Matwich's Strawberry Jam - using local produce produces sweet results!

Strawberry JamThe strawberries are on! You'd better hurry if you want to put up some fresh local strawberries this year! Stacey took the boys out two weekends ago and the farmers told her they'd have berries for another couple of weeks until the heat of summer takes them away. She picked about 25 pounds of strawberries and so far I've made jam, strawberry sauce, shortcake and Ben even made a cobbler or two. At $1.49/lb that beats Aldi's price of $1.99 and you're supporting a local farmer. To me, that's a win-win.

Here's the recipe I used for the first batch of jam. I'm hoping we can get out next weekend and get some more.

Ingredients

6 cups mashed strawberries
4 cups sugar
1 package low-sugar pectin

Directions

Wash berries, take off the leaves and quarter them.
Mix dry pectin with 1/4 cup of the sugar and keep separate.
Add pectin to mashed berries in a large pot and bring to a rolling boil. Once it's at a boil add the rest of the sugar and bring back to a full boil for one minute.

Process in canning jars per directions. (The recommendations change as time passes, but when I did it, it was 5 minutes in a water bath canner)