Strawberry Freezer Jam

I was totally inspired by Kristen over at The Frugal Girl with her post on homemade freezer jam.

The last couple of years, as I have been learning to make things from scratch, I have made a few things that were a bit out of the standard for me. Two years ago, I made Blueberry Freezer Jam. It was good, but it wasn't quite as wonderful as I thought it would be. This year I decided to try Strawberry Freezer Jam.

After school today, I headed to the thriving metropolis of Lambeth. Well, just to the west of Lambeth, to Millar Berry Farms to get the kidlets to help me pick some strawberries. I was saddened to learn that the Pick-Your-Own fruit isn't ready yet, but they did have plenty of ripe delicious berries for sale.

I bought two, 3L baskets of 'imperfect' fruit for $3.00 each, and a six pack of pints for $23.00. We also bought fresh asparagus that was cut less than an hour before we showed up, and some rhubarb stalks.

Stopping at the TSC store on the way back to London (the east side of Lambeth), I bought a case of 12, 500mL canning jars, perfect for jam. I also picked up some liquid pectin. Total: $20.00.

I ended up with 9-500mL jars and 4-8 oz. jars of strawberry freezer jam. I also quartered some berries and bagged them for the freezer, and had some leftovers to slice to add to some vanilla ice cream for dessert.

I figure the total cost of making the jams/bags came to about $53.36.
If I were to purchase the same amounts of commercial jam, bags of frozen berries, and sliced berries, it would have set me back about $62.83.

I still have 3 jars left to fill with something though. I wonder when the raspberries will be ready?