strawberry jam

Yesterday, we spent the morning in the strawberry fields, picking and eating and running around. In the afternoon, we made these with the freshly picked strawberries. :) It's been a couple years since I last did any sort of canning or jamming, but with a little mashing help from Collin (who definitely lost interest after the initial mashing), we did just fine. It helped that Owen sat in his seat sucking on strawberries (through a cloth mesh) for about an hour. :) I wanted a low sugar jam. Traditionally, jams are around 50% sweetener! Which is kinda gross. So I followed this recipe, mostly (using Pomona Universal Pectin). For the sweetner, I used half (turbinado) sugar and half (local raw) honey. Last time I made jam, I used all honey, and I didn't think it tasted all that good and was a bit runny, even with added Pectin. So this time, I used half and half. Even with the low-sugar recipe, I still only used a quarter of the sugar and honey in the recipe. So in the end, for the 6 cups of mashed strawberries, there was 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of honey. I was worried that this might make the jam not taste very good...but this morning we tried some, and it was still pretty sweet! The best part is the fresh strawberry flavor that comes through. :) So, all in all, the first jamming session of the season went pretty well, I think. We will enjoy this jam for the next month or two, and then hopefully we can try a round with blueberries come July. I do believe summer has arrived! :)