Homemade Strawberry Jam

This past July, we went on a family excursion to our local farmers market in search of fresh strawberries to make honey sweetened strawberry jam. The recipe is a little tart, but if you are wanting to cut down on the amount of sugar that your family consumes, this one is pretty good.

Beniah eating the foam that was skimmed off the top, just like his mama did when she was a little girl.



No Sugar Needed Strawberry Jam
(Makes 3 pints of jam)

4 cups hulled and crushed strawberries (about 4 lbs)
1 cup Unsweetened White Grape or Apple juice (100% juice only. I suggest using the bottled juices so you know that the juice isn't too watered down)
1 No Sugar Needed Fruit Pectin (1.75oz pkg)
Optional Additional Sugar (0-3 cups Sugar or 3/4 - 1 cup honey. I used 1/2 cup honey and it turned out fine)

To cook the jam:
Combine fruit and juice in a 6-8 quart sauce pan. Gradually stir in pectin making sure that there aren't any clumps. Bring to a rolling boil that can not be stirred down while you are stirring constantly. Add sugar or honey if desired. Bring to a rolling boil again. Boiling hard for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim off the foam. Pour jam into clean, warm glass pint jars.

To Can the jam:
Once you have 7 jars of jam prepared, clean off tops of jars and place canning lids and rings on top. Place in a water bath canner and bring to a gentle steady boil and process for 10 minutes. Take the lid of and let jars stand for 5 minutes. Remove the jars from the canner and place it up right on a clean towel. Do not disturb for 24 hours. Wipe clean jars down and remove rings. Label jars and store in a cool dark place for up to a year.

Note: Do not double or triple the recipe to save time. The jam will not set up and will be wasted.