Savor Strawberry Season with Low-Sugar Jam
— By Kathy Savoie, Extension Professor, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
With any luck, the late May frosts haven’t damaged the upcoming, highly anticipated strawberry season in Maine. I live in a town that has an amazing pick-your-own (PYO) strawberry field, and you know it’s open by the volume of cars driving through our small village, heading out to the fields. Dust clouds follow the stream of traffic on the annual quest for the berries that mark the arrival of summer in Maine. Shortcakes, muffins, parfaits, pies, cakes, and many more delicious treats are in our future once the berries are ripe and picked.
Making and preserving strawberry jam for enjoying and gift-giving is always a favorite early summer activity in my house. I prefer to use one of the low-sugar commercial pectin products to help reduce the volume of sugar needed in the recipe. I recall the state of shock I was in the first time I made traditional strawberry jam and realized the sugar to fruit ratio was 1 cup of sugar to 1 cup of fruit!
UMaine Cooperative Extension has a new video to refresh your low-sugar strawberry jam making skills. Check out the time-lapse video that covers low-sugar strawberry jam making from start to finish in less than 4 minutes!
Looking for more food preservation tips? Check out these “How-To” videos!