Making Strawberry Jam

It’s strawberry season and I couldn’t be more excited because this year because, in addition to freezing bags of strawberries for smoothies, I’m making jam!

Strawberry jam is my favorite and after eating our homemade jam on toast and biscuits, Mike is leaving grape jelly behind…
Although I wanted to try my hand at preserving, I was nervous about using a pressure cooker, so my friends at Ball Canning sent me a Ball Fresh Tech Automatic Home Canning System!

The canning system “simplifies the process of preserving your favorite fresh produce into jams, jellies, pickles, fruits, salsas, tomatoes, sauces and more.” 

Perfect!

This was so much fun to use, that on the second batch, Mike came into the kitchen and took over!

Here’s What You Need:

4 Cups Crushed Strawberries
Ball Brand RealFruit Classic Pectin
Granulated Sugar
Ball Jars/ 8 oz.

And here’s what you do:

Grab your fresh (not too soft) berries…rinse and dry them…

***If you have a Fresh Tech System-follow directions to pre-heat your jars***

Cut off the green and using a potato masher, crush berries and measure out 4 cups!

Cook the berries in an 8 quart saucepan Gradually stir in pectin. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil *that cannot be stirred down, over high heat,* stirring constantly.

Add entire measure of sugar, stirring to dissolve- Return mixture to a rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat- skim foam, if necessary…

Now you’ll take your hot jars (one at a time) from the appliance and fill (to fill line-1/4″ from top) with the mixture…

.

Wipe any jam from the rim …

Put a new lid on and twist the band until fingertip tight-Return the filled jar to the appliance…Repeat until all jars are filled with jam and returned to pot…close and lock lid & PRESS JAMS & JELLIES …then press Recipe 1—That’s it! The appliance does the rest!

When the appliance beeps and the green light is flashing your jam has been preserved!

Take the jars out of the machine and leave them undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours…this was the hardest part. Not tasting them right away! I took off each band and cleaned the underside to make sure there was no moisture trapped there…I wanted to store them with the bands on…

We made 12 sweet little jars and we’ve given away several…and we’ve eaten one and a half…

I can’t tell you how scrumptious this jam is…

It’s clear we’ll be making more…

And in mid-summer, when fresh tomatoes are piling up at the farmer’s market,  we’re going to put up salsa and red sauce-

But for now…we’re ever-so-happy with our strawberry jam…I’m a novice and I love the Fresh Tech Canning System- You can get yours at the Fresh Preserving Store or Williams Sonoma!

Have you ever made jam? If so, what kind!?Have a sweet day my friends ~ ox