Strawberry Freezer Jam

While talking to my neighbor a few days ago, she mentioned that she had been to our local grocery store and that strawberries were on sale for $4 a flat! (6 lbs are on a flat). Christmas in July for me!! Yummy… strawberry freezer jam…

All day I thought ‘I need to get down to the store… I need to get down to the store…’ but with my 3 month and 19 month old babies, things don’t always go according to my plan. Finally when Steve got home we headed over.

My plan was to get 2 or 3 flats. I know from experience that the more we get… the more work it will be to use them. Steve had a different idea and wanted 5! When strawberries are this cheap it is for a reason- they are going to go bad soon. It was already 7:00pm and that meant that we had a long night of jam making ahead of us.

So off we went with 5 flats of strawberries and 2 kids in tow. We stopped by my in-law’s house before heading home. While mentioning our great find of strawberries, my sweet mother-in-law offered to let us make the jam at her house. She has a larger kitchen, a lot of great knowledge and she was going to be watching a movie; so we decided to stay.

We put the 19 month old to bed and let the 3 month old snuggle with Grandma and got everything ready.

We used:
• 2-4 big bowls
• corn syrup
• strawberries
• pectin
• zip lock baggies
• sharpie marker
• some knives
• hand held food processor

Get yourself a good movie going because this work is not the most entertaining, but it will all be WELL worth it.

1. Wash the strawberries, cut off the stems and remove any bad strawberries.
   1. Steve and I had 2 bowls of washed strawberries and a bowl for the stems. We had a contest to see who could cut the stems off the fastest. I humbly admit, Steven won and no one got hurt in the process.
   2. If the strawberry is squishy and you are as crazy as Steve and I about saving every last strawberry, do a taste test. You’ll know for sure if you want that squishy strawberry mixed in with your jam or not after you’ve tasted it.
2. Mush up the strawberries. We used a hand held food processor.
   1. You can leave bits of the strawberries in the mix. It’s kind of like hitting the jackpot when you get a strawberry clump on your toast.
3. Add corn syrup to the mashed up strawberries.
   1. It’s important to measure in multiples of 5. I measured from one bowl to the next. You will need 5 cups of strawberries for every 1/3 cup of corn syrup. In my bowls I fit 20-25 cups per bowl.
4. Add dry ingredients together, mix them together separately then add it to the strawberries.
   1. 2 1/2 cup sugar and 3 Tb instant clear jell(not pectin) to every 5 cups of mashed strawberries. (The reason we like to do freezer jam instead of canned jam is it takes half the sugar)
      
5. Write on your zip lock baggies the date so when you do this again, you’ll be using the older jam before the newer jam.
6. Bag them up!
   1. Steven and I had a system going where he held open the baggie and I poured it in. Then I held the baggie while he zipped it closed. I could fit 2 ½ cups of jam per pint baggie.
7. Rinse the baggies and dry them.
8. Pop them in the freezer.

We love strawberry freezer jam and ended up with 39 pint sized baggies. We started to grow our own strawberries this year so maybe next year we will make freezer jam out of our own strawberries.

Q: What do you think is better strawberry freezer jam or canned strawberry jam?

Authored by Steven Cooper Google