So you visited the farm, gathered lots of great produce, but what do you do with it all? Make jam! Last week we came home with a big load of strawberries and quickly realized that they wouldn’t last as long as the ones you get at the grocery store. So what do you do? Do you freeze them? You can. But jam sounds so much better!
And you know what? It was SUPER easy! Years ago my mom and grandmother used to make their own jams, and I never would have imagined I would take on the task myself. It just seemed like so much work. When I was growing up, huge batches would be made and canned, making the process take more than one day. This wasn’t appealing to me, but I just might be able to make one pot on the stovetop. Maybe I could give it a try, and oh my goodness, it couldn’t have been simpler!
After rifling through online recipes, I found that there were none out there that accounted for two key diets we need to follow at our house, AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) and Low-FODMAP (fermentable oligo-, di-, mono-saccharides and polyols). Since these appear to be our limitations for a while, I need to settle in and keep finding or making foods that everyone can eat. So I figured, why not start with jam. Especially since there aren’t any jams on the grocery store shelves we can have.
For those of you who are brave enough to give it a try too, here’s my recipe. Happy jamming!
STRAWBERRY JAM
Makes 1–2 small jars.
Ingredients
1 pound of strawberries
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
3/4 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp grass-fed gelatin
2 Tbsp lukewarm water
Instructions
1. Clean and remove stems from strawberries. Cut in half and add strawberries, syrup, and lemon just to saucepan on stovetop.
2. Cook on medium heat for 10–15 minutes or until strawberries are soft.
3. Mix gelatin to lukewarm water and stir until gelatin is fully bloomed. Add gelatin mixture to strawberries and stir well.
4. Using an immersion blender, puree the strawberries to the consistency you would like for your jam.
5. Allow jam to cool and store in jars in the refrigerator overnight (don’t worry—it will thicken up). The next day, freeze any jars you don’t want to use right away. Any open jar of jam should be kept in the refrigerator and used within 1–2 weeks.