My New School is So Old School

Canning.

How retro can you get? Well, today I canned for the very first time and it really was not that hard. In fact it was rather simple. How did I not know this?

So here is how it all went down. We set off this morning for Smolak Farms in North Andover with the intention of buying a few ready picked quarts of strawberries for my first attempt at making jam.

My son would have none of this already picked business and insisted that we go and pick them "On our own." So what is a mom to do when an eager beaver is up for it? Pick!

I am very ashamed to admit that I have never picked strawberries before. How absolutely satisfying and fun. It really does bring out a fever to find the most perfectly ripe and unblemished strawberry. We were so in the moment and my son would periodically stop and look around and say amazing things like, "Are we farmers?" or "What a view!" With words like that you just know that you should be doing things like this all the time. I got to talking with another mom with a young child and she too planned on canning. She looked so young, confident, happy and cool. I want to be her when I grow up :)

We wound up picking close to TEN pounds of strawberries (actual photo)! That was indeed the magic number since we paid only $2 per pound since we had so much. Our car smelled of strawberries, our hands stained red, we quickly made our way back to Reading.

The hardest part of canning is the learning curve. There are all new tools to master, terminology to decipher, and timings to understand. I used the recipe included in the pectin box, but I used the Ball Canning Book for all the background information. You can really use any large pot for fruit jams but you can get canning supplies relatively inexpensively. Then....independence!!!!! The mystery of how these companies get those things inside the glass jars without spoiling has been solved! I feel empowered and confident. Just like that cool mom in the field...

This is my actual jam. Isn't it beautiful? Perhaps when we get so far away from "woman's" work in response to modern life we lose something in the pursuit. I really like taking back these small tasks that seem so "old school". I know that I am filled with pride at just how delicious this jam is...and I "did it on my own".

So...give it a try....it's local...it's eco. Strawberries are around until the fourth of July or so.

Enjoy!