Pick Your Own

On Memorial Day My Secret Agent Lover Man and I went berry picking at Stokes Berry Farm. Berry Picking is one of my favorite things. Last year we went raspberry picking at Stokes towards the end of the season and it instant became a hit in my book. Now it is the beginning of strawberry season and they expect the raspberries to be pickable at the end of this month. I picked about 6 and 1/4 lbs of strawberries in the hour that we were there. That is a little over 3 quarts and it only cost me ten dollars! That is a pretty damn good price considering when you buy them at the store they are usually four to five dollars a quart (don't quote me on that I'm guesstimating because I haven't been the the store in the last few days.)
so what did I do with my amazingly cheap and terrifically fresh hand picked strawberries you ask? I made jam! My first ever home made strawberry jam and my first attempt at canning all in one evening. I think it was successful too! so I should be able to keep this jam for up to a year if i don't open it!
Jam maikng and canning was really very easy. I was hoping to snap some pictures for you but my camera is out of commission. So I'll just give you a little step by step outline of what I did. When I was looking for information I thought the article on the pick your own website was most helpful - they can also help you find pick your own fruits and veggies near you!

- I picked my strawberries of course
- I washed and sterilized my jam jar - I did this with hot soap water and then I boiled the jars. This worked out well because you have to keep the jars warm so they don't crack when you pour hot jam into them.I let them stand in the hot water while I made the jam.
- Then I measured out my berries, washed and hulled them. I smashed my berries because I didn't want big strawberry chunks. (that was fun!)
- I mixed one box of pectin (pectin is a naturally occurring thickener found in fruit) with 1/4 cup sugar and mixed that with my berry mash and heated it to a boil. I added the remaining sugar and boiled that hard for one minute. I read that if you bring it back to a boil over medium heat it reduces the foaming the the top.
- once the jam was ready I pulled my jars out of the hot water and and dried them off. I filled each jar to 1/4" form the top and screwed on the lids tight.
- I boiled water in the large pot I used to sanitize the jars.once the water came to a rolling boil I submerged the jars and left them for 5-10 minutes (i started pulling them at five minutes)
- Then they cool. After about 30 minutes you will hear the jars "POP" and that means they canning was successful and they sealed properly.

And Presto! Home made strawberry goodness!