Homemade Strawberry Freezer Jam

Yesterday we had a busy day in the Super Saver House we made strawberry freezer jam. It was so much fun, and not as hard as I remember it being when I was little. This post is a little long, but it has some very useful tips and information.

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We were very anxious to do strawberry jam from Oregon strawberries this year because we missed the strawberries last year. I started out with 2 flats of strawberries, which is roughly 24 pounds of berries. They were only $18/flat which works out to be $1.50 a pound, the California berries have not dropped this low and are not nearly as good as the local berries. Now Down to business

~Gather Your Supplies:

* A disposable straw  (I will explain later)
* 3 Large Bowls
* Ladle
* 4 cup measuring cup
* Jars or Plastic Freezer Containers
* Ball Instant Pectin
* Granulated Sugar
* Potato Masher
* Large Spoon

~Wash your berries- Don't just put them in a colander and run water over them, you need to immerse them in water and do a triple wash. Place your berries in one bowl of water so they are fully immersed, then dump that water out and repeat 2 times.
Washing them three times ensures that all the yucky stuff comes off and they are squeaky clean.

~Take Out the Stems- This is where the straw comes in handy see this post here for a step by step tutorial

~ Mash your berries- It is best to work in small batches so I would use 6 pints of berries at a time. Mash the berries until they are smashed and pulpy looking. You can use a blender, if you want it super smooth, but I don't mind some fruit pieces in mine though.

~ Mix Pectin and Sugar- In a large dry bowl mix together
* 2/3 cup sugar
* 2 TBSP of Ball Instant Pectin

~ Measure out 1 2/3 cups of smashed berries
I used my large serving spoon and spooned them into the 4 cup measuring cup

~ Add Berries to the Sugar Mixture

~Stir For 3 Minutes-
Stir the berries, sugar and pectin for 3 minutes- A KitchenAid mixer would be helpful during this step so  that as it mixes you can mash the next batch

~ Spoon Your Jam Into Jars- Use the ladle and spoon your jam into your jars/containers,put on the lids and wipe down the sides so they are not sticky
~Let It Sit for 30 MinutesLet the jam sit out for 30 minutes then you are ready to eat it or store it

This jam keeps for 3 weeks in the refrigerator or 1 year in the freezer.

I just realized I finished almost 50 jars of freezer jam and I did not take one single picture, lame! If you have any comments or questions, ask and I will respond :) Pin It