122 jars of jam on the wall...

A couple of weeks ago, I suggested to my sisters-in-law that we try canning strawberry jam. I didn’t want to make freezer jam cause I don’t have the space for it. And canning sounded like a fun project. Eva & Emily were up for the challenge too so we set a date. On Saturday, Emily showed up with two huge bowls of blueberries and then we, along with Jeff and the kids, piled into the car and headed to Fall City to go pick up our vegetable box at Jubilee and then hit up the other local farms for some strawberries and maybe raspberries. Turns out there are no strawberries left in Fall City. I hadn’t even had one strawberry this season! We couldn’t find a flat of strawberries either and the half-pints we saw were $4 each! Uh oh. So, we headed back to Seattle a little worried. But we stopped at a couple of markets near my house and found loads of local (Washington) berries at Ballard Market, we got more supplies at Cash & Carry and Fred Meyer. On Sunday, Eva & Emily came over and we spent the next 8 hours canning our guts out.

We ended up using:
4 half-flats of strawberries
3 half-flats of raspberries
3 half-flats of blackberries
And at least 3 half-flats worth of blueberries from Emily’s house
4 small (5 lb?) bags of sugar
Food Mill – Emily got a Foley and Eva got an Oxo. The Oxo has interchangeable screens that worked best for catching all the berry seeds.
2 Funnels – wide mouth ones
2 Tongs – for jar removal
Jars – we way underestimated what we needed and had to go back later for more. We had a mix of 4oz and 8oz. sizes
4 pots – 2 for water-bath canning and 2 for cooking the berries
3 wooden spoons
Ice – for keeping the fruit cool overnight. (kept some fruit in the dishwasher and the rest in a big rubbermaid tub)
Candy thermometer – I don’t think we really needed this but it was there for moral support
Lemon juice & vinegar – we opted to try no-pectin recipes
Tea kettle – for extra hot water to keep the water baths full
Lots of bowls, paper towels, washcloths, & dishtowels
The Busy Person’s Guide to Food Preserving

We made a variety of jams, syrups, or sauces depending on how well things jelled:
Blueberry spice (nutmeg, cloves & blackpepper)
Strawberry (w/ Lemon juice)
Strawberry (w/ vinegar & salt)
Raspberry
Blackberry
Mixed berry
Strawberry-blueberry
Strawberry, balsamic & cracked black pepper (except we forgot to add the black pepper!)

122 jars in all and we also made a jug of blueberry vinegar.

Recipes & pictures to come from Emily!