I was lucky to buy 8 quarts from a friend of mine who sells organic strawberries. And I used Pomona’s Universal Pectin, which includes simple-to-follow recipes for freezer jam for all different fruits (including upcoming harvests of raspberries, blackberries and peaches). And if you have questions, their help line is actually answered by a sweet, patient woman who didn’t laugh at my questions. You can also just buy straight-up freezer pectin at most grocery stores.

Directions:

Wash your jelly jars and lids in hot, soapy water. Allow to dry.

Mash your berries with desired amount of sugar (I did four cups of smushed berries to 1 1/2 cup sugar—but I have a bit of a sweet tooth.) Two quarts of berries yields approximately four cups of mashed berries.

Add freezer pectin or follow directions from the Pomona’s packet.

Place in jars, leaving 1/2 inch at the top, and set them in the freezer. Once you take them out and put them in the fridge, they’ll keep for two to three weeks. Notice that I used the word "keep" and not "last," because lasting will be the trick.

Truth be told, my first batch came out a little more like strawberry sauce—but who could find fault with strawberry sauce as the outcome? Put it over ice cream, or swirl it with French vanilla yogurt. Yeah! Second batch was more jammy and lovely with muffins, toast, scones, waffles—anything, really.

Oh, and cute labels can be found here.