You truly know school is done and summer is upon us when strawberry season has arrived. There are beautiful days we ditch the books and laptops and head to the berry patches.

I grew up within walking distance of the local farms. My mother never had to buy berries at the grocer and it wasn’t until college that I saw the outrageous prices they charge for such a tiny portion of berries at the grocer. After suffering through years of this, we finally owned our own home and it dawned on me that I could just do what I used to do, and get them direct from the farm or grow our own. So now we buy buy the berries we don’t grow on our own property in bulk direct from the farm. With the pandemic they even now do door to door delivery. To keep the farm safe. For me, it’s just one less step.

Commercial Sugar free jam, can be hard to come by, most days, on the grocer shelf you pay upwards of $6 or more – an organic name brand bottle. No sugar needed pectin does has some refined sugar in it, but compared to regular or commercial jam it is no where near the sugar level. If you make jam yourself you can easily get upwards of 12-15 cups of jam from one flat – which cuts your cost nearly by half- especially if your already set up with jars!

Strawberry no sugar jam – Ball blue book

• 
  1 kg strawberries (2.2 lbs / 8 cups quartered / thickly sliced. Measurements apply to after prep)
• 250 ml water (1 cup / 8 oz) OR same amount of unsweetened apple or grape juice
• 1 box Ball / Bernardin No-Sugar Needed Pectin (49 g / 57 g / 1.75 oz)

1. If using fresh strawberries, wash them, and hull them.
2. Mash the strawberries with something like a potato masher.
3. You should end up with around 1 litre (4 cups / 32 oz) of mashed strawberries.
4. Put in a large stainless steel pot.
5. Add the water.
6. Add the pectin and stir till the pectin is dissolved.
7. Put on a burner.
8. Bring to a full rolling boil over the heat and when it reaches that point, start timing 2 minutes. Remove from heat
9. Should it start to gel before this time is up, remove from heat, you’re done.
10. Remove from heat.
11. Skim off any foam, if there is any.
12. Ladle into 125 ml (4 oz) or quarter-litre (½ US pint / 8 oz) jars.
13. Leave 1 cm (¼ inch) headspace.
14. Debubble, adjust headspace.
15. Wipe jar rims.
16. Put lids on.
17. Process in a water bath or steam canner.
18. Process either size jars for 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.