Stephanie and I woke up early on Saturday morning to drive out to Capay Valley for Farm Fresh To You‘s spring farm tour and strawberry picking. I went by myself last year, my first tour of the farm, and had an absolute ball. Nothing compares to eating warm strawberries right off the stem. This year I had a mission: pick as many strawberries as I could, and use them to make homemade jam, something I’ve never done.

Last night I read up on how to make jam, and then this morning I went out to Rainbow Grocery to pick up 12 one pint canning jars, canning tongs, a canning funnel, sugar, and pectin, the fruit-based gelling agent. We then set to work stemming and washing the strawberries, mashing them, cooking them, and finally canning them. All told we made seven pints, three with very mashed strawberries, and four with less mashed strawberries, plus lemon juice and vanilla sugar.