strawberry jam forever

Our CSA had flats of strawberries available this week, so we took advantage of them and filled our fridge with quarts of farm fresh berries. You just can't buy berries in the store that taste like berries straight from the farm. Tiny little buds filled with sweetness and ripened on the vine. Drool.

We had so many that we decided to try our hand at canning strawberry jam through the method we learned at a canning and preserving class we took at CCAC. (If only I would have paid attention as a child when my mom and grandma would can in the summers!) So we used the recipe in the Ball Blue Book for regular strawberry jam and got to it!

(Dutch oven of jam cooking down, stock pot of sterile jars, canning pot full of boiling water makes for a very full stovetop.)


So then what do you do when you have one leftover quart of ripe strawberries? You make shortcake.


There is a test in my family when someone is first given the family shortcake, to see if they are a Freeman or not. Mark is not a Freeman. Here is his non-Freeman shortcake. Notice the element that makes it "not Freeman."


I, on the other hand, am a Freeman. A strawberry shortcake purist who thinks the gift of the shortcake and fresh berry topping needs to be enjoyed unadulterated. Behold, the best summer dinner in the world.