In our family, jam is more than just a sweet topping for your toast. It's a little jar of spring sunshine – preserved for the whole year. It's memory and taste and love.

Jay's Grandma Mary made jars and jars of jam every year – strawberry, raspberry, boysenberry (after her trips to Oregon). You always knew to take a few jars from the freezer when you ran out.
Knowing how my husband loved Grandma's jam, I asked her to teach me and she scoffed – “It's just the Sure-Jell recipe that comes in the box, read it yourself!”

Grandma was straight like that and that's why we loved her.

When she passed away last October, I knew that this would be the year that I got serious about jam. I bought a few boxes of Sure-Jell and waited for the first strawberries.

They appeared last weekend and I got to work.

Washing

Topping

Mashing

Adding the sugar (4 cups)

And pouring.

I'm particularly smitten with the jewel-y pink in the quilted jars – so beautiful!

The jam turned out perfectly, just like Grandma's!

PS. Really, if you want to make it, get a box of Sure-Jell and read it yourself (it's the freezer recipe)!