The ingredients and steps for making jam are deceptively simple: Take fruit, lemon juice, and sugar. Mix them together and cook them until they thicken. Put the mixture in sterilized jars. Boil the jars for 10 minutes to process away any bacteria that might be lingering and to seal the jars. Done!

So easy, right? Morale was high as we embarked on our mission. We gathered the supplies, we washed and hulled all the berries, we whistled while we worked.

We boiled mason jars for five minutes in a large stock pot, and we poured boiling water over the lids in a large bowl. We mashed berries and mixed in the sugar and squeezed in lemon juice. We brought it to a boil and sighed with contentment as the whole house filled with the smell of warm strawberries.

And then the thermometer told us that the mixture had reached the magic number of 220 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning that jam was happening!

Chaos ensued. We started arguing over how to best get the jam into the jars {funny, we hadn’t thought this through ahead of time} and realized that the only funnel we had on hand was a plastic one that was not sterilized and might melt if we tried to sterilize it in the boiling water. Oops.

Meanwhile, the sterilized jars were out of their boil-bath and cooling down too quickly. And then there was the question of how to get all the hot jam-filled jars into the processing bath {there was only room for four at a time} before they all cooled down too much.

It was kind of the opposite of the lovely and romantic morning we had. My brain was exploding and my nerves a little wrecked after a very long berry-devoted day, but it all worked out and we’re now the proud owners of way too much strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb jam.

…Which we promptly ate atop banana pancakes this morning.

Along side thick-cut bacon from our friend Blaise’s farm down the road.

Ok, that was definitely worth the work.

We used this recipe for the strawberry jam, but we cut the sugar in half and then eventually cut it down to just one cup for the last batch because we thought that it was just way too sweet with all four cups of sugar in there.

For the strawberry-rhubarb jam, we used this recipe as a guideline but again we cut the sugar by half and were very happy with the taste/sweetness.

We love the texture of both jams…plenty of chunks of fruit but smooth and very spreadable, too.

Now that we’ve been initiated into the canning world, we’re excited to try making blueberry, cherry, and pear jam as well. I want to figure out how to make “preserves” or “compotes” too…I’d love to be able to heat up a jar and pour it over ice-cream in the middle of winter when you’re really craving fruit.