Pop, Pop, Pop!!!

Local strawberries

Ahhhh, the sweet sound of jars of fresh canned strawberry jam popping. That is a sound that is music to my ears. I had every good intention of making some strawberry jam a few weeks ago, when I spotted the sign at the local berry farm that the strawberries were ready for picking. Who can beat $1.25 a quart. Well, we ending up going to Toronto for a weekend and then all the horrible heat and humidity came and I just never made it over there. I was saddened to see the sign say " No more strawberries for the season". Hmmm, I decided that Id just wait for peaches. I love peach jam and last year my jam won 2nd place at the Exeter fair.

This morning I had to run out for some sandwich fixins for wife's lunch as she's stuck in London today at Pride running her work booth. I was pleasantly surprised to see local strawberries for $1.99 qrt. Yes!! I thought, and I dont have to be in the hot sun hunched over buggy strawberry bushes. I have to say that Ontario strawberries rock. They are smaller than the California strawberries I grew up with, but oh so much sweeter. I did have 1 qrt of California's frozen so I decided to mix those with the local ones. Robin had bought me some canning stuff for our anniversary. Some sugar free pectin, a book on preserving and some lids that can be used for freezer type jams. Im not a big freezer jam fan, but I loved the lids.

So, I set about making my strawberry jam. I used 3 quarts, crushed them and added 1 cup of apple juice. I used the no sugar pectin and added 3 cups of sugar. LOL. What a contradiction eh? Its actually no sugar or low sugar. Thru trial and error, Ive found that 3 cups is perfect. I sterilized 5 jars, so I was surprised to see the recipe make 6 and a half jars. Perfect time to use the plastic screw lids. I put those on and popped those babies in the fridge. I didnt bother proccessing those, since those are for ME. Unfortunatly, Robbie wont be able to taste the sweet summer goodness as she has a terrible strawberry allergy. That's ok though, more for me.