The "fruits" of my labour

Strawberry season is here!  Nothing says "summer" better than fresh picked berries.  Some friends of mine and my kids went berry picking at a local patch this past Wednesday and it was great.  I usually pick a LOT.  I freeze some, I bake with some but I mostly make jam.  So I decided that I needed about 32 L of berries to make this work.  If you've never made jam before, it's really quite easy.  It may seem daunting but it's not hard at all.  I was fortunate to have a mother who showed me how to do this delicious tradition.  And I thought I would share it with all of you :)

This is what you will need to make your own delicious jam:
9-10 cups hulled and washed fresh strawberries
1 pkg Certo Light pectin crystals (available in most grocery stores around the sugar)
4 1/2 cups white sugar
250 mL or 500 mL glass mason jars with rings
5-8 canning lids (usually found around the mason jars)
potato masher
measuring cup
Large stock pot
wooden spoon
ladle
canning funnel


1. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F.  Wash mason jars thoroughly with soap and water and place in preheated oven.  This is to sterilize the jars.  They need to be in the oven for 10 minutes and then you can shut the oven off and leave them in there while you're making the jam.  

I use 500 mL jars and I usually get 4-5 jars worth of jam but if you were to use the 250 mL size, you'd get around 8-9 jars worth.  

2. Wash strawberries thoroughly in a colander or in your sink.  The berries we picked were so nice and clean already that there wasn't a whole lot of work in this step for me :)

3. Crush strawberries one layer at a time.  I do this in a large 8-cup measuring cup but you could do it in any container and just dump each layer into a measuring cup after you've crushed them.  You need 6 cups of crushed berries which is about 9-10 cups of whole berries.

 
4. In the meantime, take your BRAND NEW lids (don't ever reuse lids that you may have used on other jars before as the seal will probably not work properly and you will have spoiled all your hard work!) and put them in a small pot with some water.  Heat the water on the stove but don't bring it to a boil.  

5. Dump crushed berries into a large stainless steel stock pot.  You don't want it any more than 1/4 full of berries because it will bubble up a lot.  

 6. Open the Certo Light package and dump into a cereal bowl sized container.  There are many pectin products out there but I prefer using Certo Light.  It uses something like 40% less sugar than the other Certo pectins (regular and liquid varieites).  I'm not a huge fan of sugar to begin with but I'd much rather have that than the pectins that are made with artificial sweeteners.
Mix this with 1/4 cup of the sugar and dump into crushed berries.  Stir well.  Turn on the heat to almost maximum.  Stirring constantly, bring to a boil.  Once it's boiling, add the remaining 4 1/4 cups of sugar.  It's helpful to have this measured out beforehand.  

7. Return mixture to a full rolling boil (where the bubbling cannot be stirred down).  At this point, I turn it down to medium and STAND BACK! hahaha :)
It starts bubbling pretty fierce so make sure you turn it down to medium. 

8. Remove from heat and stir and skim the foam of the top for 4-5 minutes.  This prevents "floating fruit" from occurring in the jam where all the fruit floats to the top in the jars and leaves the jelly part on the bottom.  It also makes your jam look much prettier if the foam isn't in it :)

This is what it will start to look like after you've been "skimming" for a while

9.  Now it's time for the fun part!  Take your jars (using oven mitts!) out of the oven.  Place your clean canning funnel into one and start filling!  I like to use a ladle for this.  A canning funnel is really a must.  They're really cheap and make your canning life so much easier!  

 

 10. Once you have filled your jars to 3/4"-1" below the top, put on a lid and screw a ring on.  Make sure any drips are wiped off your jar.  As the jars cool, the lids will make a popping sound as the heat seals the jars.  They will keep for a long time in a cold storage or pantry and once they're open, they need to be refrigerated.

 
Go ahead a try making some jam!  It's really easy, you're not getting near the amount of sugar as many store-bought jams (or preservatives, colors, etc.) and it really does taste better :)  I'm not sure how many jars I made but I lost count at 35 :)  I should be good for a few months with that amount!

p.s. Just a tip - All these directions are on the paper insert inside the Certo packages.  Also, Certo recommends that you neither decrease or double the recipe because that could result in an undesirable consistency.