Summer's abundance has visited my little apartment several times over so far this year, thanks the wonderful weather, a good, wet spring, and to Aunt Jackie and her green thumb.
Also, for the first time since I left California I saw people selling fruit on the side of the road this summer.
I bought these lovelies from a guy on the side of the road for $7. Excellent deal in these parts, and only 3 were moldy!
The berries were my inspiration to try my hand at jam for the first time, yet another thing I've been afraid of. I'm still not whole-hog on the idea of home canning, with all it's accoutrement, sterilizing and margin of error, but freezer jam seemed easy enough for a noob like me.
I bought some Sure-Jell pectin and followed the instructions, starting with cleaning and trimming my berries.
Next I mashed up my berries with a potato masher (jam should have fruit bits), added lemon juice, corn syrup and sugar and prepared the pectin. It was super easy.
Isn't it pretty? That was pretty much all there was to it. I put it in some Ziploc containers to sit on the counter and set before freezing.
The squeeze bottle went into the freezer in the kitchen for easy access. The three pint containers were split up into freezer safe glass jars and went into the deep freeze along with the single cup containers. I figure the jars are for giving and the bowl are for keeping.
After a few days I tried it out. It was a little soupy but super fresh tasting! Not too sweet, definitely not too sour. After another week in the freezer the squeeze bottle came out to adorn biscuits and it had set up quite a bit more.
The success of the strawberry inspired me to make some raspberry as well, with the berries my mom and I picked from my aunt's garden. It started out a little more difficult since the instructions recommended to sieve half of the fruit (if desired) to remove raspberry seeds. I decided half way through that I had a stronger desire to keep the seeds and not have to sieve than to go through the extra process and sacrifice a bunch of the pulp that went along with the seeds. I like seedy jam, though, and it turned out pretty good.
With the raspberry I cut out the middle man of letting the jam rest before transferring to glass jars. It didn't seem to make any difference in the long run in either the flavor or texture.
I will brave the heat canning sooner or later, it's about time to get out there and pick some blackberries and blueberries, if there are any left on the bushes. We'll see how brave I feel once I get them home.
Also, for the first time since I left California I saw people selling fruit on the side of the road this summer.
I bought these lovelies from a guy on the side of the road for $7. Excellent deal in these parts, and only 3 were moldy!
The berries were my inspiration to try my hand at jam for the first time, yet another thing I've been afraid of. I'm still not whole-hog on the idea of home canning, with all it's accoutrement, sterilizing and margin of error, but freezer jam seemed easy enough for a noob like me.
I bought some Sure-Jell pectin and followed the instructions, starting with cleaning and trimming my berries.
Next I mashed up my berries with a potato masher (jam should have fruit bits), added lemon juice, corn syrup and sugar and prepared the pectin. It was super easy.
Isn't it pretty? That was pretty much all there was to it. I put it in some Ziploc containers to sit on the counter and set before freezing.
The squeeze bottle went into the freezer in the kitchen for easy access. The three pint containers were split up into freezer safe glass jars and went into the deep freeze along with the single cup containers. I figure the jars are for giving and the bowl are for keeping.
After a few days I tried it out. It was a little soupy but super fresh tasting! Not too sweet, definitely not too sour. After another week in the freezer the squeeze bottle came out to adorn biscuits and it had set up quite a bit more.
The success of the strawberry inspired me to make some raspberry as well, with the berries my mom and I picked from my aunt's garden. It started out a little more difficult since the instructions recommended to sieve half of the fruit (if desired) to remove raspberry seeds. I decided half way through that I had a stronger desire to keep the seeds and not have to sieve than to go through the extra process and sacrifice a bunch of the pulp that went along with the seeds. I like seedy jam, though, and it turned out pretty good.
With the raspberry I cut out the middle man of letting the jam rest before transferring to glass jars. It didn't seem to make any difference in the long run in either the flavor or texture.
I will brave the heat canning sooner or later, it's about time to get out there and pick some blackberries and blueberries, if there are any left on the bushes. We'll see how brave I feel once I get them home.
I love this! Your jam looks incredible. I haven't yet been brave enough to can jam this summer, but I did do pickles. Check them out here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abigmouthful.com/pickling-with-duris-farms/
I'm canning raspberry jam for my wedding favors, so we'll see how that goes :)