GALLATIN, Tenn. — The summer heat mixed with the sweltering humidity may be a cause to stay inside. But this hot weather also signifies the start of my favorite season, berry season, and those beloved berries aren’t going to pick themselves.
Every year, my dad makes jam from a host of berries we picked a few hours or days before. In years past, he’s made strawberry, cherry, peach, blueberry, raspberry and blackberry jam.
My dad and I decided to kick off this year’s jam-making season in Gallatin, Tennessee, while on a family trip to visit my brother. To avoid the Tennessee heat, we left early on a mid-June morning to pick blueberries and blackberries at a local farm called Bradley Kountry Acres.
We picked berries for roughly two hours, way longer than we anticipated staying. Despite how long we had already spent at the farm, I felt I could stay even longer.
Something about picking blueberries, in particular, has always felt therapeutic. Perhaps because it reminds me of picking blueberries at my grandma’s house when I was younger… or maybe it’s the act of earning its sweet taste after picking for hours… but, probably, it’s because I like to plop a blueberry in my mouth every few minutes as my reward for picking them in the first place.
Once we had our berries in order, we returned to our home in Tennessee to make this year’s first batch of jam. We made blackberry and blueberry jam while there, and followed, for the most part, Sure-Jell’s less or no-sugar recipes. This recipe makes six half-pint jars of jam.
Blackberry jam recipe:
• 4 ½ cups of blackberry juice (about 6 pts. of blackberries)
• 1 cup of water
• 3 cups of sugar
• 1 box of Sure-Jell premium fruit pectin (less sugar)
• ½ tsp. of butter
Blueberry jam recipe:
• 6 ½ cups of blueberry juice (about 10 cups of fully ripe blueberries)
• 4 ½ cups of sugar
• 1 box of Sure-Jell premium fruit pectin (less sugar)
• Lemon zest (optional)
• ½ tsp. of butter
Directions:
Step 1: Prep jars for canning. Wash jars and lids with hot soapy water. Fill a skillet with a few inches of water, and put it on the stovetop under low heat. Place six jars upside down on the skillet with the lids removed. Put the lids in a small saucepan with a few inches of water, and put it on low heat. Keep an eye on the jars as you prepare the jam to make sure they reach an appropriate temperature for canning.
Step 2: Mash the berries. De-stem the blueberries before mashing. Rinse all the berries with water and put a portion of the berries into a large bowl. Mash the berries with a potato masher. (If you don’t have a masher, the bottom end of a mug works perfectly fine. We used one in Tennessee.) Measure the mashed berries in a liquid measuring cup. Keep mashing the berries in segments until all the berries called for in the recipe are mashed.
Step 3: Boil the berries. Add the crushed berries to a saucepan on medium heat. Add in a pinch of lemon zest for the blueberry recipe ONLY.
During this step, you will want to begin your water bath for the canning process. Fill up a large pot with water — enough water to submerge six half-pint jars — and place it on low heat.
Remove the blackberries from heat ONLY. If you are making blueberry jam, skip to Step 5.
Step 4: Strain the blackberries ONLY. Place a cheesecloth over a large bowl and strain the blackberry mixture. The cheesecloth removes the blackberry seeds. Be sure to squeeze the cheesecloth a few times to make sure all of the juice comes out. Pour the juice into a liquid measuring cup. You should have 4 ½ cups of blackberry juice; if you are short, fill it with water until it is exact. (You can add up to a ½ cup of water for exact measure.) Add the blackberry juice back into the saucepan and place on medium heat.
Step 5: Make the jam mixture. In a small bowl, mix ¼ cup of sugar and the pectin, then add into the saucepan. Stir constantly. Once the mixture reaches a full rolling boil (a boil that does not stop), stir in the remaining 2 ¾ cups of sugar. Once it reaches a full roiling boil again, stir constantly for one minute. Remove it from heat.
Tip: Add butter to reduce foaming.
Step 6: Canning. Quickly pour or ladle the jam mixture into the pre-warmed half-pint jars. You will want to do this fast as the jam mixture will begin to solidify. Once all jars are filled, put the lids on, screw on the cap and place them into the prepared water bath for 10 minutes.
Remove the jars from the water bath and place them on a towel to cool. You will know the jars are sealed when the can pops. This usually takes anywhere between a few minutes to an hour but can take longer. Penn State Extension recommends waiting between 12 to 24 hrs after processing to test if jars are sealed.
Step 7: Eat and enjoy. Slather jam on your favorite type of bread, add it on top of pancakes or mix it with yogurt; jam is an easy way to elevate any breakfast food. Place the jar in the fridge once opened.
(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)
