Strawberry Jam

I made strawberry jam yesterday afternoon; a full two weeks later than last year.  I used berries from Williams Fruit Farm for the first time.  Small, sweet and juicy, these berries were destined to become jam (or pie).  The past three years berries from Maxwell's Farm in New Jersey were smashed and boiled into jam in my kitchen.  Likely due to the warm spring this year, Maxwell's berries peaked in flavor in the end of May/beginning of June.  Since I only got around to strawberry jam yesterday, I had to substitute with berries from upstate New York.

Before getting into canning a few years ago, my knowledge of strawberry jam exists in my fuzzy memories of being a young child.  I remember standing at the kitchen counter, hulling and smashing the strawberries.  I especially enjoyed the smashing part.  The berries ooze as they deconstruct and turn into strawberry slime.  Today smashing is still my favorite part of jamming (other than eating the finished product, of course).

Me and a quart of jam

The strawberry plants at Gaynor Garden that Sprout and the students put into the ground back in March have had a tough few months.  The ones that survived now seem healthy: large leaves, sending shoots out.  We'll have to keep our fingers crossed for these plants to produce enough strawberries to make jam next year (or supplement with additional plants).