strawberry jam

i've wanted to make jam and can it for a couple of years now, but i had always felt a little intimidated by the process.  i didn't have any supplies, but this year i was determined that i would at least give it a shot.  i did a little researching online, checked out some books from the library and got a little pep talk from my grandma.  i was fairly confident i would be able to do it, but i wouldn't know for sure until i tried.

it actually was a little easier than i had anticipated.  don't get me wrong, it still took a good amount of time.  i think the next time will be a lot easier...like anything else right?  we gathered our supplies...the jars, the canning kit (the jar holder, the funnel, the magnetic lid lifter and the tool to get bubbles out), the canning pot with the wire rack, pectin, and the fruit, of course.  we ended up using a different pectin then the one pictured above.  we used the low sugar one.

first, we got the jars sterilized and ready.

the strawberries cleaned and hulled

the kids had fun smashing up the strawberries.

the cooking time was a lot shorter than i thought it would have been.  the kids helped ladle the fruit into the jars.

then we popped the jars into the canning pot to boil for another 10 minutes.

we couldn't wait and had to dig in to one jar as soon as it had cooled.
it seriously doesn't get much better than that!!
if you are thinking about jammin' there are so many resources and recipes online.
we made 7 half pint jars with 4 one pound baskets of strawberries (actually 3 1/2 baskets...we ate about half a basket while we were washing them).  next time i will try a much larger batch.  the time consuming part is just getting the jars all prepped.  cooking the fruit and jarring it was the easy part.

i think we will have to make some pickled eggs this week...ugh, that kind of makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it.
we will try peach and mango jam this week, though.