Jam

I managed to get berries picked and jam made a couple of weeks ago before it turned into the tropics here.  

I went to my usual you-pick place before the end of June, before school got out for the summer, before the hoards of children, who like the idea of picking strawberries until they actually have to bend down and work at picking the berries, got there.  It's a classic mistake;  you think it's going to be a fun outing for the kids, out in the fresh country air, learn a bit about field to table stuff and boom they hate it, they're bored, they're eating all the berries, they're pissing you and everyone else off.  I know, I've made the same mistake.  So I go picking before school gets out.  And, of course, before it gets too hot.

I thought this year the picking would be kind of crap considering the sketchy spring we had.  But it was awesome; the berries were huge and plentiful.

It only took me about 45 mins. to pick 13 qts. 

I usually make my strawberry jam from an old Department of Agriculture (that tells you how old it is. The booklet was published in 1951) recipe which calls for equal measures of berries and sugar.  Honestly, I didn't really like it - too sweet I think.  So this year, I was conducting a little experiment.  I found two different recipes with a bit less sugar to try.  One used some lemon juice and the other used quartered apples and lemon juice.  There was so much apple in the one, it should have been called Strawberry-Apple Jam.

The apple jam was much foamier than the other, but they both set up nicely.

 

They both weren't too sweet although I preferred the one with the lemon juice so I won't be making the apple one.

I managed to get 10-250ml jars, 5 from each batch.

And at a price of about $29.00 a jar, it was money well spent.

Wait. What? $29.00 a jar! What the hell happened?

Tune in for part 2.