Do you want fresh strawberry taste in a jar? For this recipe, you don’t need any special equipment. Canning is optional.

I used the recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I scaled down their recipe for the amount of strawberries that I got from my trip to Akers of Strawberries in Baker, FL. There are many other recipes on their site that require pectin, which will help your jam set.

However, there is a recipe on pickyourown.org that is similar to what I did.

Here’s the two ingredients: strawberries and sugar.

That’s it.

You can adjust the amount of sugar to taste. I  simply boiled the crushed fruit and  sugar together over medium-high heat until it gelled. I recommend starting with 6 cups of crushed berries and 3 cups of sugar.

If you want to test to see if it has gelled well, you can stick a plate in the freezer at the beginning of the process for testing. If you think the jam has thickened enough, take the pot off the heat and put about a teaspoonful on the plate, then stick it in the freezer for a few minutes. You are trying to see if it is jelly-like once it has cooled down for a bit.

If it has gelled, you can either process it in a hot- water bath for 10 minutes(pickyourown.org has lots of pictures of this process) or you can transfer it to clean jars and refrigerate.

So to review: crush fruit, boil until gelled, store by refrigeration or canning. Done.

This recipe should make about 4 half pints (cups) of jam.

This recipe is so easy, but it tastes like strawberries fresh from the farm.

I went to a blueberry farm-a post on that trip and a recipe for easy blueberry jam to follow soon. Yay for berry season!

Enjoy your jam on fresh homemade bread or biscuits. For an especially refreshing snack, enjoy it with some Mint Infused Sweet Tea!