Rhubarb Strawberry Jam

It's gorgeous outside. A little on the hot side dare I say, but I'm not complaining - I'll take eighty five degrees over thirty degrees any day.

We put the majority of the garden in over the last two weekends. We had planned on having a 60'x100' garden, but due to this being our first spring here and not knowing the quality of the ground, we ended up having to move the garden from the original plotted spot to a slightly smaller area in the pasture. The people that lived here before us kept horses, so the pasture closest to the barn is nice and fertilized. We put in seventy-two heirloom tomatoes, thirty heirloom peppers, a fifty foot row of summer squash, a fifty foot row of green beans, and a fifty food row of cucumbers. We use t-posts, and twine to support the tomatoes, and climbing vines. It's worked wonders for us so far. Sometime in the next week I need to plant the pumpkins, winter squash, watermelon, eggplant, corn, and garden berries. This will be my first year growing garden berries (garden huckleberries, and ground cherries), and I'm pretty excited to grow something that will give me fruit the first year. Eventually I'll add on to our little orchard, but I'm so darn impatient when it comes to fruit trees. I like quick results!

As a young 'un, I remember my granny and grandpa growing rhubarb in their garden. As an adult, I faintly remembered the smell of the freshly picked rhubarb, but the taste has been long gone. From what I gather, my granny was a pro when it came to strawberry rhubarb pies. She passed away when I was eight, and that was the last I saw or heard of rhubarb until this spring. I kinda forgot about it to be honest. I love gardening and growing new things, but never thought about planting my own rhubarb. I'm always more focused on tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and green beans when spring rolls around. You can imagine how delightfully surprised I was to find a rhubarb plant emerging from the ground when spring finally sprung a few weeks ago. Not wanting that beautiful red stalked veggie/fruit to go to waste, I knew it'd be my first canning project of the year.

Once I cut the stalks, and got a whiff of that sweet, apple-y, citrus-y aroma, I was totally bummed that I just had the one plant - though I should consider myself lucky! I ended up with three cups of chopped rhubarb, and knew that'd be just enough for a batch of tasty jam. Though the Ball Book of Home Preserving has a rhubarb BBQ sauce that I can't wait to try, should someone be sweet enough to throw some more rhubarb my way.

This recipe is adapted from the Ball Book of Home Preserving as I prefer using Ball's Low Sugar Pectin.

Rhubarb Strawberry Jam
makes 4 to 5 half pints

3 C. Chopped Rhubarb
3 C. Chopped Strawberries
2 1/2 C. Granulated Sugar
1/3 C. Lemon Juice
1/4 tsp. Butter
1 pkg. or 3 Tbsp. Ball Low Sugar Pectin

Prepare jars, and lids. Combine rhubarb, strawberries, butter, and lemon juice in a 6- or 8-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in pectin. Over high heat, bring mixture to a full rolling boil that can not be stirred down, stirring constantly. Add entire measure of sugar, stirring to dissolve. Return mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute. Remove from heat. Ladle hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight. Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes. Remove lid and let stand in canner for additional 5 minutes. Remove jars, cool, and store.

It's so good. I can't believe I lost so many precious years with rhubarb. Never again, sweet, delicious, rhubarb.... never again.