Strawberry Jam

I have this habit of wandering around Chapters digging through the discount books. Well, not too long ago I hit the Canning Jackpot. I found a copy of "Bernardin Home Preserving". It has 400 different recipe's, this Strawberry Jam being one of them.
For this recipe I used local BC Strawberries that came from a farm in Richmond. They are small gems packed with flavor and I would recommend them over imported any day. They have more taste and I really like the idea of supporting my local farmer, even if it does cost me more to enjoy them.
After finishing up this recipe this morning I went through the recipe book and found another Strawberry Jam Recipe that uses Granny Smith Apples instead of fruit pectin! I may try it out if I get more berries, or it may have to wait until next season.




Recipe

7C Sugar
5C Crushed Strawberries
1 Lemon(Juiced)
1Pkg Pectin

*Put Berries, Lemon Juice, and Pectin in a deep sauce pan and bring to a boil.
*Add Sugar at once and return to a full boil. Boil hard for 1min stirring, then
remove from heat.
*Skim off foam, add to sterilized jars and seal them up.

Tip: You can add 1/4tsp of butter or margarine to the berries before cooking. This will diminish the amount of foaming.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

This recipe differs from last years version in one big way. It has more Strawberry's than Rhubarb, whereas last time it had more Rhubarb than Berry. I would say this is a true Strawberry Rhubarb jam and last year you could just switch those words around.
I made two batches just to see the difference between local BC berries and imported berries from California. The local variety tended to be much smaller than the imported and they were darker in colour with very dark flesh. The California berries were very large and hard with white flesh inside. There were more seeds on the imported berries and the local strawberries were juicier and tastier all around. I will do a taste test once both batches set and cool.

Recipe
2C Crushed Hulled Strawberries
2C Finely Chopped Rhubarb
1 Lemon(juiced)
1Pkg Pectin
5 1/2C Sugar

*Combine Rhubarb and crushed Berries, add in Lemon Juice
and Pectin. Bring to a full boil.
*Add Sugar and return to a full boil. Boil hard stirring for one min.
*Remove from heat and skim off foam
*Place in sterilized jars and seal.

tip: Put the chopped Rhubarb in the microwave for 2 to 3 min to soften before cooking. This will help them break down faster as they are very stringy.
You can add 1/4tsp of butter or margarine to the fruit before you cook to lessen the amount of foaming.
I like to use a pastry cutter in a bowl to crush the fruit, its very quick.