Lavender Vanilla Bean Strawberry Jam with Pomona’s Pectin

Strawberries were so plentiful and delicious this year that I found myself arriving home with flats of those glorious berries several times. We enjoyed strawberry shortcake for bedtime snacks, for breakfast, sometimes as an actual dessert and of course, a good amount of strawberry jam was put away for another season!

We had some quartered berries left over after company and didn’t think the berries would be at their best till morning if I simply refrigerated them. So, I weighed them, added some sugar, attached a note to remind me of the weight and how much sugar I’d added and put them in the fridge to macerate.

TIP 1) Using weights is a good way to increase the accuracy of your preserves, and I’ve found it easier to make adjustments when you don’t have exactly the amount of fruit the recipe requires.

TIP 2) If you’re going to use Pomona’s Pectin, be sure to reserve some of the sugar for jam day – when you will need to incorporate the Pectin Powder into it.

The next morning we decided that we’d try using some of the fresh Lavender from our herb patch and a Vanilla bean. Since I adjusted the ingredient amounts based on the weight of berries, the measurements were somewhat wonky, so I’m sharing the basic proportions, following the guidelines on the Pomona’s Universal Pectin. (A pamphlet with recipe guidelines for different sweeteners and processes is included with each packet!)

Lavender Vanilla Strawberry Jam with Pomona’s Pectin Recipe (reduced sugar)

Yield: 4 – 5 8oz jam jars

4 C clean, hulled, chopped strawberries
¾ C Sugar
1 ½ t Pectin Powder
1 ½ t Calcium Water
Vanilla Bean seeds from 1 Vanilla Bean
5 – 7 Sprigs of Budding Lavender (You could also use culinary dried Lavender Buds. We like to use Hope Hills Lavender Farms when we don’t have good fresh lavender. If you’re not in favor of leaving the buds in the jam, use a tea ball, which will allow you to pull them out before jarring.)

Prepare water bath, canning jars, lids in the usual way.
Place prepared fruit into your jam kettle or pan over medium heat.
Add the Calcium Water to the fruit and stir well, then add the Vanilla Bean seeds and Lavender Sprigs or Buds.
In a separate small bowl, measure sugar. To this sugar, add the pectin powder and stir it very well.
Bring the fruit to a full boil and add the sugar & pectin powder mixture. Stir very well for 1 – 2 minutes to ensure that the pectin dissolves while the jam returns to a full boil. Remove from heat. Remove Lavender sprigs, or buds and Vanilla Bean Pod.
Carefully funnel into jar allowing ¼ inch head space. Wipe the rims and cap with finger-tip tightness.
Process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

This jam got such a wonderful response from the family. Often I’ll get general comments like “Yes, this is really good!”, but the older my taste testers get, the more specific the feedback – which I greatly appreciate. They agreed that the jam was just sweet enough, not so sweet that you can’t really taste the strawberry flavor along the other players. Having tasted Strawberry Vanilla Jam before, they knew this one was different, but couldn’t quickly identify the Lavender. Once they knew, they could taste it. I think I like it that way – not overbearing…just the suggestion of that floral savory element.

If you’re new to Pomona’s Pectin, you may wish to add Preserving with Pomona’s Pectin or Naturally Sweet Food in Jars to your preserving library!

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