Thursday, June 11, 2009

Strawberry Season

It's strawberry season in Oregon! This is always a wonderful time of year for the lucky folks who live in the Willamette Valley. This fertile ground around us produces such perfect berries of all sorts, but nothing beats the sweet, juicy, plump strawberries that are available for such a short window of time. Today jam was in the making; the easy kind. I have attempted over the years to make the stand-over-the-stove, stir forever, sterilize the jars kind of jam and I have always found it a miserable experience. I'm not a patient person and carefully filling all those little jars drives me crazy. So today I opted for a simple jam that must be consumed within 10-12 days but that shouldn't be a problem!

From start to finish, this process took me 20 minutes and the end product is just lovely. The recipe called for a quart of strawberries that are chopped via a food processor first. I chose not to get out the food processor for this task and instead, just roughly chopped the berries by hand. The recipe also said to boil for 9-10 minutes. I let mine go a total of 15 minutes as I thought it was just too runny after 10 minutes. I can't wait to put a dollop or two on some toast for breakfast tomorrow.


Refrigerator Strawberry Jam

1 quart fresh strawberries, roughly chopped
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Put all of the ingredients into a skillet on medium high heat. Stirring frequently, bring to a boil and cook for 10-15 minutes. Put into a bowl and let cool at room temperature then store in refrigerator for 10-12 days.

2 comments:

The Mulligan Family said...

Mmm....My mouth is watering. That looks delicious - and you couldn't ask for an easier recipe! Definitely headed out to get some berries and make this. I see some warm biscuits and jam in my future!

Rebekah said...

This looks great! I think I'll try it.