October Is For Strawberries

That title was as unsettling to write as it is to read, I assure you. But it is a rather unexpected consequence of the 80 degree weather that has lingered freakishly long into fall: a second bumper crop of strawberries. And not just at an anomalous one or two stands at the farmer’s market, but six. Six!

Secretly, though, Rick and I were thrilled. You see, we missed the chance to partake in the strawberry freezer jam sensation that swept the internets early in the summer. And now, Mother Nature has very graciously granted us a mulligan. Rad!

So last night we sat on the porch slicing and mashing three baskets worth of strawberries. A little bit of sugar. Wham! A little bit of pectin. Pow! A little bit of stirring, and – Whiz! Bang! – freezer jam.

Actually, it really was that easy. Start to finish, this freezer jam took about an hour to make, and a rather leisurely hour at that. Far, far less time than I would have imagined for anything with ‘jam’ in the title.

Also, we were lucky enough to find a variety of pectin (at our local Co-op) that promises to set with any amount of sugar. So one cup was all we used. Our mashed strawberries jelled beautifully, and we avoided manufacting a glucose tolerance test. Win. Win.

The results of the taste test? Well, we don’t know yet. That will have to wait for a weekend in our near future and a batch of fresh-from-the-oven buttermilk biscuits. But the process of making was so satisfying that, even without sampling the finished product, we are already plotting our next attack: pears.