Not Just a Plate of Carrots: The Great Jam Making Experiment

You know when you go to Farmers' Markets and you wonder how vendors can charge $8 for a jar of strawberry jam when you can buy jam from Safeway for $4?

Well, now I understand why.

My long weekend started off with a visit to the River Heights Farmers' Market. I took advantage of the honey vendor at the Farmer's Market since it was his last day for this season and picked up a few jars...

Sorry for the poor picture. This particular vendor has hives just outside of the city limits and he experimented with cinnamon honey this year which is my favourite! The middle jar is actually bee pollen which I will talk more about in a future post. I read somewhere it gives one super powers. Or magnum force, as M. likes to say.

On Saturday, I attempted to make jam. I thought that for my first time, I should go with a traditional route and make strawberry jam, but then I realized that I usually don't do traditional things so why not make strawberry lime jam! (Side note: My apartment size freezer was invaded by frozen strawberries that I purchased months ago for this exact purpose so M. was happy that the day had finally come.)

I purchased the Manitoba strawberries when they were in season from Vic's Market at $17 a basket. This is a decent price since I didn't have to drive all the way from Confusion Corner to let's say St. Norbert Farmers' Market for a basket at $15. I saved time and money. Kaching!

I wasn't expecting how particular a jam recipe could be. I found a recipe online for the jam recipe that sounded great and different. I picked up some pectin (it called for liquid pectin but I couldn't find it), limes and extra sugar since I needed 7 cups (you read that correctly) and of course the jars.

For vegetarians, pectin is the best option for goods such as jellies, jams, gummy worms, fuzzy peaches and pudding since gelatin (collagen from animal by-products) is so often used. Pectin is plant based, and it is a gelling agent.

To get my confidence up, I called a close friend of mine on the Friday night for some advice before picking up my ingredients since she had successfully made approximately 200 jars of grape jelly for her wedding to give away as wedding favours. She's a jam-making sorceress. I even read out the recipe I found to her to see if it sounded 'OK'. She explained that I needed to sterilize all of my jars, lids, and all the tools I would be using and under no circumstances am I to touch with my hands any of these components as I may contaminate the batch I will be making. Seriously? Why don't we do this for all meals/ baked goods? I also felt very inferior when she explained this to me. Are you saying this to me directly or is this a general rule? It seemed so bizarre.

Ingredients:

Jars, Certo, Sugar, Manitoba Strawberries, Limes.

On with the serialization process!

All the tools I will be using (picture before the water was boiling)

All the lids

The jars before they go in the oven.

Well folks, making the jam was an intense process, but I did it. I unfortunately decided to make the jam in my apartment with no central air and on one of the hottest days this past weekend. Despite the heat, the angry spitting of jam (I still have burn marks on my arms and face) and my instincts consistently telling me... this doesn't seem right... I went through the process, the jam came out sticky and smelling delicious. But, I managed to gain 10 jars and they all sealed!

Nine jars displayed since I almost consumed one already. Can I taste the lime? Sorta... was it sickly sweet? Oh yeah. Worth the pain, sweat and tears? Meh. I give it a 7 out of 10.

I won't share the recipe since, to be honest, I think I got lucky with it setting. Also, it is ridiculously sweet, and, for jam, that's saying a lot. My next batch will be better :)

After all that hard work I was starving and made up this snack! Rice cakes with honey from the market, smokey gouda cheese, marble cheese, cucumbers from the market and Tofurkey sausage.