Strawberry Lavender Honey Freezer Jam

To me, nothing says Summer like strawberries (Amanda is allergic, so this post is a little painful for her!). I love strawberry shortcake, strawberry lemonade, and I love making strawberry syrup for pancakes. I especially love making strawberry freezer jam, because the only thing better than in-season strawberries is being able to open the freezer in December and find the freezer jam that you made in August!

I had never heard of freezer jam before I received some from my aunt when I was in college (The best care packages contain jam!). My grandmother made jam a lot, but it was cooked jam, and I always found it intimidating (we’ll do cooked jam another day). Freezer jam is a perfect way to ease into jam making. It doesn’t set up quite as much as the cooked jam, but it still tastes amazing!

The great thing is, from start to finish, you can be eating jam in about 45 minutes! When you make the jam, you can store it in the fridge if you’re going to eat it right away, or you can put it in the freezer. If it’s going in the freezer, I would put it in plastic containers, just so that you don’t have the misfortune of dropping, and smashing, a Mason Jar full of jam! Maybe it’s just me, but things always seem to be tumbling out of my freezer!

We used adorable plastic jars from Paper Mart. They’re the perfect size for gifting, and would make an excellent addition to a new neighbor basket. Ball also makes a Plastic Freezer Jar that’s designed specifically for freezer jam. You can also just use whatever you have on hand. The other great thing about freezer jam … no processing! The only thing you need is fruit, sugar and instant pectin .

Literally just smash the clean, hulled, sliced strawberries with sugar – a potato masher (plastic so it doesn’t scrape your pan), a big spoon or a fork work well. This is also a great “cooking with kids” activity since there is no heat.

Since this is lavender week, we’re switching up plain strawberry jam by adding some lavender and honey! We used lavender leaves, and some essential oil, but you can use one or the other. Just make sure whatever lavender products you’re using are edible. It adds a little something extra, and makes it the perfect thing for scones if you’re having the ladies over for afternoon tea! It’s also amazing on ice cream and toast.

My kids love it on warm bread right out of the oven (would you like to see my recipe for that?) and Amanda’s husband likes it on waffles.

No matter how you choose to eat or gift it you can’t deny that it’s an easy, delicious and beautiful use for summer’s best berry. Not having to turn the stove on or boil water is also a bonus we love!

If you love the label we used, Amanda made a printable for everyone! You can use this on clear stickers, like we did, or on regular sticker paper, or on white paper. It’s just one image – not a whole sheet – so you can format it however you’d like! >>Click Here to Download the Freezer Jam label<< Clicking the link will open a new window. Right click or click and “save as” the image to your computer.