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5.27.2012

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.

3 comments:

  1. I could eat four pounds of berries - no problem. I love strawberries. They are my favorite food, by far! I sometimes get a container from the store and eat them on the way home. My passenger seat is usually littered with those little green tops.

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  2. These were really good too--red all the way through to the middle. And with enough juice to run down your arm mid bite. Your car would have been a delicious mess... Yum!

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  3. Domonique and I are totally going to try that recipe... to bad strawberries are already out of season down here. I've done a lot of canning the past couple years, but I don't have a pressure cooker yet so it's mostly just lots and lots (and lots) of tomato soup.

    On a completely unrelated note- I got a co2 tank, regulator and hookups for my birthday. One quick trip to the welding shop later, and now I can carbonate my own water and soda!

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