Remember my strawberry picking post? Well, today I am in the Coach House attempting home-made Freezer Strawberry Jam. I followed the recipe on the Pectin package, doubling it for the amount of berries I had. In total, I would say it took me about 2 hours including the prep of the cans and all of the chopping.

Makes roughly 4-6 250 ml jars

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups of strawberries mashed
4 cups of white sugar
4 tablespoons of lemon juice
One packet of pectin

Directions

Put mason jars (including the rims and lids) into the dishwasher to wash them. Make sure the jars are dry.
Thoroughly rinse the strawberries.
Remove stems and finely chop the strawberries.
Mash the berries (I used a hand mixer) in one large bowl.
Put the sugar in a separate bowl.
Mix the sugar into the crushed berries and set aside for 10 minutes.
Pour in the packet of pectine.
Stir for 3 minutes.
Mix in lemon juice.
Pour jam into jars, leaving room at the top (roughly 1/4 inch).
Let the jam sit in the fridge for at least 24 hours before eating.

NOTE: This is freezer jam, so you can also freeze it to further set the mixture.

A day at the farm! This past weekend, I met up with my girlfriend Monika and her too-cute-for-words son, Cole and we spent the day picking our own strawberries. It was the perfect way to spend a sunny Monday--we worked on our tans, and got a good leg work out (you are essentially squatting the whole time you are picking!). Cole, being the most easy going baby around, was cool as cucumber sitting in the shade watching us get our sweat on. Many thanks to Monika for being on top of organizing our day trip (the strawberry season is apparently a short one), and for the encouragement to turn these beauties into jam--(post to come!).