Adventures in Food Preservation: Chapter 1

I am terrified of canning...Maybe because whenever my parents canned applesauce it seemed like an enormous amount of work for something you can buy for a fairly low price.Add to that years of tiny apartment kitchens...yuck. So I have never even attempted to can anything. But yesterday I found a great price on raspberries and blackberries and decided to try freezer jam. Talk about easy!! I followed this recipe:
4 1/4 sugar per 3 cups of mashed fruit
1 package prepared fruit pectin

You just let the fruit and sugar sit for 15 or 20 minutes while you prepare the pectin (which takes about 7 to 10 minutes on my stove), add the pectin and stir together. I made 3 kinds of jam: Raspberry; Raspberry/Blackberry; and Raspberry/Blackberry/Peach!
I put mine in freezer safe containers I bought at the dollar store but next time I think I will try the special freezer jars Ball makes. Now it needs to sit for 24 hours and it is ready for the freezer. According to the recipe it is good in the fridge for 3 weeks and in the freezer for a year.
I plan on picking strawberries on Friday and making some more jam. When I do I will take pictures of the process and post them:)