Strawberry Rhubarb Jam (and plant porn...)

I promised you guys a step-by-step of the Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam process, but first, some plant porn: (I am laughing my ass off at anyone who arrives at this page searching for "porn"....)

Regular tomato plant - needs a bigger pot.

Cherry tomatoes.

Cherry tomatoes.

Not sure quite what these are... probably marjoram and oregano?

My lone surviving basil & chives from the 2nd planting.

Parsley, if I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty sure the cilantro didn't take.

1st planting chives. Believe it or not, these have been eaten by cats at least four times.

Sorry for the image-heavy post, but I was hounded by a few people for plant pics :) I'm very disappointed that the neighbor's cat destroyed my four other basil seedlings. At least she was too busy destroying those to attack my tomatoes. I need to do some transplanting this week. The tomatoes need bigger pots, and the herbs need a bit more room to move around in.

And now, for the jam!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam (makes 5 half-pints)

2 cups crushed strawberries.

Caution: 2 cups crushed is not the same as 2 cups of uncrushed. Measure carefully.

2 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped.

Boil your jars to sterilize.

Ingredients: 

2 cups crushed strawberries

2 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped

1 package light pectin crystals

2 3/4 cups sugar

Combine the pectin crystals with 1/4 cup of your sugar. Place berries and rhubarb in large dutch oven. Pour pectin mixture in and stir thoroughly. Heat to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. When full rolling boil has been reached, add remaining 2 1/2 cups sugar, stirring constantly. Return to full rolling boil and cook one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and continue stirring constantly for 5 minutes (to keep fruit from floating). Skim off any foam.

Using a canning funnel, ladle into prepared jars. Add lids and tighten rings to fingertip tightness.

Process jars in hot water bath for 5 minutes.

Remove from hot water bath and set on counter overnight to settle. Once the lids have popped, tighten lids fully and store in a cool, dry space. 

Once we were done with the jam, this was all I had the energy to make for dinner... broccoli, cauliflower and pork stewing cube stir-fry with black bean sauce.

I'd have taken pictures of the cooking process, but I was too busy "stirring constantly". You really do need to, because otherwise stuff sticks to the pot and burns. I ended up with less than half a cup of "garbage" for the compost! And here's where I start wishing that blogger was a bit more intuitive and I could place my pictures side by side. *grumble*