BY CHRISTIAN WARREN FREED
How many times have you wandered into the produce section of your favorite grocery store and, usually shopping with your stomach rather than common sense, grabbed those big bulk containers of berries and fruits thinking you were going to munch on them all week? A week passes and you forgot all about them. The berries have mold on them and the other fruits are looking a little, well, bad. (You don’t have to raise your hands. I know it was you.)
My wife and I decided to finally do something about our own tendency to buy, then neglect, perfectly good fruit. A short trip to grab one of those fancy juicers, and we can finally justify buying those fruits in bulk because they don’t have the chance to go bad anymore. We haven’t bought store juice in almost two years.
Last spring, while I was helping my wife set up her tent and tables for a client event at a local strawberry field, one of her friends mentioned using the leftover berries to make freezer jam. My attention piqued, I asked, “What in the world is freezer jam and why don’t I know about it?”
The answer proved almost disappointingly simple…but delicious.
That little conversation sparked an act of creation. Remember my article in our last edition about saving a buck here and there at the grocery store? Well, I started thinking: Why not make our own jam at home? There are plenty of benefits. We know what’s in it. We know how fresh the fruit is. Not cooking it (like store-bought products) leaves the jam filled with natural flavors and nutrients, including higher vitamin content and antioxidants. The downside is it doesn’t last as long. But that’s okay, because who needs that much jam?
I headed to Walmart to pick up a case of pint-sized canning jars and a few boxes of pectin. We opted for the sugarless kind in the pink box and surprisingly discovered the recipe still calls for several cups of sugar. (I’m no genius so maybe someone can explain that one to me.)
Next came the fruit. I cooked a few cups of strawberries on the stove, mixed with water and added the pectin. A few minutes later, I was pouring the liquid into my jars. The recipe filled six jars.
That’s it. Simple as that. Homemade, fresh jam free of the preservatives and other nasties the FDA hasn’t outlawed yet. It only took a few minutes to make and twenty-four hours to set before it was ready to eat. The product tasted great, especially over a loaf of homemade bread hot out the oven.
Cooking for me was never much fun while the kids were still living at home. Crammed and rushed between sports, homework, and other events, dinner felt like a chore… and don’t get me started on breakfast. Now that they are older and off living their own lives, I can take the time to have fun in the kitchen again. Sometimes that happens in the most unexpected ways. The first batch of jam helped kickstart my imagination. After strawberry came mango, peach, and raspberry, to name a few. Now that it’s all but winter and the holidays are fast approaching, I cooked cranberries, added orange zest and bit of nutmeg, mixed with water and added the pectin. Spiced cranberry for the holidays. All thanks to an unexpected conversation.
It helps that when I tore open the box of pectin, I found a cheat sheet inside. Not only does it tell you precisely how much of certain ingredients to use, it walks you through storing and freezing for later. It’s this simple:
Mix a box of pectin with sugar and water.
Boil, add fruit and cook for one minute.
Pour into jars.
I think it takes more time to clean up the fruit stains than to make the actual jam.
While freezer jam is great and doesn’t involve any part of the canning process, it has a looser consistency than traditional jams. Unlike regular jam, the fruit in freezer jam is not cooked. Personally, I think there’s a stronger fruit flavor, which is sort of the point, isn’t it?
One recipe fills six jars, thus leading to the problem of “what to do with all this jam?” Some recipes I consulted say you need to eat your freezer jam within ten days if you keep it refrigerated, or toss it in the freezer for up to three months. Guilty confession, our extra jars that aren’t given to friends last more than ten days and still have a great taste, but you are risking the jam fermenting.
There are a few things that can complicate the process. Not mushing up the fruit before tossing it in the pot leads to clumpy jam and that might prevent it from setting correctly. Your jam may mold if left out of the fridge for too long. But the small size of the jars and pure deliciousness packed into each jar all but guarantee you’re not going to have to worry about the jam going bad.
If you look online, you’ll soon discover traditional jams last longer and are better preserved. This process also is more entailing. You’ll need a big stovetop pot capable of submerging your jars for the canning process. Then there’s the boiling and sealing. This option is easily more time consuming but the result lasts longer.
Growing up in western New York where our growing season was remarkably short, I remember helping my parents pick endless bushels of fruits and vegetables and watching mom can away. Some folks had bookshelves in their home, we had shelves filled with homemade canned goods down in the basement.
Now that I’m a little older and more experienced, I find myself looking for ways to stretch those dollars. I read a post by a friend who bought 30 items from Walmart four years ago. The bill came out to around $80. For curiosity’s sake, he loaded the same 30 items into the app last month and the bill was a whopping $190. Please, tell me how things are still affordable for the average person.
One thing I learned while experimenting in the kitchen is that aside from the satisfaction of seeing my efforts enjoyed by others, cooking together creates a sense of bonding too many families are missing in this digital age when everyone is glued to their screens. Canning might be a bit too involved for children, but freezer jam is so easy your young children can help.
Bonding, family time, great food. What more do you need? You never know where inspiration comes from, and we happen to live in a place where fresh fruits are easy to come by.
Here are a few helpful links to get you jammin’ on your own:
Basic jam making: https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/how-to-make-jam/
Best freezer jam: https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a87928/how-to-make-no-cook-freezer-jam/
Basic fruit jam: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-basic-fruit-jam-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-193560
Preserving your jam: https://www.foodandwine.com/how-to-preserve-jam-7498857
PEACH JAM
Perfect for those late-summer peaches you saved in the freezer.
Ingredients:
4 cups of peeled peaches, thawed (mash them up or use a food processor)
4 cups of sugar
1 cup of water
1 Tbsp of lemon juice
1 box of sugar-free pectin (pink box)
Instructions:
Combine the sugar, pectin, and water and bring to a boil.
Stir constantly to ensure all ingredients are combined and smooth.
Add peaches and lemon juice and boil for 1 minute.
Immediately pour into jars.
Let sit on the counter for 24 hours and store in the refrigerator for immediate consumption or freeze for up to 3 months.
SPICED CRANBERRY JAM
This was a holiday favorite last year.
Ingredients:
4 cups of cranberries
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
4 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 box pectin
Instructions:
We decided to boil the cranberries and mash them down first. (Follow the instructions on the bag of cranberries.)
Combine the sugar, pectin, and water and bring to a boil.
Stir constantly to ensure all ingredients are combined and smooth.
Add cranberries, nutmeg, cinnamon and lemon juice and boil for 1 minute.
Immediately pour into jars.
Let sit on the counter for 24 hours and store in the refrigerator for immediate consumption or freeze for up to 3 months.
