Strawberry Jam Canning Session!

Saturday morning, I woke up early (7am), which is very uncharacteristic of me. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE sleep and sleeping in! Why the motivation, you ask? Strawberry picking! I decided to go to Lakeview Farms, pretty much the only place within 45 minutes where I could find (non-blackberry) berry picking. A couple girls from Yelp met me at my place at 7:30am and we headed off after enjoying some delicious bagels.

I had done extensive research on the farm before going, and decided to go that early so they wouldn't run out of berries. I also called the day before, which they said to do to make sure there was still picking. There was.

We finally were nearing the entrance and drive up, only to see a sign that says "Sorry, we are closed" in the entrance. WTF? We pulled over and called and they were already picked out! BUMMER. We had to turn around.

Now, I had my mind SET on making jam/preserves that day. So I cheated and bought some strawberries from a local produce stand and got started!

I wanted to go chemical free and sugar free, so I found a great recipe on the internet using agave nectar instead of sugar. Here is my ingredient list:

- 3lbs Strawberries
- 2-3Lemons
- 1/2 cup Agave Nectar
- Squirt of Honey
- 1 Apple



I also bought a water bath canner and many jars to preserve my stuff from this season in:



Here are the steps I took:

1. Sterilize five 1/2-pint jars by boiling them in a hot water bath for five minutes or so.
2. Wash and stem strawberries.
3. Put strawberries in a bowl.
4. Stir berries, lemon juice (start with 2 lemons, adjust to taste), agave nectar, and grated apple together in a pot over medium-high heat.
5. You can mash the mixture with a potato masher, but I decided to use my immersion blender to get it more liquified but still with some chunks.

6. Bring to a full, rolling boil and boil at least 10 minutes, or up to 15 minutes. Adjust sweetener to taste after 5 minutes and again after 10 minutes. To test for jelling, put a white plate in the freezer when you start cooking the jam; when ready to test, put a teaspoon of jam liquid on the plate, and return to freezer for one minute. You should be able to make a line in the jam with your finger that doesn't fill back in at all. Mine did after awhile but I don't mind a little liquid!
7. Remove a jar from the water, ladle hot fruit mixture into jar leaving 1/4" headspace, wipe threaded rim of jar clean, and attach lid and band. Repeat until all jars are full. I had EXACTLY enough to fill 5 half pint jars.

8. Process in a boiling water bath for 5-10 minutes. Leave undisturbed overnight or until completely cool.

9. TIP: Being a canning rookie, I wasn't sure if the seals were properly sealed when I pulled out the cans. After about 10 minutes, they all popped and were definitely concave!