Well not really. I'm not... but the strawberries are I guess. Well I hope they are. That was the general idea and the point of all the steps I followed this afternoon and evening.
Three baskets of strawberries make three batches of strawberry jam.
It takes about an hour to hull and wash all of those berries.
Then you have to wash the jars and sterilize them and have them all ready for that strawberry goodness to fill them up.
Then you crush the berries, add the pectin, bring it to a boil, add the sugar and boil some more, stir and skim for 5 minutes and then fill up the jars.
Add the lids and rings and you're good to go right???
Well hopefully...
Jam making is an interesting thing... For me anyways. It requires concentration and I have a tendency to flit sometimes. My blonde roots show up at times like this. So I have to mentally chain myself to the stove and my wooden spoon to keep myself there and stirring so that I don't wander away allowing the jam to burn on the bottom of the pot or miss that critical hard boiling stage that you need to time so carefully so that the jam sets.
Making jam is a bit of a lottery. You spend all this time and money and energy. You hope it all turns out the way you want but you just never know until later that night you here the tell tale popping (which I haven't heard yet) that tells you the lids sealed. And then you need to wait until it cools to see if the jam actually jammed.
I guess it remains to be seen if I hit the surgary jackpot... I'll let you know when I know.
Still no tell tale popping sounds though....
Update: All the tops popped and all the jam jammed! Whoo hooo!
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