Strawberry Jam Surprise

We made strawberry jam with our homegrown strawberries.  Actually, MATT made jam with our homegrown strawberries.  I was across the state and only returned to find these lovely red jars on my kitchen table.  It was quite a nice surprise.

We never expected we'd get enough strawberries in this first year of fruiting to make any jam--you know and still have enough to gobble up in their raw, whole deliciousness.  It wasn't even on our minds as we just assumed strawberry jam would have to wait until the plants were a bit more mature.  But, since the everbearing plants just keep on giving...  First year strawberry jam!  How wonderful!  (I should note that our fruits were supplemented by a bit of fruit and juice from my cousin Laura's patch which had been stashed in the freezer.)

And since he had all the canning gear out and was heating up the kitchen already he decided to make some sour cherry jelly from the fruits we picked and pitted last week, too.  The end result was four half-pints strawberry jam and six half-pints cherry jelly.

They are both just lovely shades of red.  And taste even lovelier.