Without getting on too much of a tin-foil-hat soapbox, canning has become an integral part of this homesteader's life. The ability to grow our own, and preserve that harvest for as long as possible keeps more money in my pocket and less money in the big corporations' pockets.
One of the biggest challenges is that one pear tree, for example, can give you 100 lbs of harvest...all in one week. And then what? You can't eat 100 lbs of pears! So you dehydrate, can, preserve, pickle, give away, whatever you can do to save the bounty for as long as possible.
This Spring's first canning project for me (well actually second - I canned turkey a few months earlier) was strawberry jam. I'll be honest, this is my first time making a fruit jam or jelly. I'm not a big fan of them myself, so it was never really on my radar. But the baby loves strawberries and strawberry jam.
Since our strawberries are nowhere near prolific enough to give us a harvest to can (at least not yet), we took the baby berry-picking. I expected his two-year-old brain to get hot and tired of it after about 45 seconds, but he did great! He loved pulling the leaves back to see if there were any ripe strawberries underneath, and he loved gently putting them in the bucket!
This was at a local family farm who JUST does strawberries. They even fly grandpa in from Ohio to help orchestrate visitors.
The next day I set about making jam. Since this is my first time making it, I went with the simplest recipe I could find. From Saving the Season. Great book - highly recommend it!
To make the jam, cut the caps off of and roughly chop 2 lbs of strawberries. Cover them in 2.5 cups of sugar, stir to coat and let them sit in the fridge for at least an hour - this starts the cells releasing their natural pectin. Add 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, throw it a large pot and simmer for 10 minutes.
Squish the strawberries with a potato masher to the chunkiness-level you like.
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To can, simply add to sterilized canning jars, wipe the rims and secure the lids. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes.
Done! You've saved the strawberry harvest for as long as it'll last in your family. WARNING: it doesn't last long!
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This would work with berries and other fruit also?
Thanks for the share, it made the prospect of making preserves less daunting.
We've got a pile and a half of saskatoon berry bushes and raspberries in the back yard: will try this soon!
I resteemed it
Thanks for the resteem! I bet it absolutely would work with other berries! The processing times are based on the acidity of the jam, but I have a feeling most berries will be about the same acidity. Try it out and let me know how it works!