We Be Jammin'

I took my first trip of the summer to Sauvie Island for berry picking this week. Amelia and I each filled a flat with berries while dodging children yelling, "I hit the jack pot!" as their mothers tried to get a little child labor out of summer vacation. I don't think they succeeded much. We did our first canning of the season yesterday- a Strawberry Rhubarb Jam that doesn't use pectin or sugar, but has apple juice concentrate in it for sweetness, and a traditional Strawberry Jam with pectin and honey instead of sugar. Looking at recipes, I was annoyed by the ones that call for as much or MORE cups of sugar than fruit- it seems to defeat the purpose, and I have NOTHING against sugar. Here's a couple process pictures:

Cleaning and cutting our berries- wow, it doesn't take but a day before they start getting mushy. We picked two kinds of berries, Hoods and Pugets. We froze most of the Hoods, as the berry farm lady (what do I call her?) said the Hoods were so naturally sweet they taste like cotton candy if jammed.

The Strawberry Rhubarb Jam is tart and sweet and really yummy without sugar- and we all know Kyle will eat it now- but damn, you have to stand at the stove and stir/mash for 50 minutes. Surprisingly, the jam calls for four Granny Smith apples, which lend pectin and body, and don't make the jam taste appley at all. Luckily it was a cool day to stand by the hot stove.

We used all of our berries and ended up with 24 8 ounce jars- 11 Strawberry and 13 Strawberry Rhubarb- and no, I don't know how that happened. I'm all odd numbers. I already gave one jar of Strawberry to our super nice neighbors next door, and I think I'll be going berry picking again in the next week to freeze and can more. Raspberries are almost ready! I am looking forward to canning more this summer, using the sweet book Mom and Dad got me for Christmas- more jams, pickles, and salsa! Canning is much more enjoyable with someone else- I don't know how Mom did it on her own, but she is very talented, and I remember her looking really unhappy when she did it:) So expect us to come to Iowa next month bearing jammy gifts!