Strawberry Season: Making Jam

   

It's been almost three years since Randy passed (and since my last post). Since then, I sank into a depression,  I took over the machine shop, I've gone through the worst of the COVID "crisis" alone, lost two of my three dogs, watched my daughter fight cancer three times and I have now become a new REALTOR.  Working both the machine shop and as a REALTOR, I don't have a lot of time to do the things I love, but canning seems to keep me grounded and helps me relax. Today, since it's strawberry season, I made and canned strawberry jam. Making jam is pretty easy, uses a TON of sugar, and tastes so much better than anything I find in a store. I found a recipe on Almanac.com, called Prize Winning Strawberry Jam, and I made it my own by changing it a tad. 

After I cut the tops off 10 cups of strawberries (a double batch) I put them into the pot and added 10 cups of sugar. The recipe called for 12 cups, but dang that is a LOT, 10 cups even made me nervous, but it worked. I stirred it together well, and used my potato masher to lightly mash the strawberries. Then I set it aside and let it marry while I get my jars sanitized in my canner. It made a lovely syrup as it was, but the sugar never fully dissolved this way (probably because there was sooooo much sugar). 

Next, once I had everything ready and the strawberries had made a lot of juice in the sugar, I started the burner, and brought it to a boil, stirring often. Once it came to a boil I stirred it almost continuously to prevent it from scorching and burning. I boiled it for 20 minutes. Then I added 8-10 tablespoons of lemon juice. The recipe called for 1 cup, but that seemed like a LOT, so I adjusted for my own taste. I kept it boiling for another 10 minutes to marry the lemon juice into the sweetened
strawberries. 

Then I added the magic, about 1/2 cup (I didn't directly measure it) of homemade rum. I let it cook a few minutes longer to cook the alcohol off, and just leave the yummy rum flavor. Once I did this, it all came together into an amazing flavorful jam. I used the freezer method to know how long to cook it, so I can't tell you exactly how long it was. I put a couple canning jar lids into the freezer while the jam cooked, and put a little hot jam onto a frozen flat. Once it jelled as soon as it hit the flat, I knew I had jam. I checked it with a thermometer and it was between 220-230 degrees, but tomorrow I will know how well that works for sure. 

After I skimmed most of the foam off the top of the boiling jam, I ladled hot jam into hot jars, wiped the rims and lowered them into the canner. I brought the canner up to a full boil, and processed for 10 minutes. I turned off the burner, let it sit for a few minutes, then removed the lid and let it sit a few minutes more. Once I started removing the jars they began pinging almost instantly. Later tonight I will make strawberry sauce and maybe some pie filling with the remaining gallon of strawberries. 

Remember...Talk to your creator, He likes it, and it might make you feel better. Be nicer to people than they are to you. Most of all, go be physical today, because tomorrow may be too late.