Recently Michael and the kids spent a day picking strawberries at the local strawberry farm. They were lucky to have the last pick of the season before the plants were dug back in to the paddock. They arrived home with rosy cheeks, red-stained lips and 15kg fresh picked sweet strawberries.
Strawberries never taste better than straight from the bush, it’s also best not to store fresh strawberries in the fridge, it takes away the flavour and they tend to absorb other fridge odours.
We got to work right away to capture that yummy freshness by making strawberry jam. The kids became very efficient at hulling, although I wonder how many strawberries actually made it into the pot!
Our 15kgs of fresh strawberries made up 15 bottles of delicious, sweet, finger-licking jam. Here’s the recipe:
Strawberry jam
Cook hulled fruit in large pot with a thick bottom until they start to soften and produce their own juice.
Measure 1 cup of strawberry pulp to 1 cup of sugar
Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice for every cup of sugar.
Warm gradually until the sugar is dissolved and bring to a rolling boil.
To check if jam has reached setting point, place 1 teaspoon of jam onto a chilled saucer. Place into freezer for 1 to 2 minutes or until jam is at room temperature. Run your finger through jam. If the surface wrinkles and jam stays in 2 separate portions, it’s ready to bottle. If not, cook for a little longer and retest.