Every year I've made a bit of jam or jelly but I usually take all year to eat the few pints I put up. Now that I have a jelly guzzling toddler, I've decided to put up more so I don't have to buy as much! We buy from the farmers market and that stuff is EXPENSIVE!
So our blackberry bushes are DRIPPING right now and we've got tons and tons to process. Time for some blackberry jam!
Gather 4.5 lbs of blackberries, 6.75 cups of sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice:
Dust off the canning equipment (been since last year!). I forget to add the wide mouth funnel. It's a MUST!
Mush the berries in a 2 gallon stainless steel pot. The farm is somehow missing a potato masher so I used a pastry cutter. Worked like a charm!
Add in the sugar and lemon juice and bring to a boil.
Cook for about 15 minutes or until a drop forms a mound on a cool plate. The recipe really warned about over-cooking so after 20 minutes and still no mounding, I went ahead and just called it done. I've not much practice with jams/jellies with no pectin so I figure this is a learning process! Worst case, it's blackberry syrup for pancakes and ice cream. I think I can live with that!
I filled sterilized half pint jars using the much-important wide mouth funnel:
Then loaded up the canner and processed for 10 minutes!
I had to race to town right after taking them out of the bath though, so I haven't even gotten to see the results! Of course, I did taste it before canning. YUM! But looking at all that sugar that went in...no wonder jam is so tasty!
So our blackberry bushes are DRIPPING right now and we've got tons and tons to process. Time for some blackberry jam!
Gather 4.5 lbs of blackberries, 6.75 cups of sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice:
Dust off the canning equipment (been since last year!). I forget to add the wide mouth funnel. It's a MUST!
Mush the berries in a 2 gallon stainless steel pot. The farm is somehow missing a potato masher so I used a pastry cutter. Worked like a charm!
Add in the sugar and lemon juice and bring to a boil.
Cook for about 15 minutes or until a drop forms a mound on a cool plate. The recipe really warned about over-cooking so after 20 minutes and still no mounding, I went ahead and just called it done. I've not much practice with jams/jellies with no pectin so I figure this is a learning process! Worst case, it's blackberry syrup for pancakes and ice cream. I think I can live with that!
I filled sterilized half pint jars using the much-important wide mouth funnel:
Then loaded up the canner and processed for 10 minutes!
I had to race to town right after taking them out of the bath though, so I haven't even gotten to see the results! Of course, I did taste it before canning. YUM! But looking at all that sugar that went in...no wonder jam is so tasty!
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