I made strawberry jam today. This was my first time making it.

A strawberry farm near my mother’s home in Ohio has just started picking its crop.

We’d been talking among the sisters and mom as to doing some canning and preserving on the weekends, when those of us who know how can show those who don’t. I fall in the “don’t know how” category. But my mother and I chatted back and forth on the phone and e-mail as to what was needed. I bought my new stash of freezer tubs, pectin and cane sugar (which she said works better in some recipes than the beet sugar I normally use.) She got the strawberries and her freezer tubs and pectin.

And we made jam.

The first batch was pretty simple: Ball pectin, sugar and crushed strawberries. Mix it all up according to directions, and let it set.

The second batch we messed up a bit: Sure-Jell pectin had a different set of instructions that included cooking on the stove. We got the steps a bit out of order. But we think it worked anyway.

We used the recipes in that were in the pectin boxes. But to show you how easy this can be, here’s a link to the Michigan Department of Agriculture’s Freezer Strawberry Jam recipe

Home canning and preserving were among the standard home economics skills used every day only a generation or two ago. Victory garden produce set aside for later use helped many families get through food shortages during World War II. In comparison, women my age (I’m 40) grew up in a time when we were encouraged to be anything we wanted to … to the neglect of learning homemaking skills.

I have a bachelor’s degree from college. But because I loaded up on college prep and music classes in junior high and high school, I had only one semester in sewing and one semester of cooking class.

I kept telling my college-bound daughter to take a home ec class at some point during high school. During her senior year, she did take a year of sewing class and in addition, joined her school’s sewing club and Family Career and Community Leaders of America.

Now to be fair, the difference in cost between buying something and making it yourself has not been all that great in recent years. Why go to the effort of DIY if you can buy it cheap?

Well, today’s economic situation is bringing a lot of attention to DIY / survival / homesteading skills. And if you’re a family like mine, you’re trying to save money any where you can.

Mom explained home canning can be a money-saver even for today’s families. Those jars of jam would cost at least $3 each if purchased in the store.

We made three batches of jam today. I took home five pints.

Yes, the preserve jars are expensive whether you buy traditional glass or the newer freezer tubs. And if you can food with the hot water method, you’ll need additional equipment. But that stuff is all re-usable.

If you want to make jelly or jam, buy the fruit when it is in season at your grocery store or farmer’s market - or when you can grow it yourself for free (we’ll be pulling grapes out of a sister’s back yard later this summer).

Then all you need are the sugar, pectin and anything else called for in that recipe. In fact I got my sugar for 19 cents after using a $2 off coupon I found in the canning shelf at Meijer in Frenchtown Township.