When strawberries are in season, it’s the perfect time to gather strawberries and “put up” for the remainder of the year. It is strawberry time in south Baldwin County, so go get your strawberries while they are plentiful. I made a trip to my favorite local farmer, Krupinski Farm, in Foley. It’s so much easier to purchase fresh strawberries than it is to go into the field and pick the strawberries myself. That is a backbreaking job, picking strawberries.

Mama and Daddy grew very few strawberries but it is just as backbreaking to pick blackberries or briar berries. At the end of the day all the work is well worth it. Mama would freeze berries to cook cakes and pies later in the year. I guess I am a “chip off the old block;” I love to freeze and can food.

I recently made several trips to Krupinski Farm purchasing strawberries to put in my freezer. I have packages with sugar and packages without sugar. When I’m in the mood to bake, I go to my freezer there are my fresh strawberries.

This year I made strawberry jam. Crushing the strawberries could seem to be the most difficult part of making jam, but it is not! The measurements must be exact. If you are inclined to sample berries as you work, like I do, you may need to have more than two quarts; just saying. Here is the difficult part, or at least it was when Mama made jams and jellies. We had no place to store empty jars except under the house. Now our house was up on blocks and underneath was sand and black dirt. Guess what those jars looked like when they had been under the house for a year? Oh my, it would take hours to soak and clean the jars before we washed them in hot, sudsy water. Usually Mama would assign that job the day before she planned to can. Everything had to be clean, food must be measured accurately and processing time was always to the second.

We all loved our mother, and she taught us so much without us even knowing she was teaching. We thought Mama would never grow old and never thought about life without her; she should at least be on the other end of the telephone to tell us how long this should cook or what temperature we should use. I’m so thankful for the many things she taught us while we were young, growing up on the farm.

Strawberry jam

Ingredients:

5 cups crushed strawberries

7 cups sugar

1 1¾-ounce box fruit pectin

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preparation for Strawberry jam

You will need two quarts of fully ripe strawberries. Wash, stem and crush strawberries. You should have 5 cups of crushed strawberries. Measure exact amount of sugar and set aside. Place strawberries in a large saucepan. Mix fruit pectin and lemon juice into fruit. Place over medium high heat and stir until mixture comes to a full rolling boil. Immediately add sugar and stir. Return to a full rolling boil and boil for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim off any foam that has accumulated. Pour into hot jars, filling to within ½ inch from the top. Cover with lid and invert to seal or process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

Yield: approximately 9 half-pint jars.

I have used this recipe for years and years and it never fails to give me good-tasting jam. However, time changes a lot of things; we all know this to be true. When you purchase your pectin box, powder or liquid, follow the manufacturer’s directions. You will have their directions, which is intended to work with their product and this will give you the perfect finished product whether making jam or jelly.

From the scriptures

Spiritual food is essential for all of us, as well as physical food. We enjoy two or three meals every day. We should nourish our mind and feed our spirit daily just as we feed our body. Reading our Bible daily is one way to feed our spirit.

Our Scripture for this week is: Proverbs 31: 10 and 15 (NIV):

“Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies.

She also rises while it is yet night; and provides food for her household, and a portion for her maidservants.”

It is much easier today to prepare food for our households. If you don’t have fresh food from a garden, there are local farmers who sell their product and there are local grocery stores.