Jammin'

It is strawberry season in the pacific northwest. After eating strawberries in cereal, in oatmeal, strawberry shortcake, in salads, and with messy red hands standing over the kitchen sink, it is time to think about storing some of them. Enter: jam. Strawberry jam is one of my all time favorites. Over the years I've settled on a rather modified version of "Gariguette Strawberry" from Christine Ferber's lovely book Mes Confitures. The secret ingredient: limes.

I saw from my notes that last year I made my batches on June 26th with berries from the Bellevue strawberry festival. The festival is this coming weekend, and I may end up making even more jam on Monday! I remember buying so much fruit last year that I could barely carry it all. I lucked upon two flats of great local berries at the grocery store yesterday and a friend of mine wanted a lesson in how to make jam, so today was the day.

Today Kristie and I made two batches. One regular strawberry-lime, and the other with a healthy dose of Grand Marnier. Typically I do an overnight maceration of the fruit and sugar, but decided skip that step and just warm up the sugar today instead. The recipe:

2.5 lbs of strawberries, cut in half and greens removed
4 c sugar, warmed in oven for a few minutes (should be warm, not hot)
zest and juice of 4 limes
4T pectin

Combine berries and sugar in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add lime zest, juice, and pectin and bring to another boil. Keep boiling at a good clip until it reaches 221 degrees. Today ours stalled out at about 213 and wouldn't go any higher. That's fine...it just may take a day or so to firm up in the jars.
Turn the burner off, scoop any foam from the top. Ladle into sterilized jam jars, cap, and process in a boiling water bath for 8 minutes. Pull them out of the pot and set on something heat-proof. Cock one ear and listen for the little "pop!" from each jar that tells you that the seal has taken and your jam is safe to store.


Optional additional step: bake loaves of fresh bread right before making jam.
Final step: eat jam on toast.


Super final step: snicker while pondering all of the punny titles that could be used for blog post. Settle on "jammin" and laugh out loud.

Tonight: Can't eat too much toast because I have a pot of homemade coconut lime chicken soup. What kind of husband hears that you have a cold and comes home after a soccer game at 11pm with a bag of groceries, then cooks you soup to eat the next day? The perfect kind, of course. I watched him chop and saute and fell asleep with my head on the kitchen counter around midnight.

Happy summer solstice!

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Eggs laid in the coop today: 1 (ursula)
Eggs found in the woods today: 0 (but I know one is out there somewhere)