Our family loves strawberry freezer jam. I mean, really, who doesn’t?
I used to help my mom make freezer jam when I was a little girl. Brian’s mom makes amazing freezer jam. It’s just an all around favorite.
With strawberries on sale at the local supermarket, I decided to try and make some Mother’s Day weekend.
Enjoying the Preparation – At Least the First Hour…
After hearing that I wanted to spend my Mother’s Day making freezer jam, Brian went to the store Saturday night to buy supplies. He came home with two dozen pint jars, six boxes of Certo Sure-Jell, two bags of lemons, enough sugar to raise my A1C just by looking at it, and three cases full of strawberries.
Trust me when I say this; it was a ton of strawberries.
As soon as the kids and Brian went outside to work on various projects, I made myself at home in the kitchen. I went and grabbed my Ion speaker and pulled it into the room, connecting to my phone so I could begin my playlist. Life is always better with some music.
I grabbed my gigantic metal bowl out from under the cupboard and place it on one side of the sink, with the cases of strawberries on the other side. It wasn’t long and I was bopping along to Bob Seger and washing strawberries.
I was alone in the house, with my music turned up past acceptable volumes, and was using my favorite paring knife. I was enjoying my Sunday and looking forward to the task ahead of me.
It’s interesting how some activities take you back and you remember details you haven’t thought of in years.
As I was cutting the tops off the strawberries, I remembered being in the exact same kitchen as a little girl and watching my mom and grandpa use a strawberry stem remover to take the green tops off of the berries. They would have looked at my growing pile of strawberry stems and saw the wastefulness of too much strawberry being cut off with the tops.
I smiled to myself at the memory, however I did not switch out my Rada knife for a stem remover. I had cases of strawberries yet to clean and I was not going to use a pair of glorified plastic tweezers to do the job. My knife was working just fine.
All in all, it took me around an hour and a half to clean and cut all the berries Brian had bought the night before. With the first stage of my job complete, my large mixing bowl was overflowing with beautiful, fresh strawberries.
Sugar, Sugar, & More Sugar
The next step in making strawberry freezer jam is to measure out the strawberries, crush them, and add sugar. (The complete directions can be found directly inside the Certo box.)
For every 2 cups of crushed strawberries that you have, you combine with 4 cups of sugar, stir, and let sit for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
I was shocked at exactly how much sugar goes into one batch. It was years ago that I made jam with Mom, so I had forgotten just how much sugar is added each time. (I think I’ll be checking my glucose level an extra time or two on days when I’m eating peanut butter and jam sandwiches.)
While the berries are sitting in the sugar mixture, the next step is to combine a packet of the Certo jell with two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. Once that is done and the berries are past their 10 minute time period with the sugar, you combine everything and mix well until the sugar is dissolved.
After that step is complete, you pour the jam into jars, tighten lids, and set out at room temperature for 24 hours before placing them in the freezer.
That’s it. No secret ingredient, no tricky steps to reach strawberry jam bliss. If anything, the magic is probably in the amount of sugar used and making sure it is dissolved completely before placing the jam in the jars.
21 Pints Later
To say that the whole process took a really long time, would be an understatement. I started around 11 AM and finished cleaning up the kitchen at 5:00 PM. There may have been a break or two in between batches, but not anything overly lengthy.
During the whole process, the kids and Brian would come in and out of the kitchen, checking to make sure I was making the jam “as good as Grandma Gokie” does. I expressed my belief that I probably was not going to reach that level of perfection my first time making freezer jam since I was little, but it should be edible. Also, I may have stated the fact that they didn’t have to eat it if they didn’t want to.
Half way through my jam making, Khloe asked if she could help. I was hesitant at first, and I know exactly how awful that sounds. I was enjoying the music and I had a system going. However, I also remembered making freezer jam at Khloe’s age with my mom in the very same kitchen where I was now.
She ended up helping me and did a great job with crushing strawberries, measuring out sugar, and mixing everything together. It was a new memory made, and a strong one at that.
In the end, we had 21 pints of strawberry freezer jam filling the kitchen counters. It was a beautiful sight to my tired eyes, one that I forgot to take a picture of.
A New Tradition Started?
I enjoyed the process so much, that I’m hoping to make it an annual event. Maybe it’s something that the kids and I can do together.
With my grief of losing Mom, along with the boys beginning to drive and nearing college age, I’ve been stuck in reflecting on past memories. I’m not an expert in this area, by any means, but I’m thinking it would be unhealthy to only concentrate on the past. I need to start living again in the present.
That’s quite the personal lesson from a few batches of Strawberry freezer jam.
Goals for Today:
- Spend Time in my Writing Cabin
- Clean the Bathrooms
- Eat a Strawberry Jam Sandwich (Then Check my Sugar)