Jam

I have been wanting to make some jam for awhile. A little over a week ago I made some strawberry freezer jam that Andrea recommended and had me sample when I was down in LA. That recipe came from here. When in LA I also got some boxes of glass canning jars from my mom. There have been some really good sales on strawberries to I had plenty of those sitting in the refrigerator. Mike however has been talking about picking blackberries and that sounded like fun. The week the three of us headed out to a local regional park and picked a big bowl of berries. That night I made a blackberry pie which went fast and was very yummy. Yesterday I decided to start some jam, blackberry and then strawberry rhubarb based on the recipes in the pectin box. I started with the blackberry yesterday and made the strawberry rhubarb today, the pictures will be of both since I forgot to take many yesterday.

First the berries had to be mashed, I needed five cups.

The set up needed three pans, one boiling with the jars, one boiling with the lids and one for the jam. I used my candy thermometers to make sure the jars and lids were staying at 180 degrees.

The fruit and any lemon juice goes into the pan.

Next the pectin is stirred in and you turn the heat all the way up.

Bring it to a full boil and add the sugar, it takes a lot of sugar!

Return it to a full boil and cook for one minute, you stir constantly through all of this. I noticed at this point I had to turn down the heat a little since it came close to going over with both jams.

After the minute turn off the heat and skim off the foam. The blackberry jam hardly had any, the strawberry had a lot.

Pull a jar from here.

Fill it.

Put the hot lid on it then a band just till there is resistance.

The jar goes back into the water and repeat with the next jar. When you are done put the lid on and gently boil the jars.

They need to cool for 12-24 hours. Here is the finished product.

Blackberry Jam

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam (not sure why the solids went to the top here)

We tried the blackberry last night and it was really good. Not too bad for my first try I think.