The Preservationist

The Preservationist Strawberries

Capturing the most pure and intense flavor of the inaugural fruit of spring

By Jordan Champagne Photography by Patrick Tregenza, Carole Topalian and Patrice Ward

Oh, strawberries! They are the first jam fruits of spring and signify the kickoff of the intense summer work for the farmer, gardener and food preservationist. Strawberry jam is a classic, and one of the most popular jams of all.

Strawberry jam is also the first jam that I ever made. I fondly remember a summer spent in Norway when I learned how to make it. Much to my dismay, my Norwegian instructor mixed equal parts beautiful, pristine strawberries and white sugar. I was appalled, but when I asked if we could reduce the sugar, she replied, “No, you must add this much to preserve the fruit.” With horror, I added the sugar.

Fifteen years later, leading my own jam making workshops, I am happy to report that I use much less sugar in my strawberry jam, but, sadly, I have discovered that it is in fact difficult to make a low-sugar strawberry jam. This is because strawberries are naturally low in pectin, which is essential for jam to gel. Strawberries also tend to darken into a less desired maroon color if they are overcooked. Thus, with strawberries, the freshness and quality of the fruits are especially important.

What makes a good-quality strawberry? It needs to be packed with strong flavors of sweet and tart. Unfortunately, in a world that is hungry for large quantities of strawberries, usually an increased yield of crop prevails over flavor. So many of the strawberries that are to be found here in our region are grown with seed varieties—and conventional methods that employ heavy use of toxic chemicals— that are developed with the goal of maximizing production for shipment around the country and the globe.

Photo by Patrice Ward

Strawberry fields: Farmer Pat and his family.

Low-Sugar Strawberry Lavender Jam

Courtesy Jordan Champagne, Happy Girl Kitchen Co.

Makes 9½ pint jars

This recipe took a lot of time, trials and patience to create. I wanted a very low-sugar strawberry jam that tasted just like strawberries but still retained its pink color. I tried using sweeteners like agave or honey, but the results were not satisfactory. I found this recipe to be the right amount of sugar to get that perfect gel. People love this jam! The flavor of the lavender adds a pleasant and fresh surprise, but you could leave it out for a more classic strawberry jam.

8 pounds strawberries 2 pounds evaporated cane juice 1½ cups lemon juice ¾ cup lavender buds ½ cup hibiscus buds (for color and tart flavor)

Wash and de-stem strawberries and drain well. Combine with sugar, lemon juice and cover. Let sit in a dark, cool place overnight or up to two days, if necessary.

Mash the mixture by hand. Add contents to a nonreactive pot and bring to a boil. Boil on high heat, stirring constantly, until the gelling point is reached, anywhere from 30–45 minutes.

Next, put the lavender and hibiscus in a flour sack cloth so that their flavor gets infused in the jam. You can cook the “tea bag” of herbs in the jam for 10 minutes and remove it once the desired flavor infusion has happened. You may also choose to add the lavender buds directly into the jam when they are tender enough, as their texture can be a nice addition. These should be added in the last 10 minutes of cooking, as cooking them longer can make them bitter. The dried hibiscus are too tough and should not be added directly into the jam, but infused using the flour sack cloth.

Place finished jam in clean half-pint jars. Process in a hot water bath canner at 210° F for five minutes. The jam will keep for up to one year.

Courtesy Jordan Champagne, Happy Girl Kitchen Co.

Makes 14½ pint jars

It can be fun to combine fruits of the same season. I developed this recipe one day when I wanted to make raspberry jam, but I did not have enough to really warrant the project. So I added strawberries to my recipe and thought it tasted delicious. The fresh lemon juice really accents the tartness of the raspberries, and it is all balanced nicely with the strawberries, which offer a smooth texture. It is fun to experiment but can be tricky at the same time. Fruits really vary in their pectin and water content, both of which can make or break a good jam set. I want to give you a recipe for jam that does not use pectin. In this recipe, I let the ingredients macerate, or sit with the sugar overnight. This pulls the juices and the sugars from the fruits and allows them to meld and gel better. I have skipped this step, though, and still had wonderful results.

