Home Awaits: Making Strawberry Jam

I live in the city but grew up in the country. People are always surprised when they learn or see my home town. It cracks me up to hear their responses. They have a hard time believing I graduated with 45 other students, lived between corn fields, and had to wait on trains almost every day. I loved it.

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Growing up in the country, (well I was in a little town) made for some good eating. I was accustomed to summer and the fresh produce my grandparents and parents grew. I can remember cutting off green beans until I thought my hand would fall off. I remember making homemade pasta and hanging it from chandeliers in my grandma's house to dry. I can easily recall the day my grandma made pickles, worst smell ever! Making applesauce was a blast with the cousins. Now that I'm "on my own" and learning how to make a house a home, I desire to learn these skills. (I sure didn't use too!) It will be a slow process but an exciting one. The last two years the Mr. and I have made homemade applesauce. We have a blast! This year I wanted to attempt homemade strawberry jam.

My friend, Brienn and I went to Spencer Farms to pick our own berries.With $1.95 a pound, I couldn't help but pick over 6 lbs. of berries. We came home and made 12 half pints of jam. Not too much, just enough to keep in the freezer. Of course, we had tons of berries left over which we used for strawberry shortcake and pies. Yum, my two favorites!

We realized the process wasn't that hard. I think most people could handle it. What do you have to loose?

Just in case you were wondering, this is how we made our jam. Sorry, I don't have step-by-step pictures, we were enjoying it too much.

Recipe:
2 cups crushed strawberries
4 cups sugar
1 box Suregel (pectin)

I about fell over when I saw how much sugar goes into this recipe. Oh well!

1. Mix crushed berries with pectin in saucepan.
2. Turn on stove to high. Once it turns to a rapid boil, stir in sugar.
3. When it returns to a full boil set timer for 1 min. Stir constantly.
4. Remove from burner. Scrape off any foam.
5. Fill jars quickly.
6. Seal jars by boiling them in about 2 inches of hot water for about 10 minutes.
7. If lids pop, they did not seal properly.

If you're really interested, here's something that we used. Warning...it's a little wordy.

My encouragement to you is to try something new this season. You'll be proud of yourself.

And one last personal thing. Today I'm celebrating two years of marriage! Yipee! Instead of all the pretty, perfectly edited pics I thought I would share some funny ones.