Strawberry Freezer Jam

 

I don't know why, or where it came from, but suddenly last week, I had a hankering to make strawberry freezer jam. Which I had never done before in my life! I found a super easy recipe, and the entire time I was making the jam, I kept wondering why I had never tried this before! It was SO easy! I made 5 batches (mostly because I miscounted my strawberry to pectin ratio, and wound up with WAY more strawberries than I needed, so I just kept going!) and would have gladly made more and more because we've already gone through almost 2 jars in less than a week between devin and I, haha!

2 cups crushed/mashed/pureed/smooshed strawberries (cleaned, and with the greens chopped off) 

4 cups sugar

1 box Sure Jell pectin (make sure it's Sure Jell brand!)

3/4 cup water

1. Liquefy your strawberries to the consistency you desire. I wanted to put my strawberries through the food processor, but we have already packed it, so I settled for the blender. At first, I was dicing my strawberries up pretty small, but I quickly realized how unnecessary that was! I tossed them in there whole and they blended up perfectly! I know some people like chunkier jam, so you'd have to use a different method, and probably end up mashing them by hand with a potato masher, or ever a ricer would probably work nicely! 

2. Mix the strawberries and sugar, and let sit for 10 minutes.

3. Bring water and pectin to a boil, stirring constantly. Let boil 1 minute, stirring constantly, then add to your strawberry-sugar mixture. 

4. Stir the jam for a good 3 minutes, so all the sugar gets dissolved (otherwise your jam will be grainy!)

5. Pour into jars, leaving a 1/2 inch gap at the top (with mason jars, you can rill it to the rim where the threading starts for the lid - it works perfectly!)

6. Seal jars tightly

7. Let jars sit at room temperature for 24 hours

DONE!

The jam lasts in the fridge for 3 weeks (though I'd be impressed if you make it that long!) or in the freezer for 1 year!! Um... that's basically all the food storage I'd ever need! 

This worked out so perfectly for us, because Devin and I like using mason jars as drinking glasses, but we have quite a surplus, and he's always rolling his eyes at the overflowing cupboard of mason jars! I used a few different sizes, because it's what I had, but the majority of the jars I used were wide mouth, 1 pint mason jars, with a few regular mouth, and also some of the smaller jars as well! I ended up with 17 jars, but I honestly wish I would have made more! It's so delicious and as much as I want to keep it all, I'm also tempted to hand it out as gifts!