rhubarb jam for moms

Saturday was an out of control kitchen day for me. I think I was trying to make up for the last few months all in the space of one afternoon. After a nice morning of spinning (Yay! I can go to an adult workout class!) and then a stroll with the family around the farmer's market, I came back to our house and proceeded to turn the kitchen upside down. For no good reason at all, except that I was apparently desperate to make things.



One of those things being jam for our moms for Mother's day. (Hi Mom! If you're reading this I spoiled part of your pressie.) I love making jam. It's so simple and so charmingly old fashioned. I have a bunch of jars on the shelf in our service porch (read laundry room, extra pantry, seed storage, etc), but instead of eating those, I continue to make more. Ah well. When a woman needs to create, she needs to create.



This time, Strawberry-Rhubarb. I love rhubarb. One day I will have my own plant, but I think I'll wait until we buy a house (or our house?) because the plants are perennials and last for decades. Neat.

This recipe is crazy simple. I found it through the magic of google on the most random site: rhubarbinfo.com. If you're looking for rhubarb recipes, this is a good place to start, though can't vouch for any of them .

Here it is:

2 pounds strawberries (4 cups, mashed)
2 pounds rhubarb (8 cups, cut into 1/2 inch pieces)
6 cups sugar

Cover cut rhubarb with half of the sugar and let stand 1 to 2 hours. Crush berries and mix with remaining sugar and combine with rhubarb. Place mixture over low heat until sugar is dissolved, then boil rapidly, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Cook until thick.

I turned my batch on and off 3 times to tend to baby and definitely burned it a titch. I don't recommend this technique, but it's still pretty good. If you DON'T mess around with the timing and burning, I'm sure it's delicious.

UPDATE:

The jars are Weck, which are entirely superior in design to any other canning jars out there. You can buy them from a few different places, but the only one I can think of at the moment sans google search is Heath.

And, I did actually "can" the jam so it can be wrapped properly as a present. It's so super easy. Don't be afraid. Especially with something like jam that isn't known to grow botulism or anything fatal. It's the green beans you need to worry about. Or other things without enough salt, acid, or sugar to properly preserve whatever you've made.