Last weekend I made wild strawberry jam. And that jam has a long history. Here ist is:
I live in a 1930's multi-family-house
with a garden.
And both the house and the garden have been
neglected pretty much since the 1930's.
Usually I mow the garden to keep it a
little bit less wild. But this year I was so busy I had no time for
anything but work. And in my garden wild strawberries started growing
all over the „lawn“.
I've loved wild strawberries since I
was a kid and I knew I wanted to do something with them. And I
remembered that when I was about 10 years old a friend of mine had
told me about a glass of wild strawberry jam her family had made. And
she had raved so much about it I still remember it now, nearly 20
years later.
So wild strawberry jam it was! I
decided to combine them with regular strawberries because wild
strawberries are very very small and it takes forever to pick even a
handful of them. I collected a few strawberries every day and added
them to a freezer bag. Then I got very busy again and strawberry
season was probably long over (I guess?) when I remembered that bag of
berries in my freezer.
So last weekend I hurried to the market
and bought a box of strawberries and a package of jam sugar. And I
started making the first jam of my life. Freestyle jam, only with the
help of the sugar package instructions and what I remembered from
watching my mum make jam.
I cleaned some empty jars thoroughly
and filled them with hot water. Then I took the frozen wild
strawberries out of the freezer.
I cleaned and halved about the same
amount of strawberries, weighed all berries and added them to a pot
with the correct amount of jam sugar. (Depending on the sugar there
is a different fruit/sugar ratio – in my case that was 2:1, 600g of
berries and 300g of sugar.).
At that point I realized I should have pureed the strawberries before adding the sugar. But I just waited until the heat had softened everything a bit and then pureed everything with my hand blender.
At that point I realized I should have pureed the strawberries before adding the sugar. But I just waited until the heat had softened everything a bit and then pureed everything with my hand blender.
After my puree started bubbling I let it cook for 4 minutes and then ladled it into my now „sterilized“ jars. Which I closed quickly and then turned upside down – something I think I remember my mum doing but I'm not sure... I guess it didn't hurt anyways.
And voilà! Four glasses of upside-down freestyle
wild strawberry jam!
So: Don't mow your garden and life will
give you strawberries!
