Strawberry Orange Freezer Jam
I’ll admit right here and now, in front of my readers, I have never heard the words Freezer and Jam uttered in the same breath until two weeks ago. Now here I am blogging about this little known (to Long Islanders at least) treat. It first came up at work of all places ( stereotypically Linemen aren’t known for their deep thinking, in reality we are Renaissance Men). One of the guys’ wives grew up in Minnesota, we were having one of our typical BS sessions as we trudged through the wilds of Fire Island. I was talking up my blog and he mentioned that his wife makes freezer jam. I asked what the heck it was, and in typical guy fashion all he could get out was that it was tasty. Then while trying to kill a few minutes I ran through the book store and saw this month’s issue of Urban Farm with an article about freezer jam right on the front, I figured once is lark and twice is a blog, so here we are.
What Is Freezer Jam?
Basically freezer jam is a jam without all the messy steps needed to get it store at room temperature. No need for boiling cauldrons of water for heat processing or worrying about arcane acid levels. Just mash some fruit, add some sugar and pectin, and enjoy. This really appealed to me, who the heck wants to heat up the kitchen in mid-June? Follow along as I take a stab at some Strawberry-Orange Freezer Jam. I was lucky enough to get my strawberries locally at an honor system farm stand too boot!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups of sugar
- 1.59 oz package of instant fruit pectin
- 4 cups of Strawberries
- 1 Tbs of Orange zest
I cut up the strawberries and had a grand old time taking my frustrations out on them with my trusty potato masher.
Mix the pectin and sugar in another larger bowl and add the strawberry/orange zest mixture to it and stir for 3 minutes.
Ladle it into clean jars, leaving a 1/2 inch of headspace.
Let stand for 30 minute.
After all of that the, jars can be kept in the fridge for a month or in the freezer for up to a year. I really liked this process because it didn’t require any special equipment or heating up the house. A jar funnel came in handy but isn’t 100% necessary. I did splurge a bit on the fancy Mason jars since I’m going to give these out for taste testing.
I would like to thank Linda Roundtree Grove for writing this recipe for Urban Farm magazine. The article also has a few other recipes I will be trying as the berries or fruits come into season.
And a special thanks goes out to my lovely wife for helping me out with the prep for this blog, for putting up with my crazy notions, and for being a great wife and Mother!
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Love freezer jam. I too wondered why I hadn’t tried it earlier. So much easier than canning!!!
I wonder why it is unheard of in NY?
Sound as interesting. My nana would have liked that much better. I have one for you to try, did you ever hear of blueberry ketchup?
I’ve never heard of blueberry ketchup! It sounds very interesting.
hmmmm….I wonder how that tastes like? I am making some jams too but am trying to avoid using pectin…but will definitely try this method and see what comes out of it. Thanks for the info!