Today was jam day.  The strawberries have been insanely good so far, so today the Boy Child and I went to the U District Farmers Market and scored these beauties.

It’s funny how many people are scared to can/preserve things.  It’s really not that hard.  I’ve done pickled green green beans, spiked apple butter and pepper jelly the old-fashioned way, where you have to sterilize the jars and process the filled jars in a boiling water bath.  But TODAY I am doing freezer jam, which could not be any easier.  Seriously, if you can make instant pudding, you can make freezer jam.  Now they even make special pectin so that you don’t even need to cook the jam!  I picked up some of that,and some plastic freezer jars as well as the regular glass ones to give away.

I picked up a full flat of berries (hate to run out!).  You need about 4 pints of berries, depending on how full they are, for a batch, plus 1 1/2 cups sugar (bonus of this pectin – uses a lot less sugar).  You wash them and cut the green bits and any mushy bits off, and mash them til they are chunky as you like.  Do not be tempted to double the recipe!  You will be sorry when your lovely jam does not set up.  This is so quick you can do two batches back to back like I did.

Then you add the sugar and pectin and stir for 3 minutes!  That’s it!  Now you fill your already-cleaned jars, leaving 1/2 inch headroom for expansion in the freezer, and let it set up for 30 minutes.  It keeps for a year in the freezer and a month in the frig. I wish these photos came with scratch -n -sniff!