June is for strawberries

Oh my, it's strawberry season in Western Pennsylvania. When I picked up my CSA on Tuesday I stopped at their market and bought a flat of freshly picked strawberries. I do this every 2 years because I need them for strawberry rhubarb pies that I serve for Easter dessert and for the strawberry freezer jam I make. Since the boys are out of the house, that flat's worth of berries will last us for 2 years.

This morning I washed and cleaned 4 quarts of berries for the freezer. That's enough for 4 pies, or 2 pies and lots of ice cream toppings. I also cleaned enough for a fifth quart to go in the fridge and marinate in honey. Strawberry shortcake for dessert tomorrow!

After lunch with a good friend, I came home to go through the last 4 quarts and make jam. Freezer jam is easy and I like to do the strawberries this way because they aren't cooked into mush. So wonderful to spread the jam on freshly made bread in the dead of winter and bite into a juicy berry piece! We start by getting everything ready.

Don't they look wonderful?

Next we give them a good wash, remove the stem and leaves and cut them into pieces in a bowl. The berries need to be mashed for the jam, but not too much because I want that bite of fruit on my breakfast toast.

 

 

 

Mix the mashed berries with sugar (lots of sugar!) and leave them to set while you mix powdered pectin with water and bring to a boil.

 

 

 

Mix the pectin mixture with the berry/sugar mixture, stir for 2 minutes, fill the freezer containers, and viola! strawberry jam! And a little bit left over so Husbeast can have fresh jam and bread when he gets home. He doesn't know that I've already cleaned off all the other utensils, he thinks he got the only bonus.

Some of the berries just weren't suitable for jam, they were too perfectly ripe and needed to be disposed of immediately <burp>

 

 

 

Have a lovely weekend everyone, and Happy Fathers Day to all those who look out for the welfare of our most precious commodity--the kids!