9 cups strawberries 9 cups raspberries ¾ cup lemon juice 4 cups sugar ½ bunch fresh thyme

Wash and de-stem the strawberries and let them drain very well. Wash and drain the raspberries. Combine with sugar, cover and let sit in a dark, cool place overnight.

Mash the mixture by hand. If you blend it in a food processor, do not over-process or too much air will get incorporated into the mix.

Add contents to a nonreactive pot and bring to a simmer. Add the fresh thyme when you begin cooking down the jam. Simmer it on high heat, stirring constantly, until the gelling point is reached, anywhere from 20–40 minutes.

Place jam in clean, half-pint jars. Process in a hot water bath canner at 210° F for 5 minutes.

Luckily, there are also a lot of local farmers who aren’t concerned with growing strawberries for the anonymous world—they are concerned with growing strawberries for the people who live here. They grow a different kind of strawberry than the conventionally grown berry. Their strawberries are not pumped with chemical fertilizers and water or doused with pesticides. They raise their berries with sunshine and natural soil amendments, and their berries’ flavor will knock you off of your feet. These are our local organic farmers.

Farmer Pat DeYoung of Farmer Pat’s Labor of Love Farm has been growing strawberries for over a decade, and he’s very inspired by the challenge of succeeding at growing food without the environmental impact of conventional agriculture.

He admits that his yield per acre at his farm in the Corral de Tierra section of Salinas is likely 50% less than the conventional farms, but he saves money by not using so much water, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides. Also, he keeps his crops for two years, which means using half of the amount of row covers and drip tape that he would use if he replanted every year. He helps our local ecosystem by decreasing the amount of plastics in our landfills and water runoff filled with sediment and toxic chemicals.

Farmer Pat says he’s tried using conventional seed varieties that produce 10 times the yield of the berries he grows now, but he found they had no taste! Now, he grows luscious Seascapes. He is in it for the flavor.

“People say these are the best strawberries they have ever had,” says Farmer Pat. “And it brings me great joy knowing you can share something like that. Let’s not talk about the environmental impact—tell me how that tastes.”

Farmer Pat’s berries are available through his CSA and can also be ordered by the flat through The Food Preservationists starting in late May.

Another local grower, Steve Pedersen of High Ground Organics, follows the same sustainable practices as Farmer Pat and farms a very unique piece of property in Watsonville. You have likely seen the dilapidated old Redman House just off of Highway 1 at Riverside Drive. To me, it is a reminder of a bygone era when the farmstead used to be a 250-acre diversified farm. Today, the farm totals just 10 acres, but Steve grows a wide variety of crops for his CSA, including amazing strawberries. He plants delicious Albion and Seascape varieties and harvests only every five days so that the fruit is picked with a fully developed flavor. Many conventional farms pick more often in an effort to increase yields—but do so at the expense of taste.

During strawberry season, you can find Steve’s strawberries in his CSA boxes and at his farm stand, five days per week. There is also a patch of berries at the Redman House where you can pick your own during farm stand hours—and get the whole experience of the fruit from plant to jam!

Strawberries truly represent a great example of what we as consumers can do to help the local food movement. It is the one fruit that I absolutely refuse to eat if I am not sure it is organically grown. The trick to making great strawberry jam is the fruit that you start with. There are many great local farmers growing amazing berries! Do you know who grows your favorite strawberries?

Jordan Champagne is the co-owner and founder of Happy Girl Kitchen Co. She has a passion for preserving the local, organic harvest and loves sharing her secrets at the workshops she teaches across the region.

READ: For more on local organic berries in our region and why they’re important to the health of our community, see EMB Summer 2012.

Farmer Pat’s Labor of Love: sites.google.com/site/farmerpats/ High Ground Organics: www.highgroundorganics.com/ The Food Preservationists: fp.happygirlkitchen.com/