If You're Ever in a Jam, Here I Am!

When I grew up, being the baby of the family, my mother had.... shall we say... relaxed a bit on her Suzy Homemaker activities. She cooked more out of boxes, and rarely home-canned her fruit. She was even known to purchase store-bought bread on rare occasions (!!!), but that's a different post. So I didn't grow up watching my mom can a lot, or ever make jam. The only canning memory I have is of once going to an orchard where we gleaned peaches, and Mom went home and canned them. I still recall that hot peach smell that permeated the house for days. I'm still not a fan of peaches.

So a couple of years ago, we planted a row of raspberries at the Haven. It was pretty sad-looking that first year. Some didn't make it, and the ones that did were pretty sparse. We had to replant more. (Got starts from Todd's parents) Last year, we got berries, but not a lot. Maybe about a cereal-bowl full.

This year, it's a different story. The raspberries are producing, and these babies are gorgeous! It's jam-making time!

When I discovered how really easy it is to make homemade jam...... I wondered where I'd been all these years. And now that I've got the raspberries to do it..... we're in business!!

It takes about a serving bowl and a half to have enough berries for jam. Ok, so it's about 6 cups or so of berries. Here's where I make the confession that I cheat at this, too. For jam, you're supposed to mash or crush the fruit, and measure the fruit and its juice for the recipe. I use the blender. (Seriously, with raspberries? They're so tender they go to moosh anyway!) It's a huge timesaver
But before that, you've got to prepare everything you need in advance. It's kind of like watching a cooking show on TV. Everything is pre-measured, all utensils are there, and it's ready to go. Once you're cooking and canning, there's no time to search for something. Here is my measured sugar, pot, steam canner, tongs, pectin, etc....... all lined out & ready to go.

After blending the berries to smithereens, you need four cups of pulp. (This varies with the brand and type of pectin you use. I think I'm hooked on liquid pectin now, though-- this stuff is awesome!) Pour that in a really big pot, and add the sugar. Don't start lecturing me on how much sugar is going in there. This is MY jam, and I prefer it sweet! Actually, if you mess with the sugar amounts, it messes up the jam. Just saying. Weirdly healthy people can go use the low-sugar pectin recipes.

Cook and stir and get the mixture boiling hard. Now is when you take a minute and admire the GORGEOUS bright color of the jam. You can't buy stuff like this in stores!

After the pectin is in, and the cooking time is up, you start filling the hot jars. They make a cool canning funnel to keep things neat. But you still end up wiping the jar rim before you put the 2-piece lid (also hot) on:

Now the old-style method is really easy. After the jar is filled, you flip the jar upside down and let it sit that way for 10 minutes or so, then flip it right side up again. The heat of the hot jam against the lid makes it seal the jar. The USDA wasn't happy enough with that, though.... so the new method is to process it in the canner for 10 minutes.

I'm ok with that, because I love my steam canner. Don't start lecturing me on canners, either. I am a rebel on this one. (Don't tell the USDA!) When the processing time is done, you remove the jars from the canner and let them cool on their own. And listen for the cool little "ping" sounds as the lids seal, one by one.

And let me take a minute to say how proud I am of the Ball canning company, who is obviously diligently working to keep canning supplies from looking like your grandma's canning stuff. Sure, they update jar styles here and there, but this year, they came out with silver-toned lids/rings!! I L-O-V-E these things!

These are the hot jars, fresh out of the canner, so they're a little wet still. And the lighting isn't so great, so the jam looks darker than it really is. (The blue thing is my canning funnel) Do you love how there's a lone gold lid amongst all the silver?? When I filled the jars, I didn't expect to have enough to fill another jar, so I was scrambling to get one ready -- and had to use my old lid & ring. I guess we'll save the gold jar for home-eating, and give away the silver ones as gifts!!

Barefoot in the Berries

This post shows my second batch of raspberry jam. Raspberries are one of those plants that you have to keep picking, because they keep producing fruit over a period of time. Like beans. So last night, it was time to pick more, and I've got enough for another batch of jam. WOO HOO!

There's something about picking berries that is very earthy and farmgirl. It's not an elegant or citified task. Emma was fussing for me, so I took her out to the berries with me. Light was falling fast and I needed to pick before it got too dark to see. She had no shoes on, and didn't want to stand in the dirt or the grass out there. So I popped off my flip-flops and told her to walk in Mom's shoes. Still more fussing, but she actually did it!! Meanwhile, I walked barefoot through the berries. That was alright for the north side, which had been rototilled by Todd, and was nice soft dirt. The south side was a different story, and I came back in with a raspberry sticker buried in my heel!! Serves me right, as my mother would say.