I made strawberry jam and it is divine. This summer I took my son strawberry picking with some friends. We picked some of the most delicious and sweet strawberries I have ever tasted. I originally picked about 6 pounds of strawberries. It's a huge amount, especially since my husband would be out of town and it would only be myself and our 2 year old around to enjoy them. So, what should I make with them? I decided on a compote for pancakes, enjoyed some fresh, and was still left with a gallon bag full, maybe about 6 cups at the most. I froze them for 2 months.
I have never canned anything and my parents didn't do that growing up, so this is all new to me. I'm sure there are great tricks of the trade and probably easier ways to accomplish the task, but I don't know what they are. I scoured the internet for small batch jams. I didn't use any of those recipes. Instead, I went to the store, bought small jars and a box of pectin. I pretty much used the recipe on the pectin box, minus 5 of the 6 cups of sugar! It was a crazy amount that the recipe called for and they were plenty sweet. Next time, I might leave out the sugar all together.
I'm so proud of my 4 and 1/2 jars of jam. It's ridiculous. I went to the store again and bought more jars. This time, larger pint size jars.
The weather changed here in Spokane and started getting cold. It was time to cut my tomatoes off the vine, even the green ones. Now I have a huge bowl of green tomatoes and I need to make something with them. I've found a recipe for green salsa, made with unripe tomatoes. I also cut off the tomatillos I had out in the garden. The next canning plan is a huge batch of what I hope is delicious green salsa.
This weekend is apple picking, so apple sauce and apple butter and also on the agenda. I have my work cut out for me!
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