Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Blueberry jam

Blueberry jamI went on another canning expedition over the weekend and made 13 jars of blueberry jam. I was really hoping to go to one of the organic U-pick farms to pick our own blueberries, but we have had just too many things going on the past few weeks that I was worrying we would miss the blueberry season altogether.

So, I compromised. I bought two big flats of blueberries from the grocery store. They weren't exactly local (I missed out on when they were offering those), but at least they are in season and I'll try not to beat myself up too much because now I have all those glorious jars of blueberry jam.

I tried some (blueberries must have more pectin in them than strawberries because it seems like they set up a lot faster) and can't decide which one I like better - the blueberry or strawberry jam. They both have their merits!

Of course, since we hand picked our own strawberries, I have a much nicer memory associated with the strawberries, rather than just picking them up from the store. But at least I got the canning done that I wanted too.

Thornless blackberries are coming into season, so hopefully we can do our own picking of those. The prickly blackberries that grow like weeds around here are too hard for the kids too pick.

11 comments:

Ananda Devika said...

That looks good! I attempted peach jam last month, with not-so-great results. Will have to try that again. :) I did manage to can 10 jars of almost-all-local salsa last night (couldn't find local or organic cilantro). Mmmm...

Christy said...

We went blackberry picking Sunday and I made jam for the first time last night! It was very exciting. I'll blog about it soon.

Theresa said...

Mmm...looks tasty! I made jam for the first time this year - some strawberry jam from the local u-pick and some raspberry jam from the bushes in our yard. I really like the satisfying feeling I got from making my own preserves :)

Kelly @ The Barefoot Mama said...

Sounds and looks delicious! I love packing homemade jam...my daughter's favorite is peach, but now I'm craving some blueberry. ;) Happy Jamming!

Kim said...

Mmm . . . nothing beats homemade jam. My favorite is blackberry. Seeds and all, it is hands down the best!
Kim

Anonymous said...

Mmmmm. The store here was full of blueberries last night. Now I wish I had bought some. I did, however, get a sack full of cucumbers and am going to try to make pickles this weekend. :)

Olive said...

what kind of canning system do you have?

Deb G said...

I like a mix of raspberries, blueberries and something like a boysenberry or loganberry. Very yummy jam....

Kelly @ The Barefoot Mama said...

I just read tonight how lemon verbena can be added to many jams...excited to try that now and just wanted to share here! I couldn't get this yummy jam post out of my head, LOL! We grew a bunch of LV in our garden this year, so I'm excited to try it out. Have a blessed week...love the blog!

Crunchy Chicken said...

jennie mae - I have no real canning system to speak of. I just buy or reuse jars and get new lids and then hot water boil them in one of our larger All-Clad pots. It's rather half-assed.

Since we have a glass/ceramic stove, I can't use the traditional canning pots (not sure why, they just say not to use them on the glass cooktop). Since our largest pot isn't too tall, I'm limited to the squatty jars or 1/2 pints.

Although I did hot water bath my pickles in larger jars - I just laid them on their sides. I'm sure that's an accident waiting to happen, but I don't have much choice at this point. I need to find some cheapo hugemongously tall pot to work with. Perhaps a trip to the thrift store is in order.

I also don't have the rack thingy to separate the jars in the pot, so they shimmy all over the place and with the water line almost all the way up to the top to get enough water over the jars, it's a tenuous business. I think I make my husband quite nervous when I'm canning.

TheSmithZoo said...

You inspired me to make some blackberry jam this week, thank you! My Mom has a glass cook top (For that matter, so do I, it is just an induction cook top)and she uses her regular canner just fine, it just takes a little longer to heat she said. She hasn't had any other problems though. My brother brought me a ton of pickling cucumbers from Wenatchee this week, I may make pickles too. I found local dill, vinegar and garlic. Thanks for your blog, it;s fun.