My childhood was filled with fresh vegetables. My grandparents tended a garden the size of their entire backyard and when that wasn't enough, they crept over to the the neighbors.
I love sliced cucumbers in vinegar and water. The closest thing to heaven is eating a freshly picked tomato straight from the vine... sliced... with a little salt.
Seriously salivating right now.
Everything that was grown, was also canned. I remember spending days scalding, peeling and canning tomatoes. We used pie plates for the scraps, aprons tied around our necks and tomato juice dripping down our arms.
Someday I want to do that with my own garden and my children. But two little ones and a new house with clay soil means it will take me awhile to get to that point. But in the meantime, I had a hankering to try something. With recent berry sales at the grocery stores
($.88 and $.99 per pound!),
Strawberry Freezer Jam fit the bill.
My 2-year-old helped...or tried to help. She did quite a bit of sampling and likes to pour ingredients, but measuring isn't quite her style. Despite my assistance penchant for doing it her way, by following the instructions on the package of Certo pectin or Ball pectin, we had 24 8-oz jars of freezer jam in a short amount of time.
I LOVE these decorative Ball jars. So pretty. I am definitely planning to consume lots of jam, but I also plan to use these as gifts. These particular set of jars came with labels as well. I have already passed out a couple for thank you gifts and will probably decorate them a bit more at Christmas times.
This was my first attempt at this and I am rather pleased with myself. If catastrophe struck, we may not have alot of vegetables, but we could sustain ourselves for at least a few days on Strawberry Jam.
Now the biggest challenge will be to not eat it all myself and save some for gifts. Maybe one more biscuit tonight though. :)
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