Jam’n

Last week Leland and I hopped in the car and drove up to Cedar Grove, NC to pick strawberries at Whitted Bowers. Ever since Rob Bowers came to talk to my class last fall about the biodynamic fruit farm he and has wife run I’ve been waiting to try to their strawberries. The drive up to Cedar Grove was very relaxing, and in no time we were out in the fields, basket in hand.

Leland picking strawberries at Whitted Bowers

I talked to Cheri Whitted, Rob’s wife, for a bit and she told me that it had been a rough year for strawberries here in North Carolina. With the crazy weather we had in April (HOT, then cold) and the lack of rain she expects that they’ll only have one more week of good picking left in their fields. Normally they’re able to get fruit through the end of May.

Regardless of the tough growing conditions this year, the strawberries themselves were GORGEOUS, not to mention delicious. It was all we could do to not eat one strawberry for every one we put in the basket! We started off slow at first, but eventually we picked up the pace and ended up with 13.5 pounds of strawberries.

Strawberries from Whitted Bowers

The picking was only half the fun, though. After we got home, hulled all the strawberries (it took 40 minutes…), and had carefully packed them away in the freezer, I spent the next couple of days collecting everything I would need to do some serious jam-making.

Canning in general seems to be a lost art – people may remember their grandmother’s homemade jams and jellies, but ask the average person if they’ve ever canned their own foodstuffs and I’m willing to bet the answer is no. I started making my own jams a few years ago, and it really couldn’t be simpler. I have a book called The Beginner’s Guide to Preserving Food at Home, by Janet Chadwick. It has everything you need to know about drying, canning, freezing, and otherwise storing food for the long term; I would definitely suggest buying Chadwick’s book or doing a Google search for whichever sort of jam/jelly you want to make – there are thousands of recipes out there. For my jam I combined the recipe from Chadwick’s book with this one from a blog entitled Finger Licking Food.  Here is a good list of the equipment you’ll need as well. Definitely buy the jar lifter, it will save you some serious burns and broken jars!

A jar lifter

Once I had everything in order I started making my jam. The first batch was an experiment; strawberry with balsamic vinegar and rosemary. I only made about 2 pints, and I’m hoping that it will be a great addition to grilled pork chops, salads, or even ice cream. Next up was the basic strawberry jam – again I kind of winged the recipe and had to add a little more pectin to get the jam to set up, but I’m confident that everything came out well. I ended up with four half-pint jars of the strawberry-balsamic-rosemary jam and four .75 pint jars of plain strawberry jam. I still have plenty of strawberries left, and I’m thinking of trying a strawberry-ginger jam. Of course once strawberry season is over I’ll have blueberries, blackberries, peaches, and apples. I plan on putting up a LOT of jams and jellies this summer, so stick around for more photos, recipes, and tips!

Fresh, homemade jam

More info:

• Freshpreserving.com – Ball Corp.’s website
• How to Can Anything – PickYourOwn.org
• National Center for Home Preserving – University of Georgia
• The Art of Canning: A How To – Civil Eats