutes! The berries were so full of juice this year. 
6. What we were watching for and testing for with a metal spoon was the gelled stage. When you dip the spoon into the mixture it will drip, drip, drip off. But what you want it to do is "sheet" off, or come down in a thin wall structure kind of clump. We cooked the jam until it would "sheet" off the spoon.
7. Ladled the hot jam into our hot jars, wiped off the lip of the jar with a warm clean cloth, fitted the lid and ring, and carefully lowered the jars of jam into the hot water bath waiting for them in the extra-large canning pot. Set the timer for 15 minutes, pulled out the jars (we use a nifty can lifting device that was my great-grandmother's), and let them cool completely.
8. If the lids don't sink down (or you can press in the center and hear a pop) after about 5-8 minutes of being out of the hot water bath, you can put them back into the hot water for about 8-10 minutes more. If the lid still pops in the center we just put that jar right into the fridge after it's cool and use it up first. We've never had more than two jars not seal properly, and we had none this time around.

And that's really all there is to it! Now, we did this process in 3 batches. We thought we would end up with 12 pints of jam but only got 11. Oh well. We still have berries left over which I hulled and put into freezer bags. Mom said that you can still jam frozen berries. Let them thaw first of course but the process is still the same. We really love using local Michigan berries for our jam and strawberry shortcake. The berries we find in this state our red all the way through so there is no need for food coloring to get a rich, deep red jam.

I just really love this homemade jam, partly because the recipe came out of my great-grandmother's canning cookbook and partly because it is so natural. No high-fructose corn syrup, no dyes or chemicals. But its real selling point is how good it tastes. That old-fashioned, cooked on the stove goodness that is so heavenly and that you cannot find on a store shelf.

I feel kind of bad that I didn't get good pictures of each step of the process. Guess I am not a very good food blogger. Here's some more sites with similar jam recipes if you want to see more resources and pictures on how its done.

Pioneer Woman Cans Strawberry Jam (Part 1)

Pioneer Woman Cans Strawberry Jam (Part 2)

Farmwife at Midlife Makes Homemade Strawberry Jam

What's been your experience with jam making? Any tips on what you love to do with local produce?