Wayne Boatwright wrote:
....
> I used to make strawberry freezer jam. Don't know why I stopped, as it
> always had a nice fresh flavor.

yeah, i give it an extra shot of lemon
juice and like how that turns out.

the cooked commercial jams aren't really
worth comparing - they are whole different
creatures.


> I have about 8 quarts of whole dry frozen strawberries. Do you think I
> could use these to make freezer jam?

i'm not sure if you mean that they are whole
berries that were frozen individually and then
packaged? or they are dry (as in dehydrated)
berries?

IMO the nuances of strawberries involved with
the fragrance is probably not that great if the
berries are frozen first without the sugar and
lemon juice and pectin to capture them. in
addition, i'm really finicky when it comes down
to any off flavors that are often introduced in
most freezers even if things are well wrapped
sometimes they just smell wrong to me.

so, um, i've never done it, i've only frozen
smushed berries (last year and the year before)
and while the first year i did it the results
were great last year i used over-ripe berries
that had already started to ferment so i ended
up with 12-15 pints of worm food (which they
readily adored ).

this year, not enough berries to freeze a lot
of smushed ones (1 pint only). i priced local
strawberries the other day and won't be doing
any more jam or frozen berries. at $3.00-4.50
a quart...

i've been growing a gold-mine for these years!
sometimes i've given away dozens of quarts a
season that i couldn't use.


songbird