Making Strawberry Jam

So we picked about 16 pounds of strawberries on Monday in preparation for our annual jam making. (Don't be too impressed. This is only our second annual jam making fest.) I finally scrounged up enough energy to complete the task this afternoon with 8 kids in the kitchen, because I knew my berries were threatening to get gross on me if I didn't act fast. I wish I took more pictures, but I don't possess the talent to juggle a camera while trying to teach 3 pairs of children how to make a batch of strawberry jam. Unfortunately I missed the shot of my 3 year old playing in a bowl of white sugar like it was his own miniature sandbox, grabbing a handful of it, shoving it into his mouth, and making a nice granular sugar mustache and goatee. But here is what I did get:

Mashing

Five year olds are totally capable of mashing/smashing/smushing strawberries. I only have one potato masher, so she used a pastry cutter. It worked, but note to self: buy another potato masher or two for next year. I think the Dollar Store has them.

More mashers/smashers/smushers. It was fun conversing with my kids while we mashed. I learned that it's a good time to do some verbal quizzing and reflect upon what we've learned during the year. We went over some parts of speech and talked about all the verbs involved in making strawberry jam (mashing, smashing, cutting, stirring, measuring, cooking, boiling, eating, pouring, etc...) My fifth grader wanted me to quiz him on presidential facts. I asked him who the 17th president of the United States was. Andrew Johnson. How many presidents were born in Virginia? 8.The kid has a slight obsession with American presidents and can answer almost any question (relevant or trivial) about them. I need to put him on kid Jeopardy and hope there is an American Presidents category.

Measuring Sugar

The boys measuring out 4 cups of sugar per batch and scooping 1/4 cup of that sugar into the pectin. (We use the pink box of Sure-Jell. I like the lower sugar version because I like the strawberry taste in the jam.

Stirring

Stirring the pectin (Sure-Jell) into the strawberries. We talked about pectin, what it does, and where it comes from.

Crying

Uh-oh. Another verb....CRYING. Baby was not happy about Mama taking away the piece of dark chocolate she found on the floor. I should've just let her have it and not been so worried about the chocolate getting all over her and the kitchen, because the kitchen ended up being a sugary strawberry mess anyway.

 Boiling

Stirring the sugar into the strawberries until it comes to a boil. We just simply followed the directions inside the box. I don't have any fancy recipes. The box is pretty reliable.

Vacuuming 

I asked my 10 year old to help vacuum up the sugar that spilled and he begged me to allow him to vacuum up a bowl of sugar, because he thought it looked fun. The sugar had already been contaminated by a 3 year old, so I let him vacuum up about 1/2 the bowl.  I love watching curiosity being satisfied.

Sealing

I use the side burner on our grill to boil the jars because our wimpy electric burners in the kitchen can't quite get a large pot of water to boil. I let my 12 year old help out with putting them in and taking them out. She enjoyed listening to the lids pop as each jar created its vacuum seal. 

Admiring

Ahhhh, the finished product. 14 pints of strawberry jam. We probably go through about one a week, so I would love to have 52 of them, but I'm worn out. I'm confident that at $1.89/lb for berries and $3.22/box for Sure-Jell does not create a significant cost savings on jam. We do it for the experience and learn how to make and can jam. I believe I can get jam for cheaper at Costco. We'll have to savor the homemade. :)

Also, please don't be fooled into thinking this was a smooth sailing event according to a collection of nine still shots posted on a blog post. There was a moment when I lost my temper because I got completely ditched by all children while I was in the middle of pouring jam into the jars of batch #2 and while the jars from batch #1 were awaiting to be removed from their water bath. The kids rescued a frog from inside a pool noodle on the porch and brought it to the yard, and then they got distracted in the yard and never came back.... until I shouted for them to come back to help me. 

But overall it was a successful event! We all had fun and I'm tired. :)