Strawberry Jam

I made strawberry jam several weeks ago and took photos in the process.  Thankfully, I wrote notes in my canning book or I would have no recollection of my measurements!  These are photos of one batch. 

I hulled 3 pounds of berries

It made about 5 cups of crushed berries

I turned on the heat and added a box of pectin and 1/4 cup lemon juice

I used my immersion blender to smooth out the bumps

Once it boiled - hard - I added 4 cups of sugar and let it boil again.  I skimmed off the pink foam and filled hot jars.

I immediately started another batch to fill the rest of my hot jars and turned on the water bath canner burner to warm up the water.  With jam in short jars, you don't really need a canner.  Any large pot will do if the tops of the jars are covered by about an inch of water.  When the second batch of jam was cooked the water bath was nice and hot. 

I put the jars in the water bath.

 

I took this picture of the jars in my canning closet today.

The six pounds of berries made approximately 18 cups of jam.

I really love my little canning closet and I don't miss my linen closet at all now that we only keep one towel for each person and one set of sheets for each bed.  A bonus is that I almost never have to fold towels or sheets.

Katie