BFF Project Day: Part IV - Strawberry Preserves

Our last project on Sunday was freezable strawberry preserves.  This is what I made in my canning class at UR - it's so easy!

Here's all you need:

• 8 cups strawberries, hulled and cut in half or quarters depending on their size
• 8 cups sugar or sugar substitute
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 pouches Pectin

You can adjust the recipe based on how many strawberries you have - we might have had 10 or 12 cups but a lot of the ones I bought were bad.  That's what I get for using fruit that's not in season.  This should be a summertime activity.

First thing we did was hull and chop the strawberries in half or quarters.  Then run them through the blender to puree them as thick or thin as you like.  I personally like chunky jelly so I didn't puree them too much.

We stirred the pureed strawberries with the sugar and set it aside.  On the stove, we combined 2 pouches of fruit Pectin and 1 1/2 cups water and let it boil for a couple minutes.  When that's done, pour it into the strawberry/sugar mixture and stir it all together.

Stir for a few minutes to make sure the Pectin is evenly distributed and you're ready to can it!  Or, in this case, you're ready to Gladware it!  Make sure to get freezer-ready Gladware containers...

We used our handy Ball funnel which seems to fit any container and spooned the preserves in with a 1/2 cup measuring cup - perfect size for the containers I got. 

That's a lot of preserves!

Phew - that was a long day of projects!  But now we each have 12 containers of preserves, 3 jars of apple pie filling, finished Christmas cards, and new decor for our craft rooms!  Fun!