Dont buy jam- make your own!

Ever since I was little I have been watching my grandma make jam. While she made an abundance of strawberry, whenever figs, apricots and peaches were in season, she'd always make small batches of those as well.

I loved eating my peanut butter sandiness with my grandmas homemade jam and knew nothing of Smuckers or Mrs. Knott's growing up because I was spoiled like that  :)\

Since my grandma has grown older, my mom and I have taken on the jam making duties. One day a year, we set aside a whole afternoon and make a ton! We then proceed to jar it, and send it off to various destinations around the nation- aka my brother gets a couple jars in NY, my aunt gets a case in AZ and my cousins in Nor Cal get some.  Its quite the family hit and a very hot commodity. Its like liquid (or jelly) gold in our family. But we make sure to make enough to last all year.

So here's the process:

INGREDIENTS

5 cups  prepared fruit (about 2 quarts fully ripe strawberries)

1 box  SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin

1/2 tsp.  butter or margarine (optional)

7 cups  sugar, measured into separate bowl

TOOLS

Food processor OR immersion blender

Large pot

Spatula

Measuring cups galore

Sanitized jars- we boil ours

Wax to seal

Jar lids

Ladle

Look for strawberries to go on sale or just buy in super bulk like we did from Costco:

Wash and stem them.

Next whip out your food processor/ immersion blender and blend up some strawberries until you measure 5 cups.  Strawberries don’t have to be smooth just puréed. Sometimes its nice to have chunks.

Transfer strawberry puree to a large pot and turn heat to medium/high. Add a teaspoon of butter (to reduce foaming) and pectin or Sure-Jell.  Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.

Ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Bring separate small sauce pan filled with prepared wax to boil and ladle a light layer over the top of each jar to seal in and keep air out.  Cover each jar with 2-piece lids. Screw bands tightly.

You can see some of the jars in the back have wax on them and those towards the front I havent gotten to yet.


LASTLY spread over your favorite bread or cracker and enjoy!!!! YUM- there's nothing like it!