Strawberry Honey Freezer Jam

For the past few years, my mom has had an extensive vegetable and herb garden.

We also have a serious number of strawberry plants. The berries are smaller than the ones you'd get in the store, but have a much stronger flavor (sweeter and juicier).

Starting in 2014, she hired a beekeeping service. So now, in addition gaining several thousand little pollinators, we have fresh, local honey. It is like no other honey I've had before. The color changes from season to season, starting out a very light yellow (straw yellow) and getting darker, with the late fall honey being a dark golden yellow. The flavor gets somewhat richer as the honey gets darker.

My favorite thing to do with our strawberries, besides eating them within seconds of picking them, is to make the following jam:



Strawberry Honey Freezer Jam
Use 3 cups of hulled berries per cup of honey.

Preparing your jars: Wash jars and lids in dishwasher before making jam. Remember to use jars with straight sides. The jars do NOT have to be sterile. I like using half-pint jars.

Equipment: colander for washing berries, knife, cutting board, saucepan, measuring cup, potato masher, stirring spoon, ladle

1. Rinse and hull berries. Mash berries. Do NOT strain the mashed berries.
2. Cook mashed berries on medium heat until soupy.
3. Add honey.
4. Mix and bring to a boil. Continue to stir ~20-25 minutes until it starts to thicken.
5. Pour into 1/2 pint jars, leaving 1/2" of headspace.
6. Let jars cool to room temperature, then freeze.