Strawberry Rhubarb

Made my first jam of this growing season. We got both in our CSA (community supported agriculture) box last wednesday, and it looked like more strawberries than we would eat.

So, we canned 'em. Haven't gone out to buy pectin for this year yet, so i just made preserves.

To do so:

I mixed about five cups of chopped up strawberries, and four stalks worth of chopped up rhubarb with about 4 or 5 cups of sugar. I let that sit for a few minutes till it started getting nice and juicy, and then put it over heat. After about ten minutes of boiling this sugary strawberry rhubarb mixture the smell begins to loft through the air, penetrating the entire house. Your housemates or perhaps neighbors will start wandering in, wondering what sweet confectioneries are being confected.

I think i boiled it for about 45 minutes. Then to can it, i just used a trick my mom showed me long ago, i ladled the hot jam into jars, put the lid and ring on them and then turned them upside down (so the hot jam is against the lid and helps seal it). No pressure cooker or water bath necessary (there's so much sugar in this stuff, it's pretty well preserved, hence the name, preserves).

This amount made what you see next to this text, a little over four and a half pints.