Strawberry Maple Jam with a spicy option.

Farmers markets are summer to me. It makes me melancholic to think that most of them will be closing down shop for the year in a little over a month.

I think I will always miss the abundance of fresh fruit and berries most of all.

Carrying an obscene amount of fruit every week back to my car to bring home to be eaten raw, juiced, and canned is the sole reason I lift weights during the rest of the year.

I sincerely love fruit. It makes up the vast majority of my diet. I think that’s perfectly acceptable since I don’t eat sweets.

It also reminds me of the times when I would come home late from dance and my mom would have made a fresh fruit plate for me. It always made me feel loved.

A few years ago we preserved fruit in mass quantities from making jams and apple butter to freezing berries. It was a great success. I believe we ate our last blueberry around Christmas.

I skipped a year and now I’m back and experimenting.

I had this idea for a strawberry jam made with maple syrup and no added pectin. I like my jams to be easily spreadable* and I wanted the sweetness to be more complicated than if I was to just use cane sugar.

*If you desire the texture to be thicker I suggest bringing the maple syrup to a boil and reduce for a few minutes before cooling and adding the strawberries.

I was so pleased when I first made this jam that I gave myself a pat on the back.

If you’re going to can this jam you’ll need to add a tablespoon of lemon juice for every cup of maple syrup. I don’t like adding extra acidity. Berries are low acid fruits and the addition of maple syrup makes them nicely balanced. So I prefer freezing my jams. But to each his own.

Strawberry Maple Jam with a spicy option.

• Eight cups of strawberries stemmed and halved.

• One 375 ml jar of grade B maple syrup (preferably Canadian).

• A pinch of sea salt.

• A stick of cinnamon (optional).

• A few sprigs of thyme (optional).

• One habanero chilli sliced (optional).

Slowly bring berries, maple syrup, salt, cinnamon and thyme to a boil in a large pot. Stir the pot constantly. Boil for around five minutes or until the berries are easily mashed with a spoon. Turn off heat and remove the strawberries from the pot. Separate fruit into jars with enough syrup to cover them. Allow the jam to cool.

Store the jam however you like (can, freeze, refrigerate).

Here’s the fun bit, reboil the remaining syrup in the pot with the sliced habanero. Cook for ten minutes until the mix has nicely thickened. Cool and store in small jars.

I’m obsessed with the addition of the chili. It's especially nice with yogurt for breakfast.

Both jams last about a week in the fridge. However, I tend to eat mine within a few days.

#Vegan #Fruit #Preserves