Finally some cooler weather! As the garden got a watering yesterday, I decided to turn about half of the strawberries we picked on Monday into jam. I did two batches, each yielding about six 250ml jars.
Other than a few burns and one jar that failed the waterbath (I think I forgot to tighten the band before putting it in--trying to do too many things at once), we had a good outcome. I decided to forgo pectin this year and just use sugar and a bit of lemon juice. We had a nice result last year (tasted like Woodward's strawberry jam) with this approach.
With a couple of hours of stirring to do, I worked out the per-jar cost. Exclusive of labour and the cost of jars and bands (but including fruit, sugar, lids and a guess at energy), I think these jars cost about $3 each. I don't think this is any sort of great deal, but the jam sure does taste good, especially in the middle of winter. I'd say our next batch of jam will be Saskatoon berries--likely in two weeks or so. As we still have several jars of cherry preserves from last year, I think I'll forgo these this year unless Operation Fruit Rescue comes through with some free cherries.
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