As we see spring turn, it is time for fresh vegetables and fruits. Indeed, the beginning of summer is definitely the time for making and preserving all sorts of jams, jellies and conserves. And one of the most versatile products from the green section of your local grocery would be rhubarb, which is generally grown during February through April.

Though the leaves of the rhubarb plant spells poison, the stalks are however used for different purposes. These are versatile, good to eat, and can be used in a lot of different ways. And one of them is to combine them with strawberries, fresh from the garden to make an excellent strawberry rhubarb freezer jam.

If you have a taste for rhubarb all year round, then you are in luck. Thanks to hothouse plantation, this rhizome is available virtually all year round. And to prepare them, all you need to do is discard the leaves and hold on to the stalks. Hothouse rhubarbs are sweeter, lending a note of delight to any dish you cook up. Teeming that up with strawberries can only mean making a sweet and sour concoction that would keep for a long time. All you need to do is sterilize a few glass jars and their lids before beginning, because you do not want your efforts to go to waste.

To make the best strawberry rhubarb freezer jam, you would require equal amounts of rhubarb and sugar, by volume. Basically, you are looking for an equal measure, because the strawberries would add the sour notes as well. So if you are using about 4 cups of finely chopped rhubarb, use the same amount of sugar. Take a pan, and add the four cups of rhubarb and sugar, and pour in about 1 cup of water, and 1 cup of chopped and slightly crushed pineapples. Let the rhubarb mixture come to a boil. Cook them together on a slow fire for about 20 minutes, or until the rhubarbs are cooked through.

Mix them, and watch out for any scum that might float on top. You would have to remove that with a ladle. Now add about 2 cups of crushed strawberries, 1 sachet of plain gelatin, dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water (or as much the pack suggests) and take the pan off the heat. Let the mixture cool down, and give the strawberries a chance to soften and mingle with the rhubarb as well as lend their essence into the concoction. Once they come down to room temperature, pour them in the sterilized jam jars, and put them in the freezer for firming up, for at least 12 to 18 hours.

Finally, what you can do is dig in, but the real flavor develops after about a week or so in the freezer. When you want your strawberry rhubarb freezer jam, all you need to do is defrost it and serve as you want to, either hot or cold or at room temperature.