Learning a new skill...

Yesterday afternoon I took the kids to the farmers market to find some vegetables for dinner, instead I walked away with 6 quarts of organic strawberries and a few pounds of rhubarb. On the way  home we stopped and got some pectin and canning jars. I had a mission! In years past I've made lots of freezer jam because I was just plain intimidated by cooked and processed jam. While we love freezer jam, it just doesn't go well in packed lunch peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, it's great on toast, crepes, pancakes and drizzled on cheesecake, but I needed something that could stand up to a packed lunch. I knew I was going to have to try processed jam sooner of later. Well, at 7pm last night I took the challenge, after 4 hours on my feet and more sugar (and dishes) than I like to think about, here are the results.

2 Batches of cooked jam, 2 batches of freezer jam (already in the freezer) and one batch of rhubarb jam.

 

I was afraid that one batch wasn't going to set, it was still runny when I went to bed, but this morning it was perfect!

Not pictured are the 4 jars of freezer jam that I did make, you know, for the pancakes and cheesecake! Harrison proclaims the results delicious, he was spreading the jam on his toast and said "my mouth keeps watering!" Now that's what I like to hear...