Freezer Jam...was is always this easy?

We got our first CSA box this week and along with some lettuce, swiss chard and kale, we also got 4 pints of very ripe strawberries.  There was no way that we were going to be able to eat them before they got over ripe and for some reason I wanted to do more than just freeze them for smoothies.  I thought about what else I might do and making jam (#80 on the list) came to mind immediately.

I have never made jam before, but remember my mom and both grandmothers making it when I was young.  I don't eat a lot of jam/jelly myself, but Taelin is a kid and of course likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Joe puts an obscene (his term, not mine) amount of jelly on his sandwiches and his favorite is cherry, which if you don't know is the most bloody expensive kind there is.  So, I thought I would give it a try in the hopes that maybe I could have some on hand for Taelin and maybe even venture into making cherry jam if this turned out.

I looked up some recipes but came to the conclusion that I should just use the recipe on the box of pectin.  Interestingly, someone submitted a recipe to Allrecipes that is the exact recipe on the box...so if you are interested, here is the link.  You can't really make it without buying the box of pectin so if you want to make it yourself, you should probably just go buy the box and go from there.


There are only 4 ingredients: 2 pints of strawberries, 4 cups of sugar (yikes!), a box of pectin, and 3/4 cup of water.  There are several easy-to-follow steps and there were quite a few things that Taelin could help me with. Really, only the boiling water/pectin step and the pouring it into the containers step were not really kid friendly.

I remembered to have the camera nearby!  

So juicy!

Smashing the berries...her 2nd favorite part.

That is a whole lot of sugar....

Serious business

They had to set for 24 hours at room temperature before we could eat it...
easily the hardest part of the whole thing! 

Finally ready!

And...her most favorite part!

It was really good jam...I mean really good. It was super sweet so a little went a long way. It made about 5 cups total, but I divided it up into 6 one cup containers to allow for freezer expansion.  One didn't make the freezer and is sitting in our frig with a few tablespoons missing.  Taelin really want to take one over to our neighbors, so we did, and the other four were labeled and headed to the freezer.  I want to wait and see how the jam tastes after it has been frozen before I make anymore, but I have a feeling that this isn't my last batch of freezer jam!