Pioneer woman I am not.

Today I took this (21.5 lbs of U-pick strawberries Groveland Acres; there were 2 other containers full):

And made it into this (there's another shelf as well):

and this:

So why am I not pioneer woman? I tried something new this time - making jam without adding pectin (which is the thing that makes jams gel). I made the jam with apples instead. Sounded like a good idea... no added sugar, no pectin to buy. The directions said to cook it for 30-35 minutes until it got to the gelling stage (220 degrees). I cooked that stupid jam for an hour and a half but it refused to go above 210 degrees. I canned it anyhow. It'll probably be very loose jam.

Here's the run-down of what got made:

1. 14 jars of low-sugar strawberry jam

2. 6 pint jars of strawberry lemonade concentrate canned and 3 pint jars in the fridge from a second half-batch (that's what the drink pictured above is! You dilute the concentrate 1:1 with soda water. It's quite tasty)

3. 7 jars of full-sugar strawberry rhubarb jam

4. 7 jars of low-sugar strawberry with the left-over rhubarb added (1.5 cups rhubarb + 4.5 cups strawberry)

5. 7 jars of over-cooked, yet under-gelled no sugar added jam

A pretty good day's work.