I love strawberries… especially fresh local June strawberries… and the last three years since we’ve moved to the farm, I have not been able to get my timing right to picking the dang things. It just always seems like something comes up and then I miss the window of opportunity. This year, it was Maggie’s accident. We had all planned to go picking some sweet cool morning and were waiting. And then, well, that plan went south. Jessy and I thought about going, but we hate to leave Maggie behind too long. I suppose I could have gone by myself, but that just didn’t happen either, too many things going on.
So I did the next best thing. I just stopped at a Amish farm and paid the premium rate for 10 quarts of fresh picked berries. And actually, it was only $2.00 a quart as opposed to the $1.25 a quart if you pick them.
Since I’m pretty much the only one that eats them… (yeah, my girls are not big strawberry fans, weird…. I think they must be adopted.) 10 quarts will keep me in strawberries for a pretty long time.
I made 4 big gallon bags full of sliced and whole, flash frozen berries. No sugar, just a wash and into the bags… ready for salads, or for baking, smoothies…. that sort of thing.
And the rest I tried to make a low sugar jam from. And it pretty much failed.
The recipe I used called for 6 cups of crushed fruit, 2 cups of sugar and two boxes of pectin… done the usual way, boil and let set etc. I was going to make it into freezer jam just to make it easier. Well, the darn stuff didn’t set nice. It kind of set… it became a sort of thick topping consistency. To be honest, I’m fine with that… I rather like the idea of spooning a bit over a piece of pound cake or on a pancake instead of syrup. It’s nearly all fruit… since it made close to 6 pints of topping, it’s going to be a nice alternative to heavy sugar jams or syrups for me. I can easily see a spoon over a bit of special ice cream… oh yeah…
Still… I wonder how folks get nice setting low sugar jam??? Without using artificial sweeteners? Or like 5 packs of pectin! (gg)
Care to share your recipes that work good?? Thanks!!!!
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You might add a little lemon juice to the mix. That works for me.
While I don’t have a recipe for you, you might look into getting some Pomona Universal Pectin. It is specific for low or sugar free jams and jellies. Don’t know if everyday grocery stores carry it because years ago I got it from a health food store. The box of P.U.P. will do more than one batch, too. These days I do rhubarb-cherry, rhubarb-raspberry and rhubarb-orange-pineapple freezer jams and thicken with Jello. Not sugar free but part sugar part Splenda.
Happy summer!!
Again I got nothing to offer on the recipe front, but I have been wondering if it was possible to use honey instead of sugar for jams. Granted, in my mind that may hypothetically taste awesome and then turn out to be terrible in real life, but I too have been looking for ways to reduce my sugar intake without sacrificing flavor.
So do let us know if you find anything. Oh and also I am happy to here Maggie is feeling better.