We Be Jammin’

I love strawberries.  A lot.  That statement needs clarification, though.  I love strawberries fresh from the field.  I spent the summers when I was growing up working as a field-hand for an amazing family farm.  If you are ever in Northeast Ohio, stop by and visit Brungard’s Farms—they have amazing strawberries and sweet corn.

Anyhow, this weekend, I had the opportunity to visit a farm in New Albany, Ohio—Doran’s Farm Market.  Got a chance to pick our own strawberries (something that I’ve missed doing for quite some time).  There’s nothing quite like the smell of your hands after picking in the field for a while.  That faint strawberry smell ranks up there on my list of comforting smells.  The rough leaves of the strawberry plants leave your hands extremely soft (especially after a week of picking).  It’s an experience that I truly believe everyone should have.

We picked in the field of early glows.  These are by far the best berries for making jam.  They are one of the earliest berries to ripen—we got to the farm and by this time of the year, their early glow field was nearly done producing (the farm opened to the public for picking this past Thursday—if you want good jam berries you almost have to have a personal connection with the farmer to get in the fields early).  I don’t know how many quarts of berries we got—I can tell you it was roughly 19 pounds—some of those were destined for eating. 

Almost annually I make jam.  Most years it’s just strawberry.  I’ve tackled blueberry, raspberry, pineapple (if I never do that again I’m okay with it), and peach.  It’s usually a one person ordeal—I’ve made it with both of my sisters before and also with my mother… our techniques for jam production are all different, which is why I think we all prefer to work alone.  I absolutely love jam-making.
I started making jam Sunday night at 6 and wasn’t done until 11:30.  My sister’s estimate of the amount of jam that would be produced was a little on the low end.  I managed to do five and a half batches (to give you some perspective, that’s 38.5 cups of sugar and 27.5 cups of crushed berries).  I thought

I had enough supplies at the house to finish the job but ended up making a few trips to the store—ran out of jars and then ran out of sugar.  It took me nearly an hour to de-stem the berries.  Usually I them by hand but this year, due to the sheer volume of berries, I busted out the immersion blender (I’m not a huge fan of large strawberry chunks in my jam). 

At the end of the night I had sixty four jars.  49 six-ounce jars, 13 four-ounce jars and 2 sixteen-ounce jars.

What do you do with sixty-four jars of jam, one may ask.  Christmas presents!  I cannot tell you the amount of people that ask for jam for Christmas.  I have a verbal agreement with anyone I’ve given jam to that, if they return the empty jar to me, I will refill it.  My grandmother does the same thing.  Every Christmas I look forward to my jar of elderberry jelly from her.  It’s my all-time favorite.