Strawberry Jam

This recipe for strawberry jam couldn't be easier. We used a combination of Kent and Alpine strawberries and it turned out amazing. Tastes so...strawberry-ish. Summery. Brings back the sticky sweetness of June. And is fabulous on homemade oatmeal-molasses bread.

Strawberry jam on oatmeal bread

Grow Some Strawberries

Strawberries are remarkably easy to grow, and seem to be pretty disease- and pest-resistant. I think anyone with a 4' square area of space could grow them.

Kent strawberries growing in the garden

There is nothing like picking a sun-ripened warm strawberry off the vine and dining right in your garden either. If you've never tried it, you should. We ate plenty and used plenty, but also set some aside to make our jam.

Bowl of Kent strawberries

Strawberry Jam Recipe 

I found this simple old-fashioned recipe in the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving cookbook. It's filled with lots of great recipes and canning tips. It doesn't have my beloved Lady Ashburnham pickle recipe, but I forgive it for that since I understand that's really a regional recipe.

Ingredients
6 cups strawberries
6 cups sugar

Directions
Bring strawberries and sugar to a slow boil. (I had the stove set to 4 and it took about 15 - 20 minutes to begin boiling) and mash strawberries while stirring. Boil rapidly until they begin to gel. I boiled hard for about 15 minutes, maybe 20. I used the gel test.

Berries & sugar cooking

Remove from stove, skim off the foam and ladle into jars. This made 6-1/2 250 ml jars (3-1/4 pints).

Bottled strawberry jam

Gel Test

The gel test is when you spoon a drop of jam onto a saucer and place it in the freezer for one minute. When you remove it, slowly push your finger through the jam. If there is resistance (it wrinkles when you push it), it is at the gel stage and ready to bottle. This is an old trick my Mom taught me back in the learning days. It probably goes by other names and has variations, such as length of time in the freezer, but this is a tried and true method and probably better than just telling you how long to boil. Give it a test. As a bonus, you can then lick your finger and have your first taste of the jam you're making!