Strawberry Jam

Happy Monday!  I pray you all had a wonderful weekend and Spring Break, if you had one like us last week!  We had a wonderful one and as usual, it just went by way too fast! I am beyond ready for summer time, with no rushing out the door in the mornings and just having that extra family time.  I told my hubby recently that I do go crazy sometimes when they are with me and right up under my feet 24/7, but I’m kinda crazier when they aren’t.  LOL!  I honestly prefer the first kind of crazy! Haha!!

Today I am sharing a tradition we have had since my oldest was a baby and that is heading to the strawberry patch and then coming home with buckets of yumminess and making jam.  The first year I did it, I was super intimidated and thought there’s no way I’m going to enjoy this, but my mom was in town for Easter and we did it together.  Once she showed me truly how simple it was, I have been doing it ever since.  And once you do it, it’s hard to go back because there’s nothing quite like homemade jam!!  We still buy the grocery store stuff because honestly we eat sooo much of it that I just can’t ever make enough to last us through the year.

Believe it or not, there are only 4 ingredients:

I double the recipe each time, so feel free to half this.  I made 2 double batches this year.

10 cups of strawberry puree

14 cups sugar

2 boxes of SURE-JELL

1 TBS stick butter to reduce foaming

Put all your jars, lids and tops in boiler to sanitize and make hot for sealing. (see pics below)  Wash your strawberries and cut the tops off.  Add your strawberries to a blender or food processor and blend to the consistency you prefer.  We prefer no chunks, so ours is pureed well.  Add 10cups of puree and sugar to a LARGE pot and stir well.  Bring to a boil, STIRRING CONSTANTLY.  Once boiling, add Sure-Jell and butter.  Bring to boil again and allow to boil for 1 minute.  Immediately start filling up your HOT jars and adding HOT tops and lids.  The key to sealing is making sure everything is hot: lids, jars and jam. *And you can not reuse old lids.  The flat lids need to be new ones every time you can.* Once you get the lids and tops put on, you will start hearing the tops pop after a while and possibly throughout the day.  This is how you know they have sealed properly.  Some may pop soon after you put the top on and others may take a while.   If you can press the middle of the top, it has not sealed.

If canning is something you want to try, I strongly urge you to get this kit.  You don’t have to have it, but these tools sure do make it much easier.  There are 2 utensils to help lift the jars and lids from the hot water and a funnel to make it easier to pour the jam in your jars.  I found this, along with the Sure Jell  in the canning section of our local grocery store, Publix.  I’m betting it would be at Walmart and Target, as well.

I have always loved gift giving.  It’s always been my little way of loving on people and it truly brings me more joy than it does them I’m sure.  I love the thought of surprising someone with little “happies”(I like to call them) and adding a fun tag with cute ribbon.  It can just take a very small gift and make it extra special in my opinion.  I know in my short 6 months of doing this blog, you guys have really seemed to love the tags, as much as me, and it is always something you guys are asking me to offer.  So, I have decided to make available 1-3 per month with ideas of how to gift.  It will be a downloadable file that I send through email and you can print as many as you need and use as often as you wish for $5 per download.  Below is the first tag I am making available.  If you are interested, please send me an email or you can private message me through my Instagram account.  Here are a few ideas of how I am gifting all things strawberry and using my tags.

These hand soaps are from Bath and Body Works.  I added red paper shred and strawberry candies from The Dollar Tree.  The strawberry baskets are from Hobby Lobby.

This is a strawberry scone mix and pan from World Market.  All you add is water to the mix.  I think the scone mix would be precious even without the pan.  It just depends on how much you want to spend .  I believe the mix was close to $5 and the pan $15.  I think these would be a precious birthday gift, Mother’s Day gift or just a surprise for a friend.

Have the best week, my friends!  Love you all and praying for you EVERYDAY!