to do - canning - check

Last weekend hubby, Mr. baby, and I went strawberry picking.  After perusing the rows and rows of fruit, I decided that we needed to find the juiciest, ruby-reddist, and most delicious berry in the patch.  And in our attempt to find the juiciest, ruby-reddist, and most delicious berry in the patch we ended up picking over 4 lbs.  4 lbs.  For 3 people, 1 of whom is tiny.

Whoops.  Well, needless to say, I had to come up with some berry magic.  ASAP.  After making a strawberry rhubarb pie (umm, yum!!!), a significant amount of strawberries remained.  Seemed inevitable--canning was my new destiny.  And strawberry jam was my maiden voyage.

So while making the jam (a modified version of Betty Crocker's recipe, which is at the bottom of this post), I began the canning preparations--boiling tongs; sterilizing a place to put jars (a cookie sheet and cooling rack); boiling the canning supplies, sterilizing the jars and lids.  I felt like a witch in front of her bubbling cauldrons.  Must be sweaty being a witch.

Anyway, gotta say, it's not the most interesting activity in the world--lots of boiling and waiting, waiting and boiling.  However at the end of the process after hearing all those jar lids pop with the sound of a successful seal, I was hooked.  So satisfying.  Definitely worth trying.  My only complaint is that I didn't do enough.

And for those of you who are interested here's the approximate jam recipe (though I notoriously don't measure, so hopefully it comes out the same).  Made enough to fill five 4 oz. jars, which isn't much at all.  Good if you don't want to invest a lot of time canning or eating jam.  Bad if you become addicted.

Surplus Strawberry Jam

3 - 4 cups of strawberries, after being chopped into small pieces
1.5 cups of sugar
juice of 1 small lemon
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Simmer over medium to medium high heat for around 30 mins.  It should reduce and become dark red.  If canning, make sure the jam is hot when you put it in the jars.