Name: Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 90 min
Yield: 64
Ingredients: 1 lb strawberries (diced); 1 lb rhubarb (diced); 1 ½ cups sugar

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Strawberries and rhubarb are not just for pie, they’re great made into jam. You’ll love the sweetness of the strawberries with the tart rhubarb. Great on biscuits or toast and making jam is so much easier than you might think.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

The farmers are saying that we’re going to have the longest strawberry season in history this year, which means there’s no excuse not to make strawberry rhubarb jam! I hope it’s the same where you are. While I can just eat a gallon of strawberries all by themselves, I love the flavor that rhubarb adds when you combine them. Since they’re both around in the Spring it just makes sense to eat them together and what better way them in jam that you can enjoy all year. If you have some left over, try a rhubarb pound cake or a rhubarb galette.

Where can you find rhubarb

In the Carolinas, it’s very difficult to find local rhubarb. The reason is that rhubarb is a perennial that grows mostly in the North because temperatures need to be below 40º in the winter and around 75º in the summer. Around here it rarely gets below 75º in the summer. If you’re in an area that grows rhubarb, you might find these tips helpful.

Apparently, you can still grow rhubarb in the South if you treat it as an annual. Plant it in the fall and it should come up in the Spring. I may have to give it a try this year. In the meantime, I have to rely on Whole Foods, where I found some great looking rhubarb.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

This is the first time I’ve made jam. I used to help my mom and grandmother make apricot and peach jam when I was a kid but I’ve never tackled it on my own and they never made strawberry jam. So with some guidance from my mother-in-law who has made lots of strawberry jam, I gave it a try. I wanted to avoid using pectin, she said she never used it in her jams so I felt that I could get a good consistency without it.

How do you make strawberry rhubarb jam:

Step 1: Cut up the berries and rhubarb, add sugar and let it sit for an hour. I used an equal amount of strawberry to rhubarb ratio and found that 11/2 cups of sugar for 2 lbs of fruit resulted in the perfect sweetness for me. However, if you like sweet jam, most recipes call for an equal weight of fruit to sugar.

Step 2: Next place the fruit mixture in a saucepan and cooked it on high until it starts to thicken. While it’s cooking, you might think it will never thicken but give it about 10 minutes or so and it will start to coat the spoon.

You will also hear it sizzle when you drag the spoon through it. When you hear the sizzle you’ll know it’s done. But if you take it off early, it’s no big deal, it will thicken as it cools and it still tastes great regardless of how runny it is. Mine takes about 10-15 minutes depending on how juicy my fruit is.

Cut strawberries and rhubarb with sugar

How do you CAN strawberry jam

I was a little nervous about the canning process, but I promise this is so easy. You will need a large canning pot, $59.97 on Amazon and it included a utensil kit.

Step 1: When you start cooking your fruit, turn on the heat for your canning pot, it takes forever to bring that much water to a boil.

Step 2: Once it comes to a boil add the jars to sterilize them for about 10 minutes. Also sterilize the lids by pouring some of the the boiling water into a small sauce pan, let them dry on a clean towel while the jam is cooking.

Step 3: Ladle the jam into the jars and wipe off any jam that got on the rim with a wet paper towel. Add the lid and then the rim, tighten slightly and place the jars back in the water bath letting them boil for 10 minutes.

Step 4: Remove and let them cool. Within just a few minutes you will hear the lids pop. Once they are cooled, make sure the lids are sealed by pushing on them. If they indent, then it didn’t seal and you should put that jar in the fridge to eat now. All mine have sealed so far.

If you need more details go to the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

A basket of strawberries and rhubarb with a jar of jam

Jars of Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Of course you don’t have to can it at all, you can freeze it and it will last a year until next years crop is ready to pick.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

I’ve made three batches so far and all taste a bit different even though I used the exact same proportions. If you’ve never tried strawberry rhubarb jam you don’t know what you’ve been missing. This is amazing on toast, for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, on biscuits, over ice-cream, I think you get the picture. Don’t be afraid to try something a little old fashioned, there is nothing like home-made jam and what a great idea to give for gifts at Christmas!

If you love strawberries, here’s some of my favorite strawberry desserts