Now that we are nearing the end of Spring (that never really felt like Spring, dangit) – it’s time to preserve some of that delicate seasonal fruit.  I’m talking strawberries and rhubarb, people.  I tried out three different jam recipes in the same day, because I am a crazy person (and because I bought way too many local strawberries at the farmers market).

First up is my mother-in-law’s fresh strawberry syrup recipe (pictured in front and in the bowl on the right) – if only I had access to Oregon berries like her!  Jasper loves this recipe, so I make a TON and freeze it to use all year (if it lasts that long).  He loves to put it on sourdough pancakes and vanilla ice cream, I like it swirled into plain Greek yogurt.  This is a raw fruit jam recipe (with more berries and less sugar to make it more of a syrup than a jam), so the taste of the fresh berries really comes through.

Next is a Raspberry and Rhubarb Jam with Cardamom (pictured in the middle and in the jar on the left) that was supposed to use apple juice, but I had cranberry on hand so I subbed that and it added a lot of cranberry flavor.  It tastes very fall like to me because of the cranberry and spices.  This is the only jam that I canned, so I will probably save it for the fall.  If you want more of the rhubarb flavor to come through, use the apple juice instead.

And last is a Rhubarb, Raspberry, and Strawberry Jam thickened with Chia Seeds (pictured in the back and in the jar on the right).  This is touted as a healthy recipe because the fruit is raw and it uses raw honey as sweetener.  Because you use chia seeds to thicken it, instead of pectin, you can use much less sugar than you could for a traditional jam.  This one came out pretty tart for me, but Jasper really likes it.  The concept works really well, so I will probably be trying out different fruits.  This recipe actually said to just puree the raw rhubarb, but I was pretty skeptical about that, so I simmered it in a little bit of cranberry juice first (since I was already doing that for the other jam).

Let’s get jammin!  I really crack myself up… (more…)