After the party is over you should still have a respectable amount of strawberries left, if not, go back into the field and collect more. With a bit of self control, you should be able to skip that last step.
Now you will take your berries home (the kids too). Wash them and cut off the tops.
Do that a lot until you have a giant bowl full!
Now start mashing with your potato masher. Mash one layer at a time.
Mash each layer until you get the consistency you desire. A word to the wise, don't use your stick blender or food processor to try to save time, your jam won't jell properly, ask me how I know.
Now you will assemble the recipe in a nice big pot.
5 cups mashed up strawberries
1 cup water
1 package "no sugar needed" powdered pectin
1.5 cups sugar
The "no sugar needed" pectin is what allows you to make this recipe with a lower sugar amount. In regular jam recipes, you will use around 7 cups of sugar! Ick! I have played around with the amount, and have found 1.5 cups to be just right for us. You can use no sugar at all for a tart jam, or experiment with honey or other sweetners too.
Combine all of the ingredients and bring them to a boil, stirring continuously. After the jam is boiling, keep stirring for one minute and remove from the heat.
Have a cute kid stir the pot too, it will turn out sweeter!
While you are doing this, you will need to have your clean jars and lids in a pot of hot water, not boiling. Always use new lids.
Once your jam has boiled for 1 minute, you will use your canning funnel to get the jam into the hot jars. You can get a kit at Wal-mart in the seasonal section that has the funnel, ruler, jar remover, and lid magnet for a good price, this will make your canning life much easier.
You will fill your jars up to almost the top, leave 1/4 inch of "head space". Use the ruler that comes in the kit for easiest measuring.
Come back tomorrow for the instructions on how to process your jam! And then you will be all done!
