Here in Ohio, we have a plethora of delicious fruits and vegetables
in season right now. The local farmers markets are pushing strawberries,
raspberries, blueberries, and rhubarb in particular. Naturally, we decided it was time
to get out the canning kit and savor the fresh flavors of summer in the
form of jam.
Once we started jammin', we went a little
overboard and ended up with five different types of jam (and more in
the works). Here's the short story (links to full recipes are below)...
The
first step to canning is to sanitize your jars. Once that's over, the
fun begins.
Processing the fruit for use in jam can be done in a variety
of ways and largely depends on the texture and consistency you prefer.
Our
favorite items for pre-jam fruit processing are the
Weston® Multi-Chopper,
Roma™ by Weston® Food Strainer & Sauce Maker,
Roma™ by Weston® La Petite Tomato Press (for smaller jobs), and
Weston® Stainless Steel Food Mill.
We used the
Weston® Multi-Chopper to quickly and neatly cube rhubarb. If you like chunks of
fruit (like strawberries) in your jam, it's also perfect for that.
The
Roma™ by Weston® La Petite Tomato Press is a handy tool if you're just making a couple of jars of jam because it's small and easy to clean.
The
Roma™ by Weston® Food Strainer & Sauce Maker is the ultimate tool for making larger quantities of
jam (or anything really!). The
Roma™ by Weston® Berry Screen for the Food Strainer & Sauce Maker
is a dream when you don't
want seeds in your homemade jam. But if you do, just use the standard
screen. You just rinse off your fruit and throw it into the hopper
whole. The
strainer will separate out the stems, skins, and seeds.We used the
tomato strainer with the
Berry Screen to strain our strawberries and blueberries.
Another nice alternative to the tomato strainer that can be used to puree fruit for jam is the
Weston® Stainless Steel Food Mill. This, again, is better for smaller quantities. We made a couple of jars of seed-in raspberry jam with the food mill. The coarse milling plate allowed us to give this jam more texture while still producing a puree appropriate for jam making.
Once the fruit is processed, it's added to pectin and boiled before being finished off with sugar. The
Weston® Deluxe 5-Piece Canning Kit is a given from here. As everything needs to remain hot and sanitized, the kit keeps your hands safe.
The
Weston® Stainless Steel Cone Strainer is shaped perfectly for canning and allows you to sift out any left over skins or seeds for pristine jam. After boiling the mixtures with pectin, we strained them through the strainer into our jars one last time - which also helped to skim the foam from the jam. You can also use the
Weston® Stainless Steel Cone Strainer to process your fruit by pushing it through with the wooden pestle.
The jars get sealed in boiling water, and then they're ready to be stored in a dark, cool, dry place for up to a year (if you can wait that long).
Westonians couldn't wait, so we had a
Jamboree last week, and we're proud to say that the recipes we're sharing below are DELICIOUS! Get started on savoring summer now...
Complete Recipes & How To's
Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam
Rhubarb & Pink Grapefruit Jam
Strawberry Jam
Blueberry Jam
Raspberry Jam
