Exhaustion, And Strawberry Jam

I've been exhausted lately, and I don't know why. I went to the Food and Society conference in San Jose this past week and I did something I wouldn't normally do. I drove. I hate driving. But I'm broke and I own a Prius. The entire drive was only $60 in gas vs. the cost of a flight plus cabs to and from the airport. It was no question. Better yet, the hotel waived my $78 parking bill because they let hybrids park for free as part of a sustainability initiative.

I've got a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head but they are mostly about how I'm going to manage to pay my bills in the coming months. When I arrived home, I found out I'd been denied health insurance. And my internet's still broken. Life's just not easy right now, not for anybody. I was hoping that people would advertise on my blog, or something like that. But everyone else is as broke as me, and no amount of ads will make any health insurance company accept me because I'm apparently damaged goods (I get migraines). I slept for nearly 24 hours yesterday. It was much easier than facing reality. I woke up today in time for the last few minutes of the farmers market.

When I got to the market, I saw a deal I couldn't pass up. $12 for 12 pints of strawberries. They were very ripe and the sign on them said they were for making jam. I don't know how to make jam but I guess today's the day to find out. First, I hulled a bunch of berries and put them on a cookie sheet. Then I froze those. My philosophy on food is that food without sugar (if it tastes okay) is always better than food with sugar. Therefore, berries preserved by freezing are better than berries preserved in jam. However, if I froze all those berries one cookie sheet at a time, I'd most likely have moldy berries before I finished.

Step two was making jam. I looked in my recipe book and saw the recipe for strawberry preserves that required no pectin. Step one: Hull berries and combine them with sugar. Let them sit for 3-4 hours. I did that. The recipe called for 1.5 quarts of berries and 5 cups of sugar. I was too lazy to measure my berries. I just tossed them into a 3 qt pot and then added 3 cups of sugar. Then I let them sit.

A few hours later, I moved my cookie sheet of frozen berries into a freezer bag and hulled another cookie sheet of berries to put in the freezer. Then I turned my attention to my jam-to-be. Surprisingly, the bottom of the pot was full of liquid, even though I'd never added any water!! The directions said to bring the pot to a boil and then add 1/3 cup lemon juice. I did that. Then I got a good idea. While my berries were cooking, I spooned some berries into a bowl and added granola and plain yogurt. Mmm. But the berries were too sweet. I moved half the liquidy berry/sugar mixture into a second pot on the stove and then hulled the rest of the berries left from the original 12 pints and added them to the 2 pots.

The instructions said I should cook my berries until they were transparant and until the syrup was thick. I cooked and stirred for a long time. The berries weren't what I'd call transparant, but I was pretty sure they were cooked enough. The syrup wasn't what I'd call thick either. At a certain point, though, I just got sick of cooking them. So I turned off the stove and ladled the jam-to-be into a shallow pan and moved it all into the fridge for 12-24 hours as instructed. Now I'm supposed to stir it every few hours to cover the berries with syrup. The last step will happen tomorrow. Heat the 1/2 pint mason jars to 200 F in the oven, and heat the berry mixture on the stove until it's hot throughout. Then ladle it into the mason jars leaving 1/4 inch of headspace at the top. Put the lids on, and then cook in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes. Cross your fingers that my preserves turn out well!!!

Photo credit: -MVI- on Flickr.com