Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Mother's going GREEN Day 51 - Strawberry Jam Forever

Strawberry Jam Forever and ever. You guessed it we made strawberry jam with all those Strawberries - 15 jars of it. Enough to last us at least 11/2 years to 2 years. That is if we do not give anyway as gifts. Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, teachers gifts. Homemade and it really tastes GOOD!!!!

One less thing to pick up from the store. Produced locally (I would like to say it required no energy - but it did to cook but I am sure not as much energy than those mass produced jars of jam.) The plus side is we can reuse the jars a thousand times over making other jams and pickling our veggie garden harvest.

Here is the recipe we used (we made a few adjustments to the original recipe) My husband who is a chef said this was okay to do - I on the other hand nervous to how it would turn out not following the exact instructions, but it worked out just great and delicious too. The anxious part for both of us was waiting for the lids to "pop" to ensure a good seal. But after the pop we breathed a huge sigh of relief. Our hard work was not in vain.

Strawberry Jam Recipe:
4 cups crushed strawberries
1/4 cup bottled lemon juice (we used fresh lemon juice)
1 teaspoon (5ml) of vanilla essence
4 cups of sugar
1 package (57grams) Fruit Pectin
-- Combine all ingredients except fruit into a large deep stainless steel saucepan and bring to boil on high heat
-- Add sugar
-- Stirring constantly, return mixture to a full rolling boil that can't be stirred down.
-- Boil hard for 1 minute.
-- Remove from heat and skim foam.
-- Ladle jam into hot sterilized jars within and 1/4 inch from the top rim.
-- Using a non metallic instrument remove air bubbles.
-- Wipe jar rim removing any stickiness
-- Put lid(s) on jars and screw tight firmly
-- Place jar in canner (we did not have one of these - instead we used a large pot of boiling water, enough water to cover the lid of jar by 1 inch.)
-- Boil jars for about 10 minutes.
-- Remove jars without tilting. (we used BBQ tongs for this task)
-- Cool upright and undisturbed for 24 hours (you may actually like we did hear the lids 'pop')
SEALED LIDS CURVE DOWNWARDS
-- Label and store in cool dry place

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