This week, Robyn and I took advantage of a few kid-free hours (thanks to a local church’s VBS program) to preserve some of the fruits of summer.
Of course, preserving local fruits or fruit we had grown ourselves would have really made this an impressive endeavor. But for cost-effectiveness, we opted to skip the pick-your-own orchards and instead grabbed several pounds of fruit from Aldi.
Strawberries and peaches were the in-season fruits this week, so we decided to prepare two varieties of jam. We use Pomona’s Universal Pectin to craft jams lower in sugar than their store-bought equivalents, and the results are always delicious.
We also use the method of preservation Robyn’s mother taught her. Moving quickly and use hot jars, hot lids, and piping hot pureed fruit, we fill our jam jars, secure the lids, and flip them upside down on the countertop to cool.
We save ourselves hours of work water bath or pressure canning the filled jars and rarely do we encounter a jar that doesn’t seal properly using this method.
I actually just consumed the last jar of jam from one of our prior jam canning sessions in 2021, and the jar was still tightly sealed and its contents fresh.
Nothing beats homemade jam, and now we can enjoy the flavors of summer even in the dead of winter. It was absolutely worth the few hours of work!