Canning Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate (Pressure Can or Water Bath)
Nothing tastes like summer like a cold refreshing glass of strawberry lemonade. It’s so easy to make at home, or bottle up that goodness to serve all year round. We will share our favorite recipe for strawberry lemonade concentrate and step-by-step instructions to can it at home using either a pressure canner or water bath.
When Life Gives You Strawberries…
This past week was the peak of strawberry season where we live in the Midwest. While we have dreams of one day having our very own strawberry patch on our homestead, it hasn’t happened yet. Thankfully, there’s a small family farm nearby that has an unsprayed u-pick strawberry patch.
We love the idea of community sufficiency. We grow as much as we can to feed our family year-round on our farm. But at this stage and season of life with many young kids, we can’t do it all! And for the gaps that we don’t fill here, we love to use that as an opportunity to support other local farms or barter with growers in our area!
Last week, we went on a family adventure to the strawberry patch and had a blast! Our favorite activities are the ones that stack many of our values all at the same time. While we were at that strawberry patch, we were:
- Spending time together as a family
- Moving our bodies
- Getting outside
- Supporting a local family business
- Harvesting nutrient dense real food that will feed and nourish us all year round
It doesn’t get much better than that!
Preserving Strawberries
One of the big goals that we have on our homestead is to feed our family as much as we can from the food that we grow or can get locally to feed us all winter long. So, these summer months are filled with activities like dehydrating greens, canning grape juice, and freezing a year’s supply of pesto.
Strawberries are no exception.
From our trip, we gathered several pounds ourselves and purchased a few extra flats of pre-picked strawberries to make sure we would have plenty to preserve.
My favorite quick and easy method for preserving strawberries is to remove the stems and place them stem side down on a cookie sheet in a single layer to keep the strawberries from clumping together in the freezer. Adding a piece of parchment paper or a silicone liner is helpful to keep them from sticking to the pan.
After you’ve filled your cookie sheet with strawberries, place it in the freezer. Once frozen, remove strawberries and store in Ziplock bags or other freezer safe containers and place back in the freezer.
Then, all winter long, you will be set with freshly picked strawberries ready to go for your smoothies or baked oatmeal. Bonus, if you have some preserved rhubarb in your freezer, you can use them to make the most delicious strawberry rhubarb pie any time of year.
Besides freezing, this simple strawberry lemonade concentrate is a great way to preserve those strawberries.
Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate
While making homemade strawberry lemonade concentrate may sound difficult, I promise it’s actually super simple. Just a bit of blending, heating and mixing. That’s it!
Unfortunately, here in Northern Illinois, fresh lemons are not a local option. So, we settle for using bottles of organic lemon juice. I purchase these from Costco. But, if you do have access to an abundance of fresh lemons, by all means use them in this recipe!
In addition to a blender or food processor and a saucepan, all you need to make your own strawberry lemonade concentrate is:
- Strawberries
- Lemon juice
- Sugar
- Salt
- Water
Preserving Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate
Bulk cooking is my strategy when it comes to food prep in our kitchen. So, if I’m preparing something, I love to do big batches so that we have extra to freeze or use for another day. Whether it’s batch sourdough bread or strawberry lemonade concentrate, we love to make a big batch all at once to feed us for as long as possible.
In order to preserve strawberry lemonade, my favorite method is to use my trusty pressure canner. I got this presto pressure canner several years ago and it’s a workhorse in our kitchen all summer long. In fact, when it comes to canning, I do everything in our pressure canner and avoid water bath canning all together.
I love that it’s a one-stop shop when it comes to canning. From fruits and veggies to meat, a pressure canner can do it all.
Also, for things like this strawberry lemonade concentrate, it is a fast process only needing 5 minutes once it reaches pressure. Our pressure canner can also fit tons of jars at one time and it means we only need to store one big pot to do all of our canning.
However, if water bath canning is your thing, that will totally work for this strawberry lemonade concentrate as well and I’ll include those instructions in the recipe below!
Freezing is another option to preserve strawberry lemonade concentrate. Simply portion your concentrate into the serving size you’d want (i.e., 2 cups) into a freezer safe container and store in your freezer!
Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate Recipe
Yield: Approximately 11 pints
Ingredients:
12 Cups Fresh Strawberries
8 Cups Lemon Juice (Fresh or Bottled)
8 Cups Sugar
1 tsp Salt
Directions:
1. Using a high-powered blender or food processor, puree strawberries until completely pureed.
2. Transfer strawberry puree to a large sauce pan or stock pot.
3. Add lemon juice, sugar, and salt to the strawberry puree.
4. Heat over medium to high heat, mixing regularly until a temperature of 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit is achieved.
5. For canning, pour into pint sized mason jars, leaving proper head space.
6. To pressure can, can at 5 PSI for 5 minutes or water bath for 15 minutes.
7. Alternatively, you could freeze in 2 cup portions and pull out as needed.
To Serve:
Use a 2:1 ratio of water to concentrate. For 1 pint (2 cups) of concentrate, add roughly 4 cups of water. This can vary based on your tastes and preferences so feel free to experiment to find the ratio that works best for you.
This recipe can be scaled up or down to meet your needs!
For more of our favorite summer recipes check out:
The Best Gluten Free Blackberry Crisp
Blueberry Ice Cream
Elderberry Gummies Recipe
The Best Soaked Baked Oatmeal
Simple Homemade Dandelion Ice Cream
Canning Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate
Nothing tastes like summer like a cold refreshing glass of strawberry lemonade. It’s so easy to make at home, or bottle up that goodness to serve all year round. We will share our favorite recipe for strawberry lemonade concentrate and step-by-step instructions to can it at home using either a pressure canner or water bath.
Ingredients
- 12 Cups Fresh Strawberries
- 8 Cups Lemon Juice (Fresh or Bottled)
- 8 Cups Sugar
- 1 tsp Salt
Instructions
- Using a high-powered blender or food processor, puree strawberries until completely pureed.
- Transfer strawberry puree to a large sauce pan or stock pot.
- Add lemon juice, sugar, and salt to the strawberry puree.
- Heat over medium to high heat, mixing regularly until a temperature of 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit is achieved.
- For canning, pour into pint sized mason jars, leaving proper head space.
- To pressure can, can at 5 PSI for 5 minutes or water bath for 15 minutes.
Alternatively, you could freeze in 2 cup portions and pull out as needed.
Notes
To Serve:
Use a 2:1 ratio of water to concentrate. For 1 pint (2 cups) of concentrate, add roughly 4 cups of water. This can vary based on your tastes and preferences so feel free to experiment to find the ratio that works best for you.
This recipe can be scaled up or down to meet your needs!
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