Strawberry Jam & Strawberry Syrup

Strawberries!

Despairing over my strawberry patch full of still-green strawberries I finally bit the bullet last week and ordered a flat of strawberries from Bountiful Basket. Of course by the time Saturday rolled around, my stubborn berries began to turn red. (I guess all they needed was some competition!) No worries, of course. Between my girls and I, we can easily eat a pound of strawberries every day.. which is what we did. By the following Friday, between the purchased flat and my garden, I still had about a half a flat of berries left. Cue the telephone.. My sweet husband calls and tells me while going to a job site, he found some boy scouts selling strawberries for $5 a flat, should he get some? ... YES of course! 5 flats please! I was so excited! It's been a very long time since I've had enough berries to actually do anything with except eat. I love strawberry jam and sauces, but I'm normally never willing to sacrifice my fresh gems to the stove. Much as I like jam, I'd much rather eat a strawberry fresh and whole. MMmmmm But with my husband's purchase I needed to process at least some of the berries so they didn't go bad. 

We washed, hulled and froze about 2 1/2 flats for smoothies. The rest I turned into strawberry jam (and lots of it!) and strawberry syrup. Both are super easy and keep for about 2 years on the shelf when processed. (As if they'd last that long around here anyway!)

For Jam:

1. First, wash and hull 2lbs of strawberries 

 

 2. Now crush, mash or finely chop the berries. Of course I just pulsed them in my Vita-mix, making sure to still leave some chunks. 

3. Pour the berries into a large pot (5 qt. should do it)

 4. Stir in 1 box of regular pectin.

 5. Also add about 1/2 tsp butter to help reduce the foaming. Seriously, you'll be much happier if you don't skip this!

 6. Bring mixture to a boil. Have your 7 cups of pre-measured sugar ready to dump into the pot.

 7. Dump sugar in all at once and stir well. Bring mixture to a full boil once more and boil for one minute. Remove from heat.

 8. In the meantime, I've been keeping my clean jars in the oven at 200 degrees F so they'd be hot and ready when I need them.

 9. Pour hot jam directly into jars (use a funnel if necessary) and wipe the rims of the jars clean.

 10. Attach two-piece lids to each jar. Tighten gently; I usually tighten as much as I can then turn the ring back about a quarter turn. Also, before I started the jam, I poured boiling water over the lids in a bowl to help soften the rubber seal. Then I kept them in the bowl to keep them hot.

 11. Load the canning rack into a pot of hot, simmering water. It's best to start this pot at the same time you start the jam so you don't have to wait for it to heat up. 

For small batches of jam (or the last few jars of a big batch) I love using this small rack from Ball in one of my large stock-pots. It's so much nicer than my huge canner when I don't have a lot to do!

 12. Bring canner (or stock-pot) to a gentle boil and then process jars for 20 minutes. (Or 10 minutes at sea-level.) Remove from heat and then, using a jar lifter, move the jars to a draft-free area. Do not disturb for at least 12 hours.

 For Syrup:

Syrup is very similar in process with just a few changes to the ingredients.

Strawberry Syrup

4 lbs strawberries
1 cup Lemonade (not from concentrate)
you could also use 4 Tbsp lemon juice and 3/4 c. water

6 cups sugar

1 Tbsp butter

1 tsp. almond extract

Wash and hull strawberries. Mash (or puree if you choose) berries into a large pot. A 5 qt. pot will work, but it will be close. If you have a bigger one, use it. Add lemonade. Bring to a boil. Add butter and sugar. Return to a full boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add almond extract. Pour into hot, clean jars and attach two-piece lids to each jar. Process 20 minutes in a water bath canner.