Many of you are out at the Strawberry Farms picking strawberries these days to I thought this would be a perfect guest post for you....
Guest Post by Hannah and Abby from Safely Gathered In
Every considered making your own freezer jam? It can be inexpensive, fast, and easy to do! Best of all, it's delicious!
The most economical way to make this jam is usually by buying strawberries when they are in season at Farmer's Markets or U-Pick Farms. However, you can also make it with frozen berries.
The ingredients you'll need: Strawberries (you can also use other berries, if you prefer)
Sugar
Pectin
You'll need enough strawberries to have four cups of crushed strawberries. We picked a gallon bucket, and then ate strawberries out of it all weekend, and then I made jam from the rest.
You can pick up pectin in your local grocery store in the canning section. It's usually by the ketchup and salad dressing. The directions for making jam are on the back of the pectin, so it's really simple. (There are also similar recipes
here and
here.)
First, mix the pectin and the sugar together in a bowl until combined.
Then, get to work on the strawberries. I let my faucet trickle so I can rinse the strawberries one at a time and remove the tops. If they are large strawberries I slice them, if they are wee ones then I just toss them into the blender. After all, they are just going to be pureed.
Once your strawberries are washed and hulled, put them into a blender and puree them. If you like chunky jam, don't blend it quite as much. Make sure you have the right amount of crushed fruit it calls for. If, after I blend my berries, the mixture is under the four-cup line, I just add more strawberries and blend again.
Add the strawberries to pectin/sugar mixture and stir. My directions say to stir for three minutes. So set the timer and go.
An important component of jam making is the containers! The beauty of freezer jam is that since it's going in your freezer, you can put it in anything and it doesn't need to have a seal on it. I use yogurt, sour cream containers, old jars, and baby food jars for the jam I'm going to gift away.
Ladle the jam into your containers, label the contents and date, and set on your counter top for 30 minutes to set, or until the time indicated in your directions. The freezer jam will last for up to 3 weeks in your refrigerator and up to a year in your freezer.
