It's the Jam!

As promised yesterday, here is my family's* recipe for homemade strawberry freezer jam. We've been making this every summer for as long as I can remember. Start out with fresh strawberries washed and capped.


We used about 6 quarts.

You'll need sugar and sure-jell as well as half pint jars.


I'll warn you now... if you are diabetic or careful of your sugar intake... this is probably not the best recipe for you. You'll see why in a minute.

Take four cups of berries and mash them up.

You'll end up with two cups mashed berries. Next you want to add the sugar. Here is the scary part... to the two cups of mashed berries, you add four cups of sugar. That's right, I said f.o.u.r. I know... it seems like too much sugar. My mum actually tried making it with less sugar once, we ended up with syrup. It was tasty and my brother loves it... but it isn't jam.

So go ahead and add in that sugar.

Make sure you mix it in really well, you don't want it to be gritty. You want to stir it several times over the next ten minutes.

At the five minute mark, turn on the water for your sure-jell, you need 3/4 cup. Add in one pack of sure-jell and stir well. Once it starts boiling, stir it for one minute. At the ten minute mark, stir the sure-jell mixture into the strawberry mixture and continue stirring for three minutes.


Now fill the jars, leaving about 1 to 1 1/2 inch from the top.


Once the jars are full, cap them and set them to the side.


From the six quarts of strawberries, we ended up with seventeen half-pints and one quart of jam. When your all done, check the jars to make sure they are sealed tight. The jars need to sit at room temperature for twenty-four hours. Once that time has passed, put the jars in the freezer. You have JAM!



Believe me, once you've tried this, you'll never go back to store bought.

*I found out yesterday that the recipe was actually from the sure-jell package. All these years I thought it was an old family recipe, but it isn't. It doesn't matter, it is still delicious!

There is big change coming to the cottage. I'll give an update as soon as I have a chance.
Blessings
~*~