Adventures in Jam Making [Real Food]

Oh yes … we made jam this weekend. Unfortunately our farmer’s market didn’t have any strawberries Saturday morning, but Whole Foods had some local strawberries on sale … so we bought 4 pounds and decided to try our luck at it.

It was actually much easier than I thought it would be. I think the most difficult part was waiting for it to cool so we could try it out! We thought we’d share our helpful hints if you decide to try it yourself.

If you only use 3 pounds of strawberries, make sure you half the honey too! Yeah … that’s right … we halved the amount of strawberries, but I put in the entire amount of honey. And I didn’t even realize it until the next day. It’s delicious … but sweet. And it took waaaaay longer to cook down thanks to the extra liquid.
Sterilize more jars than you think will be necessary. We ended up with 3 1/2 pints (7 jars) but had only sterilized 6. So we were scrambling around at the last minute trying to get another jar sterilized and prepped. Thank goodness for the bottle sterilizing bags!
You must have the canning kit. I don’t know how we would’ve done it without it.
You don’t need a canner. We used our big soup pot and put a metal steam basket in the bottom. We could only boil 3 jars at a time because the basket isn’t totally flat on the bottom, but it worked.
Be prepared for deliciousness. I mean insane deliciousness. D ate half a jar in one sitting. Yeah, it’s that good.

So – hit us up – what are your favorite jelly recipes? I think we’re hooked…