Another Father's day has come and gone but for me this one will always be remembered as the berry best Fathers day ever. After doing the breakfast thing we decided to see if Strawberry season had started yet. As it turned out the answer was a resounding yes! It just started yesterday. I quickly took stock of my canning jar supply and researched several strawberry jam recipes, then we loaded up the truck and headed out to SpringRidge farm for some fresh berries. 35 pounds of fresh berries as it turned out. It seemed my jam recipe calculations were a bit off. The picking was fantastic as the season had just started and we were picking virgin bushes. I remember last time we went it took over an hour to fill a basket as oppose to this years 15 minutes. The enormity of our berry purchase hit home hard as I began to wash and hull the fruit which took several hours. I felt like a prep chef in a pastry shop after the first hour and had to break for dinner in the middle of the job. I had chosen 3 different canning recipes to try out:
Strawberry Banana Jam - 7 cups prepared strawberries, 2 cups prepared bananas, 1 medium seedless orange, 3 cups granulated sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice. (These recipies are for canning so you will need to sterilize the jars and process. makes about 5 half pint jars 250 ml) Hull and halve strawberries; measure 7 cups. Mash bananas: mesure 2 cups. Quarter unpeeled orange: chop finely in food processor or by hand. In a large saucepan, combine strawberries, orange and banana. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil gently for 10 minutes. Maintaining fruit mixturre at a boil and stirring constantly, slowly add sugar and lemon juuice. Boil hard, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, until mixture reaches gel stage. (about 15 minutes). Remover from heat and skim off foam. Ladle jam into a hot sterilixed jar to within 1/4 inch of top rim (head space) and process.
Plantation Strawberry Banana Jam - Prepare recipe as for strawberry banana jam, but decrease bananas to 1 cup and add 1 can (14oz/398 ml) of crushed pineapple, well drained, to orange strawberry and banana mixture.
Old-fashioned Strawberry
Father Rick’s (because of fathers day) Strawberry Jam. - 8 cups hulled and halved strawberries, 1/4 cup pinapple, 1/4 cup grapefruit segments, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 4 cups of sugar, 1 package of Certo crystals. in a large saucepan. Bring fruit mixture to a full boil, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Add sugar and certo to boiling fruit, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved,, Boil gently, stirring frequently to avoid scorching or until mixture reaches gel stage (about 45 minutes) Remove from heat. Can jam in hot sterilized jars and process.
After the 5th batch of spread it became really apparent that we were going to have left over berries, lots of left over berries, 
so I pulled out the Tupperware containers and proceeded to bestow some little red devils upon my many neighbors. By
