I mentioned that a friend had picked up two flats of strawberries for me Thursday. We were on our way home from Louisiana so I got them from her Thursday night. Friday I washed and cut up about half of them and put most of them in the fridge. Today I made 5 pints of strawberry rhubarb jam.
I should have put a bit of butter in the mix to keep the foam down but I didn’t think about it in time to do it.
I cut up enough strawberries to make two more batches of the strawberry rhubarb jam today. I’ll still have to pull and cut the rhubarb. I’m thinking if I can get 15 pints of strawberry rhubarb, that should give me enough to share with a few friends and enough left for us to have 1 pint per month.
I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough rhubarb to do more so I went ahead and made 12 half pints of strawberry jam yesterday.
I should finish up the fresh strawberries today – either making jam or freezing them to make ice cream and strawberry shortcake.
ginnyclyne says
Yum, strawberry jam is my favorite.
Elana says
I’ve always admired folks who make jam. I once made orange marmalade, but that was ages ago from a tree in our backyard that provided the fruit. Is there any special trick or tool that you prefer for making jam? Just wondering, thanks.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Not really any tricks or tools. Use a pot that’s plenty big enough because when the jelly comes to a rolling boil, it will rise up quite a bit. Have your sugar measured out and ready to dump when it’s time. It’s better to dump the sugar all in at once. You can use low sugar pectin, regular powdered pectin, Pomona’s pectin, liquid pectin – whatever you’re comfortable using. I’ve had good luck with all the varieties. Have your jars washed and soaking with hot water in them. Pour the water out as you’re ready to fill them. Until you’re comfortable making jams and jelly, make smaller batches. The rules say don’t double the recipes. I’ve done it . . don’t do as I do! 🙂
Decide on the jar size depending on how much jelly you eat and how often you eat it. Most of the time jellies I make, I use half pint jar but for the strawberry rhubarb jam, I used pints because we go through a lot of that. It’s sugar, juice or fruit, and pectin so don’t be afraid to experiment.
I found a recipe yesterday for hot pepper rhubarb jelly (or maybe it was jam) that I want to make this weekend.
Holler if you have any questions.