Jam.
Making your own jam. From fruit that you just picked.
Does it get any more Little House on the Prairie than that? Short of stocking the root cellar in case of long, blizzard-y winter, I think not.
So today we made our way to a local favorite – Tabora Farm. This weekend kicked off their Strawberry Festival and you can pick your own strawberries for $3/pound. I have NEVER picked strawberries before – every year the season comes and goes before I think to get to the farm. This was a first for all of us – and we had a great time!
We picked just over 3 pounds of strawberries and when we arrived home I set out to MAKE SOME JAM. I had a bunch of empty freezer containers from last fall when I made and froze applesauce and spaghetti sauce, they hold about one cup each. Jam is so easy to whip up, it will make you do a little dance. 😉 You basically need three ingredients – strawberries, sugar and pectin.
There are several different brands of pectin to choose from. I used Ball brand and I followed the recipe on the label. This pectin is instant pectin and is intended for no-cook freezer jam. It looks like this:
We’re ready to make jam!
To make one batch, you will need:
- 1 2/3 cups crushed strawberries (I obviously had a good deal more than that)
- 2/3 cups sugar
- 2 TBSP instant pectin
How to make:
- Hull and rinse your strawberries.
- Crush strawberries with a potato masher OR chop them in a blender. Make sure you leave some chunks!
- Stir sugar and pectin in a bowl. Add your fruit and stir for 3 minutes.
- Pour into your freezer-safe containers and let stand for 30 minutes.
- Enjoy immediately! Jam can be refrigerated for up to 1 month or frozen for about 1 year. I left one container out for us to devour now and put the rest in the freezer.
