Recipe | Strawberry Rhubarb Spice Jam

Last year I discovered the lost art of canning and jam making, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that it's really, really easy to do! I made several jams last summer, and was careful to follow directions perfectly. Everything I tried turned out beautifully, so this summer I've been a bit more brave in my jam making and have started experimenting with my own recipes.

This first one I tried was what I am calling strawberry rhubarb spice jam. The spice comes from the cardamom and ginger I incorporated into the recipe, and instead of using tons of sugar like most standard jams, I instead used part honey and part real maple syrup. The jam turned out as a nice thick jam with a bit of complex spice and just a hint of sweetness. And since honey and maple syrup both have tremendous nutritional value, I can indulge in this guilt free to satisfy my pregnancy sweet tooth, and I don't mind giving it to Lucy on sandwiches or toast, knowing that she's getting mostly real fruit and minerals with each delicious bite she takes!

To make jam, I use Pomona's Universal Pectin, which is a 100% citrus pectin and allows me to use sweetener's other than sugar. I buy it at a local spice store, but you can also order it online or check natural/health food stores for it.

Okay, here's what I did in pictures. And these pictures are terrible quality, but I was in a hurry and using one hand to take most of them, so it's the best I have!

1.) I used fresh, local strawberries and rhubarb from our strawberry picking adventures.

2.) I put all of the strawberries into a dish and let my sous chef smash them up with her mashy mashy egg masher. She took her job very seriously.

3.) With a little help from me, we quickly got 4 cups of smashed strawberries that looked like this:

4.) I sliced, and then chopped up a bunch a rhubarb, enough to equal 3/4-1 cup after it was chopped.

5.) I then gathered my canning essentials. You don't have to use these items to can things, but your experience will be greatly improved if you do. I personally do not begin a canning project without these items. I bought them all at target, and the set includes a canning funnel, a magnetic tool to pick up lids and bands, a measuring stick to measure fullness of jars, and a jar-holding contraption used for lifting and lowering jars into hot water. I have no idea if those are the proper names of each item, that's just how I refer to them.

6.) I sanitized the jars, lids and bands  in boiling water for 10 minutes (FYI - jars and bands can be reused multiple times, but you will need a new lid for each new canning project).

7.) I filled the jars with the jam recipe that is at the bottom of this post, using the canning funnel.

8.) I measured the fullness of the jars, and for this particular jam I needed 1/4" left at the top, but some had more space than that, which is fine as long as there was at least 1/4".

9.) I used my magnetic tool to place the lids and bands on the jars, and that way I didn't have to touch them and risk getting bacteria from my hands into the jam.

10.) I used the jar holder to lower the jars into a boiling water bath, and processed them for 10 minutes.

11.) I removed the jars from the water bath and waited to hear that glorious "pop!" sound, indicating that the jars had sealed and the canning was a success (Note: I still had to wait for them to completely cool to know if they had set properly, but the popping sound was the first indicator of success)!

My recipe:

Strawberry Rhubarb Spice Jam

4 cups strawberries, smashed

3/4-1 cup rhubarb, chopped

2.5 teaspoons pectin powder

4 teaspoons calcium water (comes with the pectin)

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

juice of half a lemon

Mix fruit, calcium water, lemon juice, cardamom, and ginger together in a saucepan. In a separate bowl, thoroughly mix room temperature honey and maple syrup together with pectin powder. Bring fruit mixture to a boil, and then mix in sweetener mixture, stirring vigorously to combine. Return to a boil, let boil 2 minutes, and then remove from heat. Fill HOT jars with jam mixture, check depth, wipe jars clean,  and add lids and bands. Use jar holder to put the hot jars into a boiling water bath and process, covered, for 10 minutes (if you're above sea level, you'll need to add 1 minute for processing for every 1,000 ft). Remove from water and let jars cool completely before checking for proper sealing (You know sealing has occurred if you press down on the lid and do not hear a pop because it is completely sucked down).