Michigan Fresh all year long
Print
EmailSpring has sprung! Learn about Michigan Fresh resources to use now and all year long, as we get ready to plant gardens and later harvest.
According to the calendar, spring is here. Until the weather breaks, this unpredictable weather might have you longing for sunshine and warmer temperatures. Even though most gardens are not in progress yet and you might feel a bit stir-crazy from days indoors, Michigan State University Extension recommends that you use this time to explore our Michigan Fresh program. Consumers who want to grow or purchase fresh, local produce can feel overwhelmed at roadside stands or farmers markets. Knowing what to buy and how to use or preserve food items can help people enjoy the bounty of Michigan’s gardens, orchards and fields and plan ahead for gardening and harvest this summer and fall.
Michigan Fresh helps people explore the state’s bounty of fresh, locally grown fruits, vegetables, flowers, and ornamentals. Michigan Fresh provides a huge variety of fact sheets on how to use, store and preserve Michigan fruits, vegetables, meat, as well as gardening and food preservation and safety information and resources. Michigan Fresh offers recipe cards and information on what’s in season. Recently Michigan Fresh added fruit and vegetable fact sheets that have been translated to Spanish and Arabic.
While it’s still early spring weather, enjoy this recipe found on the Michigan Fresh Strawberries fact sheet for strawberry jam. You can prepare jam using frozen, unsweetened strawberries that you froze last summer.
Strawberry jam with powdered pectin
- 5½ cups crushed strawberries.
- 1 package powdered pectin (only use powdered pectin).
- 8 cups sugar.
Directions:
- Sterilize canning jars and prepare two-piece canning lids according to manufacturer’s directions.
- To prepare fruit, sort and wash fully ripe strawberries. Remove stems and caps. Crush berries.
- To make jam, measure crushed strawberries into a kettle. Add pectin and stir well. Place on high heat and, stirring constantly, bring quickly to a full boil with bubbles over the entire surface.
- Add sugar, continue stirring, and heat again to a full bubbling boil.
- Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Remove from heat, skim. Fill hot jam immediately into hot, sterile jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace.
- Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel; adjust two-piece metal canning lids.
- Process half-pints or pints in a water bath canner for five minutes.
Recipe is adapted from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
If you are looking for information on how to use, store and preserve Michigan grown products, visit the Michigan Fresh website to view and download and abundance of resources.
