Ooohhh, Strawberries!

My dad showed up for Sarah's birthday party with two giant flats of fresh picked strawberries. I'm leaving town tomorrow and knew I must act fast to preserve them. After some thought I decided to make a syrupy preserve out of one flat and strawberry jam out of the other flat.

The method for making these was quite simple. After all of the strawberries were hulled ( a very long job) I did the following for each batch:

Strawberry Preserves-

I simply boiled the strawberries with an equal portion of sugar. Once the mixture came to a boil, I continued to boil it for another 10 minutes. I then filled the washed jars with the whole strawberries and the juice that was formed, put the lids and bands on and allowed them to self seal. I continued to periodically shake the jars for the next several hours as they cooled to ensure the strawberries were well dispersed in the syrup.

Strawberry Jam-

To make the jam, I ran the strawberries through my food processor. I processed small batches on Medium speed. To this strawberry puree I added sugar in about a 3 to 4 ratio. I also added about 3 tbs of lemon juice and boiled the heck out of it. Once the mixture came to a rolling boil, I continued to boil it for 20 minutes. I filled the jars and put the lids on.

All told, both jobs took me about 3 hours. They look so pretty in the jars. I continue to be so impressed with how my canned products look in the jars. I can't wait to dig in to these and have the jam on top of some Grandmother Bread, and eat the preserves over white cake or ice cream. Yum, that sounds good!