Simple Strawberry Jam

I love summer fruits especially strawberries!  I luckily live practically next door to a strawberry patch so I picked up some strawberries and made some jam to go along with pancakes (I used the strawberry jam with my buckwheat pancakes with ricotta), biscuits, and whatever else my heart desired.  I love living in California where fresh produce is so easily accessible!    

Recipe

3 pints of fresh strawberries

2 1/2 cups of sugar (alter this depending on the sweetness of your strawberries)

1/4 cup of lemon juice

1/2 of a granny smith apple peeled, seeded, and small-diced

Hull the strawberries and cut the regular sized strawberries in half and cut the big strawberries in quarters.  Rinse strawberries in colander and place in a heavy pot (I used my go-to dutch oven).  Toss the sugar and lemon juice in the strawberries.

Place the pot over the stove over medium heat and bring the strawberries to a boil while stirring frequently.  Add the diced apple pieces to the mixture and keep stirring for about 30 minutes or 'til the jam reaches 220 degrees on a candy thermometer.  You can see that I attached mine to my dutch oven so I can easily read the temperature.

This is a picture of the jam in process.

This is a picture of the jam when it is done!  The consistency turns almost gel like.

I put my jam in mason jars I had left over from my wedding decor.  I didn't actually can the jam.  I still have to learn how to master that technique.  =)