Wednesday, June 2, 2010

It's that time of year....again!

I'm pretty sure I did a tutorial on this last year.....

Strawberries.......made into Jam.....

They must be mashed up first.....
Put some fruit pectin in to thicken it and then lots of sugar to make it sweet.....
And then you have to cook it in a big pot.....


This is what I started with..... Of course, I had to pick them and clean and cut them into pieces first.....

The jars waiting for the goodness.....

These had to be washed and put into boiling water to be sterilized.....



This pan has the lids in it. They have to be put in hot water and left there until it's time to use them.



This very large pot is what I used to give the filled jars their hot water bath. Ten minutes is all that it takes.


And of course, who has to be in the middle of it all, Dusty with his Buddy Doggy.....




The finished product..... 17 jars of wonderful, delicious Strawberry Jam! What a treat this is.....


I actually made two batches because I had everything out and I figured I might as well save some time by making it all today.




A closeup of the jars...
I just wish you could smell this..... sheer Ecstasy!



My strawberry patch is producing by leaps and bounds this year.....it must be the compost that I put in there last year. Because of this, I decided this would be great to have -- it's an ice cream maker! Oh, and it makes some delicious ice cream.....and the strawberries compliment it so well! Yummy! My family loves it all! And I have such a feeling of accomplishment.
'Til next time, Love ya, Jean

8 comments:

JKW said...

I love that you grow your own strawberries. I have been eating gobs of them and then found out about the poison they are using in CA. So, food from China and CA are out. I haven't found my cottage by the water yet to begin my own gardening ;) Still looking. Blessings, Janet

❀~Myrna~❀ said...

That's wonderful ! I think I can smell it here ! I wish I had a strawberry patch .
Blessings,
~Myrna

Barbara said...

Oh so wonderful I missed strawberry season this year, and I so missed making jams, I love it, all year long, yours looks so good too, can taste it on my homemade biscuits too, yumyum.
Lots of hugs, Barbara

Kudzu said...

oh, it looks so good, i can almost smell it! a friend stopped in florida one year and brought me flats of strawberries...i called over Twin and we started cleaning them outside by the water hose, but next thing you know we had a tub of Cool Whip out there and all of us were eating them as fast as we cleaned them ! we did have lots of shortcake and milk shakes, though! maybe next time i can make some jam...i love it!
cherry/kudzu

Cathy said...

Oh yum, yum! I can smell your strawberry jam from here! LOL. We just planted strawberries last year (and rhubarb, too) so it will be another year or two before we have enough for jam. But in the meantime, I'm enjoying them from the grocery. Hugs, Cathy

Unknown said...

Wellll, since they never get past the garden to the house, I guess we won't be making jam this year. Joshua goes thru them in 10 seconds flat!

Have a beautiful weekend.
TTFN ~ Hugs, Marydon

Sara's Sweet Surprise said...

Hello Jean~I've been busy with visiting family. Summer weather may not be upon us, but the summer guests are.
I did take time to sneak out of the kitchen (from time to time) to see what you'd been up to.
It's nice to finally have time to chat. I'm so sad...the rain has destroyed all my strawberries.
They didn't get enough sun to sweeten them up along with our lil cherry tree. Raspberries are lookin' a little sketchy too.
Your jam looks heavenly. I'd be the first one in line when you popped open one of those jars.

Sweet wishes,
Sara

Becky K. said...

Your very own strawberry patch! Love it. My Grandpa used to have a large patch but we were in PA and he was in MI so it didn't benefit us at all except to learn that it is a lot of work to keep a nice strawberry patch going year to year.

Glad you got it all done in a day.
And oooohhhh homemade ice cream with strawberries.......oh my!

Becky K.