My girls and I headed off to a local pick your own farm and had a grand time picking berries. We picked 18lbs in about 30 minutes. Then we went back a week later and picked another 18lbs!
With 36lbs of strawberries, we are stocking our freezer with delicious homemade freezer jam.This is what you'll need to make your own.
-Strawberries-Sugar
-Pectin
-Containers to store your jam
If you're new to home preserving, this is what you're looking for when you shop for pectin. Depending on your local store, you might have a few options. No cook pectin is the way to go. To my delight, this year I discovered the no cook packets on the left which use 4 cups of berries and only 1 1/2 cups sugar. The liquid pectin on the left calls for 2 cups of berries and 4 cups of sugar. Hmmmmm. You decide.Once you have your pectin, it's pretty simple. Just follow the directions included on the package.
Wash the berries well, then cut off the stems. I cut the berries in half or quarters to save myself a little mashing effort. Crush them one layer at a time using a potato masher.
You'll need to provide your own cute assistant.
Mash the berries to your desired consistency. I like my jam still a little chunky.
Follow your directions for adding the pectin. Some recipes also call for lemon juice. Mix it really well.
Ladle into jars, leaving space for expansion during freezing. I like the Ball freezer jars shown above (they come in 8 or 16oz size), but you can also use regular tupperware containers. Don't they look beautiful?
The jam will keep for 3 weeks in the refrigerator, or up to 1 year in the freezer. Peanut Butter and jam sandwiches are a staple in our home, so a jar never lasts long!If you still have strawberries leftover they also freeze well.
Wash them well, then you can cut them up depending on their size. Load them into bags (quart or gallon size) and load them into the freezer. Simple, and you have tasty berries all year round to top your waffles.Since we've got strawberries on the brain, we decided to make this cute lumpy bumpy strawberry from an idea I saw on No Time for Flashcards.
Can't get enough strawberries? These two books are our favorite "berry books".
The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bearby Don and Audrey Wood
Jamberry by Bruce DegenHappy strawberry days to you!
3 comments on "Red Ripe Strawberries=Homemade Freezer Jam"
Yum! I absolutely love freezer jam! Raspberry and strawberry are the best. Blackberry is pretty good, too, but those are the only three types of freezer jam I've tried.
Does the no-cook pectin work as well as the type you have to cook? So did you get a good jam consistency?
What beautiful strawberries! I love your step-by-step and cute assistant. :) Too bad we don't have a local strawberry farm...!
I saw the no cook pectin packets that you mentioned and used them a couple of years ago. I was sure happy with how easy they were. We ended up not quite liking the taste as much as the traditional powdered and cooked pectin so we went back to the old way last year. If I get enough helpers and an assembly line going it isn't too much work--and well worth it in the end. We love it on waffles as well!
Happy Strawberry days to you! :)
I do have to confess that I'm still relatively new to this jam making business. So Cactus Gal, the consistency seemed fine: more liquid than a store-bought variety, but still thick enough.
Even with less sugar, I still think the homemade jam tastes better then anything at the store.
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