Hand-Picked Raspberry Jam

by Stephanie

jam

What better to do on a day off from work than go berry picking? The farm near us had two options: red raspberries or black raspberries. We chose the reds; they were cheaper.

Six pounds of berries later we headed home, ready to use our brand new canning equipment.

It was surprisingly easy, considering it was our first time making jam.

raspberries

Ingredients and equipment:

  • Berries: 6 cups, mashed
  • Sugar: 6 cups
  • Pectin (we used surejell): 1 package, or 1.75 oz.
  • Ball jars with lids and rings
  • Lid lifter (a magnet to lift lids out of the hot water)
  • Jar tongs
  • Jar funnel
  • A big pot (for the jam)
  • A smaller pot (for the lids)
  • A canner (but we just used another big pot)
  1. Wash the berries.
  2. Sterilize jars (just the glass part). We used the dishwasher, minus the soap.
  3. Heat the lids (without boiling them) in a pot of water.
  4. Mix the pectin with 1/4 cup of the sugar and cook the mixture with the fruit until it comes to a full boil. Stir often, making sure it doesn’t burn.
  5. Add the rest of the sugar.That’s all it takes to make jam; now it’s time to preserve it:
  6. Fill the jars, seal them, and let them sit in a pot of boiling water for five minutes, until the lids pop in.

The whole process took less than two hours and yielded nine jars of jam.

canning

We still had a lot of leftover berries…