Strawberry Round-Up
Yes, it's that time of the year again. Time for the great Strawberry Round-up. I buy my strawberries from an Amish family down the road, and they are reserving sixteen quarts for me to "jam" tomorrow. Please don't laugh. Sixteen quarts is A LOT of strawberries. It is my hope that it will make enough jam for the year since it is our favorite. Last year I made strawberry jam but it did not gel. But it made a great topping for pancakes! Fortunately it wasn't a big batch. Later in the summer I made peach jam and it turned out great, so I feel confident going into my first REALLY BIG experience in jam-making. This will be eight batches. My grandma is coming over for the festivities.
I don't use sugar in my jams (I guess you probably figured that). But I do sweeten it a little with frozen concentrated white grape juice, and that seems to work just fine. But you have to use the special pectin especially made for sugar-free jams and jellies. Trust me on that one. :-)
I don't use sugar in my jams (I guess you probably figured that). But I do sweeten it a little with frozen concentrated white grape juice, and that seems to work just fine. But you have to use the special pectin especially made for sugar-free jams and jellies. Trust me on that one. :-)
4 Comments:
Do you use Pomona's Universal Pectin? If so, where did you get it? Someone gave me some for a wedding gift and I LOVE it. (I do use sugar, but hardly any compared to what the standard pectin calls for.) But I don't know where to get more, and I'm going to run out soon.
Well now I have an idea about how many strawberries to get....I'll wait till yours is done and see how the big batch turns out!!
Hi QOC!
I have heard of that Pomona's Universal Pectin, but have never used it. I just get the Ball brand at Wal-Mart. "Anonymous" might know better than I do, but I think I saw it in the Urban Homemaker catalog. And they do have a website if you want to look it up.
If you really like it maybe I will try it sometime (if I ever order anything else from the catalog, which I probably will considering the way I marked up the book section).
I'll have to check it out. I've only used it twice, but it worked great both times. It has a separate packet of calcium which you add until it jells--apparently some fruits are lower in calcium and it interferes. I've only tried it with freezer jam, though, as that's the only way I like strawberry jam.
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