My sister is deep into our family genealogy and enjoys it greatly. She shares her findings with me and its truly fascinating. She shared with me a recipe for strawberry preserve that our Great, Great Grandma use to make!! This thrilled me to the core….I am the Susie home maker in our family and love cooking, baking, canning, gardening.. all of it.. so to have the chance to make a recipe, as simple as it might seem, from my family history I couldn’t get home fast enough! I stuck to the recipe as it was told… the process is the most important part. There is something so important and special about making something your ancestor’s did.. you can just imagine them making it, the smells, the love that went into it. It was the sweetest most pure strawberry preserve I have ever tasted. I canned it and shared it and everyone thought the same. I am posted the recipe her so as to not forget or lose this sweetness from the past.
Great, Great Grandma Alice Addams Reik Strawberry Preserve
3 Cups sugar
1 QT Strawberry’s (washed and stems removed)
Lemon juice (2 TBSP per cup of berries)
Method:
Put 1 ½ cups sugar with mashed berries and boil 5 minutes Add remaining 1 ½ sugar and boil 10 to 15 minutes longer (a watery fruit will take a little longer)
Turn into earthenware jar and let stand for 24 hours, stirring occasionally.
Seal cold in sterilized jars
Only one quart should be cooked at a time. The small quantity of the fruit and the short cooking period is the secret to the deliciousness of these preserves.
