Saturday Morning Strawberry Jam

Yesterday, just after he got off work, my sweet H1 gave me a call and asked if he could run an errand on his way home and be a bit later than usual. I'm glad he called ahead of time so I didn't start dinner too early, and so of course I told him it was fine. He got home an hour and a half later and H3 ran out to greet him while I was washing dishes. She came back in with a massive strawberry in her hands, followed by H1 with two large gallon baskets of more strawberries! Surprise for me! He knew I'd been wanting to go get some at a local strawberry patch, but couldn't seem to work out a good time to go with Shannan. Knowing it would take too long for a family trip last night, he drove over to the patch and picked these two baskets for me. Here's what he brought home!

Doesn't that look yummy?

Well, when you already have two quart containers of strawberries in the fridge (from Walmart) plus two gallons of freshly picked strawberries from a local farm, what do you do with them? Make jam!

Half of the cans, cooling off on our kitchen table.

In all, H1 and I canned five 8-oz jars and six 12-oz jars of strawberry jam this morning, all before noon. It took a little over two hours. I'm so thankful H1 helped out. It's been at least 12 years since I was in the kitchen with my dad, helping out with strawberry jam, so my memory was pretty sketchy. I used my one of my favorite websites, wwww.pickyourown.org to help us out. It's taking me a lot longer to get around these days and I forget things (like dumping the bag of sugar into my sugar canister with my measuring cup still inside--had to fish it out). H1 has been so kind and gracious to help me get things done! Now, H1 is doing some yard work and H3 is playing, so I have time to get a few more things cleaned up before getting to my afternoon projects. Apple bran muffins on today's agenda as well! Have a happy Saturday! ~H2