Strawberries

It is that time of year.  You know, the one when all the delicious things come in to season and that means it is time to start canning.  Well thanks to that lovely prolonged winter we endure here in the northland this year we are just now hitting that season.  This week it is strawberries.  I finally broke down and went to pick our own.  We went to Finke's Berry Farm. Definitely recommend them the berries are fabulous and chemical free.  I am amazed that Stir and the girls didn't have belly aches by the time we got home they were snitching so many.  We brought home 25 quarts of strawberries.  Ok we left the farm with that many.  But now I have to do something with all these berries.  There is a lot of canning in my future.  And in my posts to follow.
I am starting with my favorite strawberry jam which is strawberry-rhubarb.  Hey I am doing the canning my stuff first.  I like it because I think the rhubarb lends some sharpness to a cloyingly sweet jam.  But because I am me and cannot leave well enough alone I wanted a jam with less than average sugar so I had to develop my own version.  I did get the idea for the Balls canning book.

Low Sugar Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Makes 10 of the tall skinny 12 oz jars
5c crushed strawberries         1/2c lemon juice
4c rhubarb chopped              1 package of low sugar pectin
6c sugar

Take you rhubarb and chop it up like celery.  I like mine kind of fine but still where you can see it.  I read that four stalks is about a cup.  This probably true if you don't have scrawny stalks like I did mine were more like six.  Some were actually more but it is end of season for it.

For my strawberries, I had the kids hull them and I just used a potato masher to crush them.  If your berries have been chilling in the fridge nuke them a few mins in the microwave to soften them and they will crush easier.

Put the berries, rhubarb and lemon juice in a large sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Mix the sugar and pectin together.  Add the sugar and pectin to the berry mixture.

Bring the mixture to a full boil and boil for one minute.  Remove from heat. skim as needed.  Ladle into waiting jars.  Clean the rims of the jars before and the lids. Place jars in boiling water bath and process for fifteen minutes.  Let set for a few days and then store on your pantry shelves.

It is really a simple jam.  As a note, I like my jam a bit looser so if you want super stiff jam you can add a tablespoon more of pectin to the batch.

Now it is time to start the next batch of canning, Strawberry lemonade concentrate.