It’s that time of year again, when we can and freeze and preserve our harvests and make delicious things to eat over the cold winter months. Just tasting these things can take us back in our minds to summer and its warmth.

We’ve just had a canning workshop at Nighbert UMC in Logan, WV. We had thirty-two gardeners that attended, and we all worked making a delicious strawberry jam with the help of Dana Wright from Extension Services. It was a fun day, with lots of smiles. We made 35 pints of delicious jam, which was delicious and just a little warm, but oh so good, and just enough each participant got to take a jar home, plus give the Nighbert staff a jar- the smells from our efforts were like a magnet, drawing in the pastor and the church staff to see what we were up to, and to help us sample some of the finished product.

Here’s the recipe for our jam:

Makes 8 half pints; don’t double, make multiple batches if needed.

Ingredients:

5 cups of crushed fresh strawberries

7 cups of sugar

1 pkg Original SURE JELL

1 tsp of butter (to help prevent foaming) (not margarine)

8 prepared and sterilized half-pint jars

  1. Put the crushed strawberries into a large pot.
  2. Add one box of SURE JELL and 1 tsp of butter to the pot and bring to a rolling boil, stirring continually.
  3. Add 7 cups of sugar and bring back to a rolling boil.
  4. Boil for 1 minute, stirring continually.
  5. Put into jars.
  6. Wipe off tops and put on lids and rings and tighten.
  7. Water bath for 10 minutes.