Can you believe this is homemade? And the most time consuming part was actually cutting the fruit! I picked these jars up (Ball® Collection Elite® Wide Mouth Pint (16 oz) Jars with Lids and Bands) in a 4-pack at our local Wegmans. I liked the other styles and sizes better, but I didn’t want to buy 12 or 24 jars because of lack of open space in our apartment.

I bought one container of strawberries, which yielded 2 cups of fruit, mixed it with 4 cups of sugar, a pouch of Sure-Jell pectin, and set out overnight at room temperature (after following directions on the Sure Jell insert). I then refrigerated the jars (this recipe made about 3 jars of jam). The jam was a little too syrupy (impatience?), so I froze it and it worked great! Not thick like jelly or preserves, but great on toast and sandwiches. Truth be told, I was inspired by The Bitten Word (and SeriousEats since they were featured there as well) and the fact that I was trying to make strawberry syrup for my pickling experiment. More on that later…