Updated June 19, 2019
So easy, and so delicious! We can never be out of this at my house because my husband loves this jam.
Did you know?
Strawberries are the only fruit that wear their seeds on the outside. The average berry is adorned with some 200 of them. No wonder it only takes one bite to get seeds stuck in your teeth.
Strawberries aren’t true berries, like blueberries or even grapes. Technically, a berry has its seeds on the inside. And, to be über technical, each seed on a strawberry is considered by botanists to be its own separate fruit. Whoa, meta!
Strawberries are members of the rose family. Should you come upon a bush of them growing, you’ll see: they smell as sweet as they taste.
The strawberry plant is a perennial. This means if you plant one now, it will come back next year and the following and the year after that. It may not bear fruit immediately, but once it does, it will remain productive for about five years.
Americans eat an average of three-and-a-half pounds of fresh strawberries each per year. It’s closer to five pounds if you count frozen ones. In a study, more than half of nine-year-olds picked strawberries as their favorite fruit. They’re nature’s candy!
Belgium has a museum dedicated to strawberries. In the gift shop at Le Musée de la Fraise (The Strawberry Museum), you can buy everything from strawberry jam to strawberry beer.
Native Americans ate strawberries long before European settlers arrived. As spring’s first fruit, they were a treat, eaten freshly picked or baked into cornbread.
The ancient Romans thought strawberries had medicinal powers. They used them to treat everything from depression to fainting to fever, kidney stones, bad breath and sore throats.
Sex & Strawberries? In France, where they’re believed to be an aphrodisiac, strawberries are served to newlyweds at traditional wedding breakfasts in the form of a creamy sweet soup.
Strawberries are believed to help reduce the risk of heart disease and certain cancers. They are low in calories and high in vitamins C, B6, K, fiber, folic acid, potassium and amino acids.
Strawberries contain high levels of nitrate. This has been shown to increase blood and oxygen flow to the muscles. Research suggests that people who load up on strawberries before exercising have greater endurance and burn more calories.
California produces some 80% of the strawberries in the U.S. They grow about 2 billion pounds of the heart-shaped fruits per year. Every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada grows their own.
To store fresh strawberries, wash them and cut the stem away. However, if you plan to keep them in the fridge for a few days, wait until before you eat them to clean them. Rinsing them speeds up spoiling.
Strawberries can also be pickled. Especially when picked green or unripe. If your berries are overripe, make jam!
Let's get started making strawberry jam!
Put fresh strawberries, sliced and slightly mashed in large saucepan or stock pot
Add 1 box Sure-Jell (fruit pectin) and 1-2 tsp. butter
Bring mixture to a rolling boil, stirring often to prevent sticking
Add sugar, all at once, and bring mixture back to a rolling boil. Boil hard one minute. Be careful, mixture will spatter some.
Almost done
Ladle into canning jars
Put jars in a large stock pot with a rack on the bottom; cover jars completely with water by 2"
Bring water to a rolling boil and process pint jars 10 minutes in boiling water bath
Allow jars to cool on a kitchen towel on counter-top 24 hours.
RECIPE
Ingredients
5 cups sliced and slightly crushed fresh
strawberries (the fresher the better)
7
cups sugar
1 pkg Sure-Jell (fruit pectin
available in most grocery stores)
1-2 tsp butter
canning jars (available at WalMart
and other similar stores)
Method
Slice and crush fresh strawberries and place in large, heavy pot; stir in
powdered pectin (Sure-Jell) and 1-2 tsp. butter to prevent foaming.
Cook on high
heat stirring constantly until mixture comes to a rolling boil (one that doesn't
stop when stirring); add sugar all at once and keep stirring until mixture comes
to a rolling boil again. Cook 1 minute at full rolling boil. Be careful, mixture will spatter.
Remove from heat and place in canning
jars (pints or 1/2 pints work best). Cover and seal each jar.
Place jars on a
rack in large stock pot, cover with water - jars will be underwater by 2 inches.
Cover with lid and bring to a boil. Let boil 10 minutes.
Remove
jars and place them on a towel on a counter undisturbed for 24 hours. Jars are sealed when button on top of lid is fully depressed and can't be moved.
Store in pantry up to one year.
Yield: approx. 5 pints or 10-half pints
Enjoy,
Mary
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