Ok, I admit it, I had this image of this year being a montage set to inspiring music, me effortlessly creating beauty and showing the world how simple it can be. Isn't that the way it works in movies? Sure there may be a 2-second flash of a setback but then it's on to success right? I guess this is the 2-second flash of a setback. Sophie and I made this amazing jam this morning, fresh strawberries, ginger and lavender. She helped me skim all the foam off so it was this beautiful ruby color. I've run out of mason jars and since I can't buy anything new I decided to use all my baby food jars that I've been saving to can this majestic jam. We filled the jars, lovingly screwed the lids on, placed them in my waterbath canner, put the lid on and went to make bread. When I checked back in 15 minutes over half the lids had popped off, bleeding jam all over the place. We saved four jars out of 14. So I've learned two lessons. One is don't use baby food jars and two is that I desperately need a pressure canner. Ok maybe three, real life is not a montage. At least the recipe rocked though.
Strawberry Ginger Jam
2 pounds fresh hulled strawberries
2 pounds sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 ounces chopped ginger
1 tsp dried lavender
Cut the strawberries in fourths. Place all ingredients in heavy saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Simmer until jam jells on a cold plate, skimming foam off occasionally. This took about 45 minutes for us but we had doubled the recipe. Can be frozen or canned, but use real canning jars, this is way too beautiful of a jam to waste.
No comments:
Post a Comment