We went strawberry picking this year. We just picked until the girls mostly lost interest in the activity and they became way more interested in sampling the sweet, sun ripened, little, red bundles of goodness. I didn’t think we had picked an incredible amount of berries but once the weekend was over, they weren’t being eaten in a timely fashion. It’s just a fact of life that sometimes the fruits and vegetables we buy don’t get eaten as quickly as intended so it’s nice to have a back up plan to still put them to good use.
This year, I decided to try my hand at making freezer jam. I am still a bit of a novice in the kitchen and a little apprehensive about trying canning, but freezer jam is almost fool proof and does not need much in the way of specialty items. From one batch, I got 6 small containers of Strawberry Jam. When The Peach Truck rolled into town, I knew at least some of the 25 pounds of peaches were going to become Peach Freezer Jam giving me 7 more containers. Since there are no preservatives small containers work as they will keep for a year in the freezer but for only about 3 weeks once put into the refrigerator. *These are not to be stored in the pantry at any time.*
What do you need?
- Depending on the fruit or berry you’ll need a few cups of mashed fruit,
- A pack of pectin
- Sugar
- A pack of either 8 oz glass jars or an equivalent size in plastic wear.
Now that you have your ingredients together, you’ll peel, as needed, and mash your fruit and stir in the required amount of sugar. Kids love helping with the mashing and stirring. Then, you’ll dissolve the pectin in water then stir into the fruit/sugar mix. Scoop it into the containers. Let it sit for 24 hours and then put in the freezer. That’s it! Here are the recipes I used:
I figure we now have homemade jam to enjoy for the next year and we have already used some to top vanilla ice cream and stirred it into plain yogurt to flavor it. With U-pick season still in full swing, it’s not too late to try your hand at this basic recipe. It sure will be a nice reminder of summer when I am enjoying my jam in the middle of winter.
Taking the kids to a u-pick farm is a great way to introduce kids to the idea of gardening, especially if you do not have the time or space for a home garden or just, unfortunately, have a black thumb. Here are some places I recommend:
Monnin’s Fruit Farm, Dayton
Jackson’s Farm Market, Xenia
Hidden Valley Fruit Farm, Lebanon
Fulton Farms, Troy
By the way, I didn’t even make a dent in the peaches using some for freezer jam. If you would like to see how I used the rest, visit my blog, Domesticating Michelle. Also, I recommend following Dayton Dining for being reminded when produce vendors are in the area with large quantities of Georgia peaches and Florida citrus, for example.
