Strawberry Preserves

I will never buy strawberry preserves at the store again.

I have never ever canned anything in my life and didn't want to invest in some of the fancy pants items they have specifically for canning, so I improvised with some things.  It all worked out in the end.  After doing this, I can see how those items would make life easier, and will probably invest in them in the future.  The biggest problem I have with that actually would be where to store them.  But I digress....

If you were scared like me to try something like this-don't be.  It was fun and relatively simple. The most time consuming thing was hulling the berries. 

Strawberry Preserves

• 2 pounds strawberries
• Juice of 2 big lemons
• 4 cups of sugar

Makes eight - half pint jars

Get a pot of water simmering and put the jars in it.  Also, get a shallow pan simmering for the lids too.  I used a frying pan.

Hull the berries and slice.

Squeeze the lemons in a pan using a colander to catch the seeds.

Pour all the sugar in the pan with the lemon juice.  Cook them on medium heat until the sugar melts.  This happens really fast.  I was stirring and thinking it would never happen. One second it is grainy and the next its ready!

Now add the berries.  Keep them stirred and sorta mash them as you are stirring.  Cook this until it reaches 220 degrees.  Again, it seemed to take a while for it all to heat up, then 220 came real fast so watch out.  While this is going on, try and get the jars out of the simmering water.

Ladle into the jars, leaving a little bit of space for the preserves to expand and contract.  I did invest in a funnel and I'm glad I did.  There would have been a big old mess had I not.

After you have the jars filled, take a rubber spatula and go around the sides of the jars to release the air bubbles.

Put the lids and rings on and put them into the simmering pot.  Make sure the water level is about an inch above the jars.  Bring this up to a boil for 15 minutes.  Instead of one of those canning racks, I used a craw fish boil thing (I don't know the official name of this) to put the jars in so I could pull them out together.  I also used plastic coated high temperature gloves to handle them after processing.  Hooray for improvisation.

Pull the jars out and let them sit for about 12 hours.  Then screw the lids tighter and give them away or put them in the pantry for later.  They will be good for up to a year.  Enjoy!