Homemade Jam

i have been recently trying to make our own jam.  a few things i have learned which i am sure everyone else new but i didn't:

Jelly, jam and preserves are all made from fruit mixed with sugar and pectin. The difference between them comes in the form that the fruit takes.

• In jelly, the fruit comes in the form of fruit juice.
• In jam, the fruit comes in the form of fruit pulp or crushed fruit (and is less stiff than jelly as a result).
• In preserves, the fruit comes in the form of chunks in a syrup or a jam.

so i choose to make jam because it seemed easiest.  i also am NOT canning them right now.  i make a few jars with my leftover fruit and freeze what we will not use immediately.  maybe someday i can learn how to can and give these little babies away as gifts!  but for now my main goal is to use up leftover fruit and also try to have my family eat things that i feel are natural and make with zero chemicals (pesticides, preservatives, etc).

so my son and i started with a few leftover strawberries:

we added them to the pan and added about a cup of sugar and about 1/4 a cup of pectin.  the pectin jar will give you instructions on how much sugar, pectin, water, and lemon juice (if desired) but i usually wing it because the amount of fruit i have is never the same as the recipe on the jar.  so far things have worked out!

once i add these to the pan i turn on the heat and stir and mash the fruit!  my son loves this part.

then you let it boil and stir constantly.  i then add more sugar-- this day i added about 1 cup--i tasted it and it tasted plenty sweet so i then added the rest of the pectin.  i then boiled and stirred for about 5 minutes.

i got about 3 jars of this yummy stuff!  which go a long way to making a bunch of peanut butter sandwiches, which is my sons lunch about 5 days a week!