Happy Mother’s Day! Jammin’ With My Mom

Spring strawberries are in season in middle Tennessee.  Friday my sous-chef dish-washing mom and I made a trip to a local farm to fill up on fresh, ruby-red, stunningly juicy, beautiful strawberries.

Mom cleaned the strawberries as I made dinner Friday. We talked about our “plan of attack” on Saturday morning to turn these berries into … jam.

We had a great time! We made 4  batches and it was light work as she worked on one side of the counter and I worked on the other moving like a well oiled jam-making machine.

In the early stages of jam making we spend time talking about the trifecta we are looking for.  Will the  jam “jell”?  At that point we always reminisce about the year we ended up with strawberry sauce!  I like to think we did it on purpose (which is what I said when ever I opened a jar to pour over ice cream or cheesecake) but she and I both know we have no idea why Sure-Jell  sure didn’t jell.  None-the-less we are always anxious to see if our labor will turn into strawberry jam by the morning.

Then we pondered  will they all “seal” after their water bath?  It is my sous chef’s job to keep count as each one pops! as they cool.  She loves announcing the running total of sealed jars as we finish the remaining batches or are cleaning up the kitchen.

And then the third question we rattle on about —  will the strawberry jam taste as good as last time, or at least as good as we remember it to be?

We keep several different homemade jellies and jams on the pantry shelf but strawberry is everyone’s favorite and so it is always gone first.  (Plus I’ve been known to gift a jar or two.  But shhh, don’t tell the Chief or my sous-chef dish-washing mom because they will have a fit.  I won’t go so far as to say they are stingy with the strawberry jam but I do have to sneak it out of the house.  Just sayin … )

I’m not including a recipe because we follow the tried (and not always true) way to jams and jelly on the Sure-Jell package.  I did find one earlier post where I have written out the recipe to make Blackberry Jam and you can find it here.

Mom, happy mother’s day!  Thank you for spending Saturday in the kitchen with me.  Out of 4 batches of strawberry jam that we made — good news — all the jars sealed.  Other news — we have 6 jars of strawberry sauce! 🙂

I love you mom.  I thank God I am your daughter,  that you are healthy at 84 years old, and that you live with the Chief and I!  We are blessed.

~Catherine

 “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
 but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.“

Proverbs 31:30