Harvest & Saving for Later - Strawberries & Rhubarb 6-23-2025

Harvest & Saving for Later - Strawberries & Rhubarb

Last weekend a friend asked me if I wanted to trade flowers for strawberries? She harvested 43lbs of strawberries at a farm near Sequim, WA. That's a lot of strawberries.

I traded for 10lbs of strawberries, so preserving season has now officially started. There's no possible way I can use all the food I grow, so I preserve a lot of it - for myself and to give as gifts. I use a copper jam pan - that I bought a couple of years ago. It is an absolute game changer for making jam - it heats up very quickly, stays hot, and for me, creates jam in half the time as a regular pot.

I chose a French brand, Mauviel in the 11qt volume - which most of the time is too big for me - I think the 9.4 qt size they now offer would be a better size. It comes in a bigger 14.5 capacity too.

As far as other tools, here's what I use:

• Heatproof Spatula - I use these to stir the jam pot, scrape the bottom of the pan, and everything else. These are the same ones chefs use in restaurants. You don't have to worry about the heat - these can handle it.
• Jar lifter - ergonomic - I used to have the "manual" jar lifter - the one where you needed two hands to open and close it… Now that I found this one, I won't go back. It makes picking up and releasing hot jars easy. Made by Ball.
• Plastic funnel - Standard issue - nothing special, good price.
• 4 oz Ladle - This stainless steel ladle is the right size for filling those jars up. It's easy to clean too.
• Canning Jars - I've tried knock-off brand jars and I'll say you get what you pay for. It's not worth losing jam and having to clean out the whole water bath canner due to a failed seal. I stick to Ball or Kerr for canning jars from now on. Half-pint jars - Kerr, 4 oz canning jars - Ball
• Suberb Canning Lids - I used to think there wasn't much difference between canning lids, but I was wrong. These, made in the USA, lids have never failed me, they have wide bands of adhesive and hold a really nice seal. When I reuse canning jars these are my go-to lids.
• Stainless Steel Canning Pot with Thermometer - This pot is great - the thermometer on the lid is the is the magic. It tells you when the pot has reached temperature and you can start your timer. I used to have the black speckled one, it rusted when it got nicked, no bueno. This is stainless steel, easy to clean, and I promise will do great water-bath canning.
  

I hope some of those recommendations are helpful.

Next, these are the preserving cookbooks I'm using this week. They're not the "usual" preserving cookbooks, like Ball's Canning (although I own that one too), they're pretty new and from authors around the world.

For strawberries and rhubarb, these are the recipes I make every year:

• Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, and Strawberry Peach Jam from The Sqirl Jam Cookbook (First book image)
• Leah's Jam from Preserving on Bainbridge Island Cookbook (Second book image)
• Strawberry Goldenberry Jam Adapted from The Modern Preserver (Third book image)

I use freshly harvested produce from my gardens or local farms, there's nothing quite like it. For the Strawberry Goldenberry jam, I grew golden berries from seed this year (first time), so I can't wait to use them. Of course, every year I have to try new recipes too, usually in smaller batches (3-4 half pints). This year I will be making these three recipes:

• Strawberry with Lillet Blanc & Clove (altered from Strawberry Pimm's Jam ) & Rhubarb & Prosecco Jelly from The Modern Preserver's Kitchen (Fourth book image)

I'll have to wait to make the Strawberry Peach Jam and the Strawberry Goldenberry Jam untill peaches and golden berries are in season, so I froze the strawberries to use for later. Jam is very forgiving - fresh or frozen they will taste the same.

In future newsletters, I'll share more recipes and cookbooks as I make them.

Note: The links above go to Amazon - that's where I end up buying a lot of products, especially cookbooks because I can order from other countries (books that aren't published in the USA). If you buy one of these books or preserving equipment from these links to Amazon, I do receive a small percentage of the sale - at no cost to you, I use this money to support my small business. If you have an independent, local bookstore or kitchen store instead, please support them.

In other words, if you're going to buy from Amazon anyway - you can also support Sugar Moon Gardens at the same time. Thanks!