I Did It!

 

My first jar of jam for the season. It's actually the first thing I've canned all year, okay let's be serious, it's the first thing I've canned in a few years, and the first jam I've canned since I've been married. Oh wait, there was some that I did right after we got married, but Michael didn't like the chunks, which hurt my feelings, la de dah, and here we are. 
So, anyway, when I found out that we were coming to BC this year, I decided that I was absolutely going to get some canning done! So I packed all my stuff out here, and although he never said anything, I could see the look on Michael's face that he thought I wasn't going to use any of it. And then last week, when I bought some more jars at a garage sale (spending the last of the cash that we had brought..) I saw the look again. So I determined that it was time to get going and I am determined to fill every jar that I have. So today I bought strawberries and cherries. I'm actually really excited about the strawberries, 'cause I always think of canning too late in the year, and then I miss all the berries. But this year I got strawberries. (They're actually California strawberries, but let's not tell anyone that, and the cherries are BC cherries, so really, it's all good!).
I did have pictures of me cutting the strawberries, with my hands all nasty, but I had an amateur taking the pictures, and appartently they didn't work out!
 But here's a picture of them in the pot! So I cut and hulled all the strawberries and then looked at my recipe and realized that I needed to mash them, and I don't have a masher or a blender (Which really would have been the fastest and easiest way-which I will totally do next time!) so instead I called Michael for a solution and he suggested a ziploc bag! It worked great. I put them in the bag and mushed them with my hands. I would have enlisted the kids to help, but they were playing really well together outside and I didn't want to wreck that, so I watched tv and mashed strawberries.
So the recipe I used is one that I got off allrecipes.com, I LOVE that site, we use it for everything. It was a really easy recipe with strawberries, sugar and lemon juice. I was really easy and I the taste is great so far, although I'm just tasting the extra and it wasn't very think, so I hope it's going to thicken up as it cools. Hmm. We'll see. But it looks great in the jars and although I made a HUGE mess on the stove - I'm talking mammoth size, the jam boiled over three times! - I managed to get it all cleaned up and now I'm going to bed. I didn't get all my strawberries done though. The rest are sliced and in ziploc bags in my freezer. I'll wait until Michael can help with the canning for those. He's a super huge help when it comes to canning, and he seems to enjoy doing it. So anyway, that's my adventure for today, we'll see how the cherries go tomorrow!



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