Columbus Foodie

I finally did it! I conquered my fear of the canner and I overcame it! When I first contemplated making my own strawberry jam, I was a bit intimidated by the science of it all – feeling if one thing went wrong, I’d end up killing everyone with my jam of death. But it ended up being a piece of case with the help of this step-by-step primer on how to make homemade jam from PickYourOwn.org.

6 quarts of strawberries yielded 10 pints and 4 half-pints of the best strawberry jam I’ve ever tasted. By using strawberries at their prime, I was able to capture the sweetness and in your face strawberry flavor of ripe June berries. In addition, we ended up with most of a jar of jam that we’ll be able to use in the next few days. I spread some on a piece of toast with butter.

Now that I’ve overcome my lack of confidence with canning, I’m planning on doing a lot more of it during the growing season so next winter won’t be quite so dreary and local food free – stay tuned for canned peaches, applesauce, mixed berry jam, pickles, salsa, marinara sauce and more!