Strawberry Jam

Inspired by New Harvest Homestead, my goal is to do at least one thing a week to put food by, whether it is dehydrating, canning, freezing or packing buckets for food storage. This week I choose to make strawberry jam.

I used:

5 lbs fresh strawberries

7-8 cups of sugar (alot I know, but sugar works better than honey, I'm told)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tsp. butter

We washed, sliced, chopped then mashed strawberries, enlisting whomever was willing to help. Then I pulverized them in the blender for a smooth, not so chunky jam.



 

Then we combined the fruit with lemon juice in a heavy pan on the stove and brought it to a boil.  Then we added the sugar and pectin and brought it to a full boil. We cooked it until it was foamy (about 10 min) and then added the butter (it splattered a little and then the foam settled down) and we cooked it for a couple more minutes. Then we ladled it into hot clean jars, wiped the rims, placed the lids on, then the rims just until snug.

Then we placed the jars in the canner and boiled for 15 minutes. We used some half pint jars that we got on clearance at Luke's dad's store and they were cute, but kept toppling over in the canner because they were not tall enough to clear the wire cage. The two regular half pint jars were much easier to handle. 

We ended up with 10 half pint jars!  (I didn't have trouble finding someone to help lick the pan after it was cooled).  We had to open a jar today to try it out with some homemade bread, and I must say I am very pleased!

I bought these strawberries, but here are my strawberries, peeking out through the hay. One has already flowered (we do live in Wyoming) and I had a talk with my 2 and 4 year old about not picking the blooms (my 1 year old picked all my tomatoes before they could ripen last year). 

This week I actually did more than one thing. I also dehydrated 2 pounds of spinach. 

And added a book to my preparedness shelf - the classic Ball Blue Book of Home Canning.

It is a funny story that I actually bought this book.  When my husband's parents owned the local hardware store and lumber yard, I ordered this book thinking I would get just one and instead a case of 24 of them came (I think a couple of them might have sold). This was several years ago and mine was worn out and had pages falling out of it, so I got a new one. 

Here is my growing collection of preparedness and homesteading books.  I would like to add the book, "Stocking Up." Am I missing any other good ones?

On a different note~



Awhile back, I had a dream that we had 7 kittens born. We knew Gabby was pregnant, but she had 3 kittens (he 2nd liter) and I thought for sure she would have more. Then Jordan's 2nd cat Shabby, daughter of Gabby, had kittens this morning. Here she is with with 3 born.  She had one later because there are 4 now. So we now have 7 kittens (the number in my dream). 

Jordan will be busy finding homes for them, even though we would love to keep them all.