Canning strawberry jam – you CAN do it

I few years back I never thought I would have been canning my own strawberry jam. I was a city gal when my first baby was born, in Atlanta. Then I moved to Knoxville, Tennessee and saw a flyer for the town’s first Holistic Mom’s Network meeting. Going to those meetings I met real moms doing things like canning, using cloth diapers and baking bread with their own fresh ground flour. And, they made it look really fun!

So I joined the crowd. Two babies and six years later, here I am canning strawberry jam, among many other vegetables, fruits and the pears from my own backyard.

I’m thankful for my friends who showed me the way. I would have NEVER had the knowhow to buy canning supplies and dive into the adventure without the community support of these gals.

But now, thanks to the rise of mom bloggers and You Tube tutorials, we can also have an online community of support, to inspire and help us learn.

So on the home front of canning strawberry jam – I am here to say you CAN do it!

Here is a picture of my kitchen two years ago, before I canned berries  that I bought from a local farmer. I contacted the farmer ahead of time and met her at the framers’ market to get 20 pounds of strawberries.  I canned 40 jars of jam that year. Many of them were small and given as teacher gifts at the end of the school year. 

I still follow the simple recipe in the pink Sure Jell box with no sugar needed recipes. I use the low sugar recipe provided in the box, and organic cane sugar. I use one 24 ounce bag of sugar per box of Sure Jell. It’s just shy of the four cups of sugar the recipe calls for, but it works fine.

You can get a big canning pot, like this one, or if you want to try it out before you dive in and buy supplies you can get by using what you have. A large stockpot of boiling water, with a clean white towel placed on the bottom to keep the jars off the direct heat and preventing them from breaking, will work for a water bath.  If I bought one thing, other than the jars for canning, it would a canning funnel to pour the hot jam into the jars. If you use a standard width canning jars, opposed to wide mouth jars, metal kitchen tongs work fine to get the jars out of the water.

My new obsession however, are these Weck canning jars because of their fun shapes and glass tops, opposed the  Ball jar lids that have small amounts of BPA in them. I still use my old Ball jars. But slowly I’m replacing them with Weck jars. Lucky for us Knoxville folks, they sell them at Three River’s Market.

For this year’s canning – I started with 25 pounds for fresh organic strawberries grown by Farmer Megan from our CSA, that I bought for $2 a pound. I froze about five pounds of them for smoothies. And the rest went to jam.

We’ll still take the girls to the farm for a classic you-pick strawberry experience. Because it is fun and I want them to know where they come from. But honestly, it’s hard work picking 25 pounds of strawberries with three small kids. If you want that much, and your kids are young, expect to make two trips or to buy some that is already picked by local famers.

When buying local fresh berries, ask farmers about their pesticide uses. All farmers in my area, except Farmer Megan, have told me they have to spray the berries to keep the bugs from eating them all up. The farmers are usually honest and up front about how much spraying they do – whether they take preventative measures or limited proactive spaying. They don’t mind you asking and usually enjoy talking about their farming practices. And it varies from year to year.

To get a first hand look at someone canning in action – lets turn to You Tube.

Here is a fabulous, quick, non-overwhelaming You Tube tutorial using the same method as I do to can strawberries. After one view, you’ll be ready to can!

I’ve never canned using Pomona’s Universal Pectin, a more natural way than Sure Jell. I have bought a box. But I never got up the courage to try it. I spoke with Farmer Megan about it and she has tried it. But didn’t really like the results. However – here is a really fun You Tube video I found of a woman making Pomona’s Universal Pectin low sugar jam. It provides a nice modern view into the canning process in general, and is a well done video with fun music.

There is nothing like homemade jam. Once you try it, Smuckers will be a thing of the past. The taste is supreme. The cost savings is nice, considering the expensive cost of organic jam. Plus it’s a good mama feeling knowing your family is eating your homemade goods.

So go for it. You CAN do it.