Jam Making

    Every year, we go to a certain strawberry patch to pick strawberries. We cut them up, mash them and freeze them until the time we are ready to make jam.

Today, we decided to make the jam. The process is not hard, but it is extremely time consuming. (Add the fact that we had to make around six batches: super time consuming!) Today we:

• Defrosted the strawberries
• Put an extremely large pot on the stove (filled with water)
• Put the strawberries in another large pot
• Mashed the strawberries
• added the pectin (I really have no idea what pectin is)
• Brought it to a boil
• Added 7 cups of sugar (wow!!!)
• Brought it to a boil again
• (Meanwhile) Put all the glass jars and lids in extremely large pot w/ boiling water in it and sanitized (Putting the jars in boiling water also keeps the jars from cracking when we put it in water for the second time)
• Took jars and lids out of extremely large pot
• Put the strawberries, sugar, and pectin (a.k.a. jam) into the jars and screwed lids on
• Put the jars in extremely large pot w/ boiling water for the second time
• Took jars out of extremely large pot w/ boiling water in it.
• Stored jars in a safe place

Okay. You get the picture. Jam making altogether is not difficult, but tedious. Imagine doing this whole process six times. (It takes about an hour for each batch) 

Despite some of the tedious elements of jam making, the results are worthwhile. You can make your own labels for the jam, you can give them as gifts, or keep them. There are many different flavors, (your jam does not have to be limited to strawberries) and the delicious (if not nutritious) results make the effort worthwhile!