Strawberry Jam

A quicky post about Strawberry Jam. My good friend, Ronnie, and I went strawberry picking earlier in the week and I picked ten pounds of strawberries. The strawberries are early this year in CT due to warmer spring temperatures. You could have fooled me. Except for a few days I was freezing all spring. I'm not complaining though since we have early strawberries. I wanted to make Strawberry Jam but couldn't find a recipe I liked. I only wanted to use a small amount of sugar so I experimented and came up with my own recipe. If you are using strawberries from the grocery store and not fresh picked ones you may need to add a little more sugar to sweeten them up more.

Strawberry Jam

3 quarts fresh strawberries, small ones cut in half, large ones cut in quarters

1 cup sugar

1 Tbs. orange zest

2 Tbs. orange juice

1.75 pkg. pectin powder

Bring the strawberries and the sugar to a boil. Reduce the temperature and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the orange zest, orange juice, and pectin powder. Simmer for 10 more minutes. Spoon into jars and cool. Refrigerate for up to two weeks. I used 4 oz. canning jars and empty jelly jars I had saved. Makes approximately eight 4 oz. canning jars.

Variations:

Add a handful of blueberries when you add the orange zest.

Use Grand Marnier instead of orange juice for great flavor.

Use lemon zest and lemon juice in place of orange.

Enjoy!

Martha

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