My MIB has been asking for the past two summers if I would make him some homemade strawberry jam. The first time he didn't ask until the fall when I was making other jams and strawberries were way out of season. Last summer I was still busy unpacking and homeschooling and wasn't sure when/where to buy strawberries. This year I finally got it done! Also justifying the space the canning equipment takes up and the fact that I insisted we bring it with us and not leave in storage when we moved here. Here's my step by step guide:
1. Plant strawberries; in the yard and in the special strawberry topsy turvy planter
2. Buy strawberries from farmers market because yield of homegrown strawberries was incredibly low, probably didn't help that we ate them as soon as they were picked.
3. Clean kitchen. It just seems wrong to can in a dirty kitchen
4. Close the windows and kill all the flies swarming around the the kitchen- yuck!
5. Drag all canning equipment out of garage. Spend way too long washing it all up.
6. Hull strawberries
7. Mash strawberries. Ask kids to help, D* does, for 3 whole minutes.
8. Measure out the sugar. Force Rooby to help. He cried. Then stopped as soon as he started measuring.
9. Cook it all up. Question if the sugar was measured out right as it's pouring into the pot-too late now!
10.Fill the jars and put em' in the canner.
11. Spread left over jam on toast- yum!
