Well, raspberry blueberry jam, technically. You see, along with several raspberry bushes, 4 apple trees and a pear tree, we’ve got a small and an extra small blueberry bush on our property. Since we didn’t gather enough blueberries to make a separate batch of jam, I just kind of threw them in with the raspberries, and the results were fabulous!
Technically, this was my second run at making homemade jam. Last year I tried dandelion jam, but I didn’t do the powdered pectin right (pectin helps to thicken the jam and reduce cooking time) and we ended up with dandelion lemonade-y type of stuff. 🙁
I was a little afraid to try again, but I just couldn’t let all of that precious fruit go to waste! So I got out my trusty Ball Home Canning and Preserving Book and got to work.
Now, first, I need to tell you that the instructions for jam vs. jelly are a bit different. If you don’t like seeds in your jam, you’ll want to make jelly. The process is relatively the same, but for jelly you use just the juice from the fruit instead of the whole fruit.
The instructions to get the juice out of fruits in my canning book sounded too tedious for my lazy arse, so luckily, I got a great tip from my homesteading neighbor. She picks all of her berries and stores them in freezer bags in the freezer until picking season is done. Then, she takes the bags out of the freezer and lets them thaw on the counter in a bowl, and the juice automatically separates from the fruit. Genius!!
Okay, on to jam making instructions.
You’ll need:
5 cups of crushed raspberries
1 package 1.75 ounce powdered pectin
7 cups granulated sugar
6-7 eight-ounce canning jars
a hot water bath canner
Since we wanted to have the fruit remain in the jam, we left it all in the bag, and once the fruit thaws out you:
1. Crush the berries. Just use your hands and mush the bag around until all of the whole fruit is broken up.
2. Cook the fruit. Place the fruit into a large stainless steel pot, add your powdered pectin, whisking until pectin is dissolved. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.
3. Add sugar all at once (we had pre-measured it into a big bowl) and return fruit to a full, rolling boil, stirring constantly. Once it’s at a full boil, keep it boiling hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim off foam (which is might good to eat, I might add. 🙂 )
4. Ladle hot jam into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. (we leave them in the hot water canner until we’re just about ready to use them, taking them out just about 2 minutes before the jam is ready so that they stay quite warm. Remove air bubble (by stirring gently) and add more jam if needed to reach 1/4 in. headspace. Wipe the rims clean with a clean cloth dipped in hot water and wrung out, in order to remove any jam residue from the edges. Center the lid onto the jar, and screw the band down until it’s fingertip tight. **Note: we have a canning set that is awesome for making canning SO much easier. It has all the tools you need to take your cans, lids and bands in and out of the hot water.
5. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water (I usually go an inch or so above the tops of the lids). Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Remover canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store – after you’ve checked the seal. You can check the seal by removing the bands and lifting the jar up by the lid with your fingertips. If the jar doesn’t come loose from the lid, it’s properly sealed. If it does, you need to repeat step 5 or refrigerate the jam to be used within a week or two.
6. Write the date and name of the product on the lid of the jar with a sharpie so that you can use it within a reasonable amount of time. As you might notice, we made one jar of seedless jelly for my jam-hating husband. 🙂 The canning book states that canned goods should be used within 1 year for best results. Also, when using your canned goods, look the product over for any signs of spoilage, such as an unpleasant smell, mold, cloudiness and the like. Check your canning book’s storage and use chapter for complete instructions on storing and using your home-canned goods.
7. Enjoy your homemade raspberry jam on toast, biscuits, pancakes or other goodies. 🙂
**There are no affiliate links within this post, due to the fact that our state has some dumb-a__ law that forbids us from making money through Amazon.
This sounds delicious. I would love some homemade jam 🙂
It really wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, Michelle!
Mmmm! I used to make jam with my Mom as a kid. We’d make “freezer jam” though. No cooking required. Just add liquid pectin, sugar (So. Much. Sugar!) lemon juice, and mushed up berries. Actually, now that I’m thinking about this, I think we did cook it… It was just the recipe from the canning jars. But anyway, we’d store it in the freezer because of the way the jars were treated.
It is so much better than store-bought jam, but honestly, it always grossed me out how much sugar got dumped in 🙂
LOL, tell me!! When I saw “7 cups sugar”, I about fell over. I think we might try reducing it by a cup or so next year. Either way, it’s gotta be better than that HFCS crap. 🙂
Mouth is watering! I’m definitely a jam over jelly person–I love the seeds. Thanks for detailing your process!
Me too: seeds all the way. Keeps the “natural” in the jam. 🙂
Yum – looks great!
Thanks, Amy!
This looks really delicious Laurie. I’d love to make jam but as I have no fruit trees, I’d have to buy fruit so it could be costly for me. I really must look into growing fruit!
Hayley, are there any wild raspberry bushes where you live? We went picking wild berries around some walking paths in the suburb we used to live in one day and came home with a good $30 worth of fresh raspberries!
I have just eaten a homemade scone with jam made from our homegrown blackcurrants. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Raspberry is my favourite though just ahead of strawberry/lemon/rose and tomato/lemon/ginger. I grow raspberries but they are the autumn fruiting variety so have a little while to wait for them. There will be lots of apples for jelly and also grapes.
