Homemade Strawberry Jam

Today I helped my mom can homemade Strawberry Jam.

 
We picked up a flat of strawberries from our local produce, for just $7.99. Talk about a bargain! Mom hasn't had enough strawberries to can this year, so we have enjoyed fresh strawberries from the garden! Mmm-mmm good.

 

First I started by cutting away all the soft spots.
This was a little hard at first, but I got the hang of it.

I had (8) quart mason jars boiling in water to sterilize them while 

my mom and I prepared the strawberries.

Next we washed and cut up the strawberries so they can be pureed.

During this time my mom pureed the strawberries and put them on the stove.

While waiting for it to come to a boil, I skimmed off the top of the foam.

We waited for a boil, then added the sugar, juice and pectin. 

We had 12 cups of strawberries, so we used 3 boxes of pectin,
3 cups of unsweetened apple juice
and 9.5 cups of sugar.

The strawberries boiled about 20 min.
I got burned trying to get the jars out of the boiling water, so mom did it =)
Then we the jam in the jars.

WHOA, we got 9.5 quarts! We had to boil more jars!

Then the jars go back in the canning bath for another 20 minutes.

We took them out and let them cool. Checking the seal after an hour.

This was fun, I hope we can "can" something else soon!