Jam Session

Today my mom and I made strawberry freezer jam! I'm embarrassed to admit that I come from a long line of "canners" and I barely have the skills or know how to simply freeze fruits and veggies. Thanks to my mom and her keen ability to teach, I now know how to make freezer jam. In all honesty, its really not that difficult as I'm sure 50% or more of you reading have made fabulous tasting freezer jam. I'm pretty proud of our production, and we're even considering making black raspberry jam once the berries come on. We've got a ton of black raspberry bushes in our back yard and I'd love to preserve them to be able to enjoy them throughout the year, and canning is an easy way to do that.


We used these jars...



And these strawberries...



To make this jam...


And this jam!



Because I'm an accountant and a bit nerdy, I thought it would be fun (yup, I said FUN) to figure out the cost per jar. Also, I'm gearing up to teach another class so I've got job costing on my mind. Here's the breakdown if you care. :)


1 Quart strawberries $3.75
1 Box Sure-Jell $1.50
4 Cups of sugar $1.10 ($5.50/10lbs, equals $0.55/lb, 1lb = 2 cups)


Total $6.35 per batch


We got 6 jars out of 1 batch, so final cost per jar equaled $1.06. Can't beat that can ya?!


I should probably mention that it took just about 30minutes of manual labor from start to finish to prepare one batch of jam. So, even if your time is valuable, this is still a great deal. Not to mention I got to spend some quiet, uninterrupted time with my momma which is priceless. :)


Thanks mom for our jam session and for teaching me how to make freezer jam.

Next up canning. I'd love to try to can corn relish, pickled beets, and maybe some applesauce in the fall.