Strawberry Jam 2017

There are a few rules for canning jam. Make sure your kitchen and your canning equipment is clean. Don't overfill your jars. Make sure your jars aren't chipped or cracked before you dump them in boiling water.

Oh, and check to see if you have the correct size lids for your jars before you start making the jam.

I'm a bit of an absent-minded chef. I toss ingredients in willy-nilly, use recipes more as guidelines, and forget to set the oven timer.

But I'm far more careful with canning, because, well, botulism.

The one thing I can't seem to remember to do before I start the process of sterilizing jars and dumping twelve cups of strawberries into pots to cook is to make sure I have jar lids in the house.

Sure enough, true to form, I started on the first of the two jams I was making, had the water bath boiling, and was ready to soak the jar lids in hot water when I realized that I had just enough lids for this first batch of jam. Maybe. Definitely not enough for the second.

Yeah, I'm the one wandering the aisles of Kroger on a Saturday night looking for canning supplies.

All's well that ends well, right? Two batches of strawberry jam finished, and now I know I have enough lids for at least a few more projects.