I do not make large batches and make my jams in the microwave. I would not know where to start with the canning that you do stateside. I use a wonderful book called – Luxurious Jam – make yourself mini pots in the microwave by Sonia Allison. I had it on almost permanent loan from the library until I got a cheap copy on Amazon.
At dinner time we will be having our own made tomato/red pepper/pineapple salsa with our wraps. I make that in the microwave too. The recipe is addapted from the one in the book to be as near as I can to a commercial version that we used to pay a high price for!
We also swap jams/jellies/marmalades/chutney with our neighbour so there is always a good variety in the cupboard. At the moment there is damson,blackberry, strawberry/rose, pineapple marmalade,gooseberry & elderflower (made a big batch of elderberry cordial last month) salsa as per above and green tomato chutney and savories – grape jelly with cloves and brandy and spiced blackberry.
They all taste better and you know what is in them but I do have a weakness for Lidl raspberry jam and Polish plum jam!
Interesting about the microwave: I’d never heard about that method before! Or about the tomato version. My sis-in-law makes a fantastic green pepper jelly, though. Thanks for your always-informative comments, Iforonwy!
‘Im-in-doors like the carrot jam that I make too. That is made to an old WW2 recipe and he remembers it from his childhood.
I like to make my jam with preserving sugar – that already has the pectin added in. It is a little pricier but is convenient. Also if you are out of pectin you can always add apple to your recipe, apple cores – as that is where the pectin comes from.
Interesting!! Carrot jam sounds so good. I’ve never heard of preserving sugar, and I didn’t know that pectin comes from apple cores! I feel like I’ve taken a preserving class just by reading your comment – thanks! 🙂
It is good and cheap when you are able to get young, fresh sweet organic carrots. It tastes like apricot jam or preserves.
Thank you for your kind words.
Thank you, for being such a blessing to us. 🙂
That sounds delicious! I love homemade jellies and jams, but have never made any myself.
You should try it, Kayla. 🙂
My blood sugar would go through the roof just looking at your jam. But I can still dream about it. Thanks for sharing.
I always wondered what the difference was between jam and jelly – thanks for letting me know! Those pics look so good – if you ever make that a business, I would definitely be in line to buy some! 🙂
Yum! We love making jam. It’s rather easy to make. We don’t have fruit trees, but we get the fruit at the market and make jam all the time. You should also try to make onion jam, it is quite delicious.
I have always wanted to try some jam recipes. It does not really look hard at all but its all about finding the time to do it. Also need to find the right containers as well.
That looks so good! I love raspberry jam on a nice warm biscuit. I may attempt some homemade biscuits this weekend. Thanks for the inspiration!
This is the year that we’re starting to can as much as we can as well. We don’t plan on any jam (we have to start slow and not get overwhelmed), but certainly nothing beats some homemade jam. Being able to grow your own food and can it… this is absolutely amazing!
Thanks to you, now I know the difference between jam and jelly. I have tried making strawberry jams myself but haven’t tried raspberry. I love raspberry iced teas so this must be delish! We don’t have fruit trees though, we buy our fruits from the market as well.
I never thought about making homemade jam! This could be a great gift to give during the holidays – wrap it in some cute, colorful ribbon and include it with your gift!
YAY! Thank you for posting this. I will be trying this soon. Thank you!
Nice work Laurie! I love homemade jam. I haven’t made any in awhile.. But now you’ve got me motivated. It is a lot of work but I think generally it’s worth it.
Laurie, do you sell your homemade jam? If not, have you considered doing so?
This is actually the first year we made it. I might consider it in the future. We don’t have a ton of berries, but I know our neighbor doesn’t always use all of hers. Maybe next year. Great suggestion!
That looks awesome Laurie!! My Mom made both jam and jelly when I was a kid as we had a bunch of raspberry/blueberry bushes at our house. It’s been years though, which is probably a good thing. 🙂
That’s so cool, John!! Yeah, it’s delicious, but we’re going to keep most of it in the cellar for now – don’t need that calorie content readily available. 🙂
Oh, that looks so yummy, Laurie. My Mom makes a great apple butter and I always look forward to it when I go home. I’ve made some jams, but I never done much canning. I admit it intimidates me a bit. Plus, I don’t have a ton of storage space. But my Mom cans apple butter and a beet relish. She freezes sliced apples and applesauce too. And now I’m really hungry!
It is very intimidating, I think! I think we’re going to try apple butter this year. It sounds so yummy!
I am jealous of your jam!!!! It’s making me hungry =)
It’s so yummy – you guys should try making it some time!
I prefer jam to jelly and I like raspberry best over strawberry. Glad your batch turned out. So did you get 6 jars of jam from it or did you double the batch?
We got 10 jars actually, but only b/c I threw in the blueberries that we had: probably two to three cups worth.
Great job Laurie! The jam sounds delicious. I looove making peach preserves this time of year. I’ve never heard of dandelion jam before though. I’ll have to look into that!
Peach preserves sound SO yummy, Kay!! We are thinking about trying apple butter this fall. 🙂
Oh, I love this raspberry jam Laurie! I just bought mason jars last week and I think I would use it.
How long will the jam last? With my kids, I’ve made a raspberry jam which my kids really crave for. It’s really good when the jam is in mason jar.
A good year, Jayson, if it’s sealed right. Homemade is SO much tastier.