Freshly Picked Strawberries – Blessings Multiplied

After our family went on a Strawberry picking adventure this past weekend I got together with a good friend, Ashley from Reflecting On The Simple Things in Life on Monday morning and made some of her amazing Strawberry Jelly. The gallon of strawberries we used for the jelly was from Sandy Flats Farm in Taylors, SC. We had a lot of fun catching up while making strawberry jelly. Thankful for friendships and time together making delicious goodies for our families and to share with others. The recipe for the Strawberry Jam is one Ashley generously shared with me. We made 23 jars of Strawberry Jelly in a couple hours. Our cost for the strawberries was $8.00 for a gallon. I went ahead and bought a set of jars since I didn’t have enough, Ashley had the sugar and pectin on hand. If you go to Yard Sales you should be able to pick up more jam jars for a better price.

Ashley’s Strawberry Jam:

Two pounds of fresh strawberries
4 1/2 cups of white sugar
1 box of Sure Jell premium fruit pectin
6 canning jars

Wash and drain strawberries. Remove stems from strawberries and slice. Blend sliced strawberries in blender or food processor. Measure 3 3/4 cups of crushed strawberries and 4 1/2 cups of white sugar. Make sure to measure out the sugar ahead of time because you don’t want to stop in the middle of making the jelly and have to measure it out. The jelly can easily burn.

Stir 1 box of fruit pectin and 3 3/4 cups of crushed strawberries into a large sauce pot on high heat. You can add 1/2 teaspoon of butter to help reduce the foaming if you’d like. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil that doesn’t stop when stirred. Stir in sugar quickly. Return to a full rolling boil and boil exactly one minute. Remove from heat. Pour quickly into clean jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Cover with lids and screw bands on tightly. My Mom would always finish with putting them into a pressure cooker to seal the lids. I was always scared of pressure cookers because I thought they would blow up on me so she told me that most of the time the jelly is so hot that it will seal the lid on its own within 30 minutes. But to be safe, in case it doesn’t seal, always store the jelly in the freezer. Majority of the time all my jars have sealed but I still store the jelly in the freezer, just in case. This recipe makes about 6 cups of strawberry jelly.

Jars of fresh Strawberry Jelly! — Jars of fresh Strawberry Jam I made this week, there are a couple not in the picture because I already gave one away to our neighbor and opened another one to eat!

Our family went Strawberry picking recently so we have been busy making strawberry goodies. The day we picked the strawberries we separated them out into containers for the ones we wanted to eat immediately and ones we wanted to freeze to eat later. We chose to flash freeze our strawberries whole.

How to Flash Freeze Fresh Strawberries:

Rinse the Fresh Strawberries with cool water
Place on wax paper in a pan
Cut off the stems of the strawberries
Put the strawberries on the pan evenly spaced so they are not touching each other
Put the pan in the freezer until the strawberries are completely frozen (usually takes several hours for them to freeze completely)
Once the strawberries are frozen put them into freezer bags (I usually put them into Quart or Gallon, 2 cups or more at a time)

When you flash freeze the strawberries they will not stick together when you take them out. You can take as many or as little strawberries as you like throughout the year. Here are some of the pictures of the process below:

Recipe: Ashley’s Strawberry Jam

Fresh & Healthy: Flash Freezing Fresh Strawberries