The Canning Fairies

As the canning season begins so does the ritual of hunting down the canning jars.  Where do the canning jars go  in between late Fall and Early Spring?  Are there some untold of "Canning Fairies" that sneak around and silently hide the jars one by one so that you never realize they are missing until you need them?  Each Spring I go on the hunt for my canning jars and each spring I wonder how, why, when and most importantly - where do my canning jars get off to?  Spread across the confines of the basement, tucked into nooks and crannies, dusty shelves and creepy corners are my canning jars in every size, from the tiniest half pints to the largest half gallons.  I release my jars from the guardianship of the Canning Fairies and begin the canning season.

Strawberry Jam - oh my!

I start off with enormous strawberries this season, and so delicious, like candy coated delicious, rinse, hull and smash with my potato smasher.  The batch is about 6 cups of slightly smashed berries and I know from previous experience to not increase the batch size or the pectin will not hold up.  My brilliant sister came up with the idea of researching out a sugar free method of canning strawberries, but after diligent research which ending up reading numerous horror stories of failed batches of sugar free strawberry jam, I decide to scratch the idea and go for full on sugar.

6 cups of smashed berries, 7 cups of sugar and 1 pack of pectin = the amount in the last photos.  Strawberries are boiled with a mixture of 1 pack of pectin to 1/4 cup of sugar (leaving 6 3/4 cups of sugar) until stirring doesn't stop it from boiling, then the rest of the sugar is added and brought back to a boil and boiled hard for 1 minute - stirred a few times to keep from burning.  The foam is scooped off ( can NEVER get enough of the darn foam off, but it's tasty so no worries).  While the berries are boiling, the empty jars are in the canner getting their sterilization bath, along with the bands.  The lids are simmering in a small pot on another burner.  All of this is removed and using a funnel, I pour the berry mixture into the hot jars, leave a bit of headspace, place the lids and the bands on and back into the boiling water they go.  The water must flow freely over all the jars or it doesn't get processed correctly, and there they bob for 10 minutes.  Out they come and the next batch goes in.  

All done.  As you can see from the photos, I forgot to let the boiling berry mixture sit and rest for 5 minutes, not doing so causes the berries to rise in the jars.  Not a big deal, I will just stir it down when the jar is opened.  I heard the very satisfying "pop" of each lid they seal to the jars and my face smiles!