canning jam - have a problem

[delfargo]

excuse me for my ignorance, i know nothing about canning, but my wife does a good amount of it. she wanted me to ask if any of my chicken friends were also canning experts, as she has a question.
she has tried twice now to can strawberry/rhubarb jam and both times the jam has "seperated" when it cooled off. it's like all the fruit goes to the top and the "gel" part stays at the bottom of the jar. she was wondering why that is happening. she says she's following the directions to the letter, but this keeps happening. any thoughts?
thanx alot.

 

[BettyR]

I've never worked with rhubarb before but when I can peach, pear, and plum preserves I have always been told to turn the jars every so often as they cool to redistribute the fruit.

I set the jars out on my kitchen table on towels and as I walk through the kitchen during the day I will stop and flip the jars as I'm going by. As they start to cool you will need to pay a little closer attention to them and once in a while I may have to give a jar a good shake to get the fruit to move.