I seem to be on a roll this week with the canning, but I am playing catch up a bit. I should have started last month, but we still needed to finish the work table then.
We have had so much rain this year, the strawberries are beautiful!!
Remember when a quart of strawberries always had a few extra? My grandmother would trim them and weigh them up...then we would stand around by the scale with a cup and hope she would drop a few in :) She usually had about 3 for each of us.
Well now even strawberries have shrinkflation going on. 2 quarts should weigh 4 to 5 lb...
But so life goes...I am happy to have what we have.
Preparing the Strawberries
Wash them well, then trim the stems and caps off. Then we slice them some to make them easier to crush.
Prepare Jars
Once the jars are ready...
Add the strawberries to the cooking pot, about 1/3 at a time...then mash them up pretty well.
The original recipe calls for
That, is for 4-5 lbs though. Weighing in at 3 lb 3 oz I am using;
Once the strawberries are all mashed up in the pot...add in the lemon juice and pectin (sorry we had thunderstorms at this point so the photos get dark)
Mix it all in well...
Butter
To skim, or not to skim ;) I add a pad of butter, but you don't need to. You can stand over it and skim off all the foam.
You can see in the butter photo hopefully...it is already starting to foam before I add the butter.
Now here it is after boiling, with butter.
Hardly any foam, no skimming...
Anyways, back to the process...
Once the lemon, pectin and butter are added, like most jams...bring to a rolling boil.
Add in your sugar all at once, and bring to a rolling boil again. Once it reaches a strong rolling boil, time 1 minute, stirring constantly...
When the minute is up, turn the heat off, and move the pot to your canning area.
Take your jars out of the hot water, fill them using a jar funnel, wipe the rims well with a clean cloth...then add the warmed lids, and bands.
Water Bath Process
Jams here in 1/2 pint jars process for 30 minutes, but we are at 9000 ft...so check your processing times. At sea level it should be 15 minutes or so.
I am sorry I have no photos for the last half. The storms were very heavy and it was just too dark in here to photograph :( This batch made 3 four ounce jars, and 9 half pints...
Believe it or not, I am still processing...I also made 3 Cheese Sauce today, twice, so 14 quarts :O Tomorrow will be french onion soup...and kale soup (Portuguese style)
Thank you for reading :)...I hope you enjoyed!
This is a {Steemit Original} All words and photos by Elew
To read my other Food Prep posts...
https://steemit.com/prepper/@elew/food-prep-canning-tomatoes-and-some-red-sauce-today
https://steemit.com/prepper/@elew/food-prep-basil-base-sauce-recipe
https://steemit.com/recipes/@elew/food-prep-basic-sweet-fruit-muffins-or-bread-recipes
https://steemit.com/prepper/@elew/food-prep-making-peach-tart-filling
