This tart and full-flavored jam started off from a Happy Girl Kitchen workshop and evolved into it’s own thing with us.

• 9C rasberries
• 9C strawberries
• 3 C sugar, but HG recipe called for 4 C
• 1 1/2 C lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
• 1T pectin stock
• would have preferred citric acid
• would have liked to add brown sugar and vanilla bean – see July 2012 notes

• 13 C strawberries
• 5 C rasberries
• 3 C sugar
• 1 1/2 C lemon juice (about 4 lemons)

• 4qt container
• lemon juicer – you can use a reamer or press, but for larger projects we have a “commercial citrus press” which my parents got us since we are hard to shop for and we liked the one that they have
• large (8qt) pot
• 9 half pint jars
• large wooden spoon for stirring

1. Take tops off of strawberries and give them a very rough chop. I think we did quarters for the huge ones, halved the smaller ones. They should be a large thumb size. We like the chunks in the end, but they end up maybe a quarter of the chop size after the cooking and everything.
2. Put the strawberries on the bottom of the container, next the sugar. Let it macerate for 4 hours at room temp or up to 48 hours in the ‘fridge. Granted, after about 24 hours they start getting boozy, so plan to handle them in a day to get the best flavor. “But wait!”, you may ask, “There is no liquid for them to macerate in!” The sugar pulls the juice out, so it’s a maceration. Ha! Now get off my lawn, you darn kids.
3. When you are ready to process them, pour the juice out and put in the large pot and cook down at least by half. This took at least 20 minutes, if not 30. This speeds up the overall cook time and allows the chunks to stay around.
4. Add the fruit chunks and cook until done. This is 45-70 minutes. The chunks start to really reduce after 20 minutes, with stirring.
5. Process in half pint jars at 8 min.
6. Yield 9 half pints plus a little extra.