Strawberry Ponies, Strawberry Lambs

I wasn't sure what to do for this week's blog because I have had so much going on with the end of the year. I was doing research on Pinterest to find a cute idea for end of the year teacher gifts. I was sort of in a jam... jam... jam.. JAM! In a stroke of serendipity I came across the lovely blog of brown paper packages. The page of teacher gift ideas I was looking at had a link to another project she had done, making strawberry freezer jam. She had even done it as part of a project revolving around children's books. A favorite book at their house is Jamberry by Bruce Degen. Guess what! A favorite book at our house is Jamberry!

I seriously read it to the Boy King once, or ten times, everyday before he takes a nap. Suddenly I had all my answers in one tasty little jam jar. An end of the year gift AND a book/cook craft for my blog!  She even includes a link to these cutie patootie printable tags.

I assembled my jam jars, sugar, pectin, lemon juice, and strawberries and was ready to go. When my Sweet One got home from school we turned on the Wiggles to distract the Boy King the set to work. The recipe for making the jam was right inside the box. We used Sure Jell liquid pectin. My Sweet One measured out sugar while I mashed up strawberries. I didn't have a potato masher so I used a biscuit cutter to chop them up.

The process went very quickly. This is a no cooking recipe which is supposed to yield a "fresher, fruitier" tasting jam. After my Sweet One mixed everything up I portioned it out into the jelly jars. I used the printables from brown paper package's site to label the jars with a cute "jam" label and then used some hemp string to tie a bow with a "thank you berry much" tag. I used scrapbook paper as a backing to "pretty it up" :) I packaged it very cutely, if I do say so myself. Once I labeled the jars I put them in brown lunch bags and tied them with hemp string. So cute!

Since I'm going to be using these as gifts I also typed up a little description explaining that the jam can be stored in the freezer for up to a year. It is good for 3 weeks in the refrigerator. Once frozen you can thaw it in the refrigerator when you are ready to use it. I made 2 batches so I would have enough for my assistant, the Boy King's teachers, and My Sweet Ones teachers. Oh, and that left 5 jars over for us :) Hee hee. I can not wait to try it out tomorrow! I'm going to make some toast and jam to eat while reading Jamberry to the kids!