We went strawberry picking yesterday.

Just now, I made strawberry jam to ma's recipe, used about 1600 grams strawbs, so scaled recipe up, and filled 13 jars with jammy goodness.

Also put some strawbs and sugar into a jar with some vodka, will leave to steep, making strawberry vodka.

We've already had some strawberries and cream, yesterday.

And tonight, I'm making some strawberry ice-cream - have some chopped strawberries which have been sitting in sugar since last night, to go all syrupy. Have cheated and bought some (posh, fresh) ready-made custard as the ice-cream base so will do that later.

:)

I'm not sure which I like the sound of best... vodka or the icecream... !

Steve

And that doesn't include all the strawberries you ate picking Kavey, if you go on the 'one for the basket and one to try now' principle. (Strictly for quality control purposes!)

I couldn't resist buying some strawberries in the farmers' market this morning. The smell of them was so intense, even from yards away.

I was eating wild strawberries from around our garden pond the other day. The only trouble is that the birds tend to get the best ones :-(

Oh dear, my last mail came as 'guest'!!

Mamta

I probably ate about one strawberry for every 10-20 I picked so not too bad!

Ma, not sure really, wasn't expecting it to make so many jars.

Oddly though, I used a jam thermometer (and it reached the setting temperature) plus I did the frozen plate test and yet, they are still not set. Wondering how many hours it should take?

If it is going to set, it should have set when cold.

You can use it up for making desserts. If you have very ripe strawberries, it is difficult to get it to set. Some apple juice sometimes helps, you know the kind you make when making apple jelly.

Fully ripe fruits are not suitable for making jams and jellies, their pectin level is lower.

Inspired by Kavey's strawberry fiesta and armed with Mamta's traditional strawberry jam recipe,

http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=13621

I made my first strawberry jam yesterday. With beginners luck and careful following of the instructions it turned out beautifully, setting on cue at six minutes and turning a gorgeous deep strawberry red.

I did add half a teaspoon of balamic vinegar which seems to worked well. However I did also use 'jam sugar' (with the extra pectin.) Is this cheating and not really necessary or a good idea and worth the extra cost for us jam novices?

Winton

Jam sugar is always a good way of adding pectin, I used it a fair bit last year.

I didn't this time because the strawberries had some sharpness in them plus I used the juice of two large lemons, which should have added enough pectin...

:(

Good idea Winton, I have added jam sugar to my recipe.