We Be Jammin'

That is, of course, a royal "we", since my jam session was a solitary endeavor.  Still, I managed to churn out three kinds of jam in one day, so I'm pretty proud of myself. 

The raspberry and blueberry jam recipes are one and the same.  It also works for blackberries, boysenberries, dewberries, gooseberries, loganberries, and youngberries.  I actually wouldn't be surprised if it worked for ground cherries as well, since they are apparently naturally high in pectin, without any additional pectin added, but I couldn't for the life of me find a pectin-free ground cherry recipe to compare it to and didn't feel like experimenting, so I used a tried and true recipe with added stuff.  Maybe at some point I'll play around searching for a pectin-free (and therefore a lot cheaper!) ground cherry jam recipe, but probably not this year, especially since I don't even know for sure that my ground cherry plants survived the night since there was a chance of frost and I don't know if my covering of them was sufficient!  In the meantime, here are both the recipes I used for my jam session this week.

Berry Jam

 Adapted from Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving

9 cups crushed berries
5 cups sugar

Combine berries and sugar in a large pan.  Bring slowly to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Cook rapidly, stirring frequently to prevent sticking, until the boiling jam drips off a cool, metal spoon dipped into it in a single flake or sheet.  (If you prefer perfect measurements, find out the exact boiling point for your elevation and add 8 degrees F to it.  That is the "gelling point".)  Remove from heat.  Ladle jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Put on two-piece caps and process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes.

Ground Cherry Jam

 Adapted from some random sites on the internet.  Disappointingly, the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving does not seem to mention ground cherries anywhere within it.

3 cups ground cherries, removed from husks

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup water

6 tbsp powdered pectin (or one box)

3 cups sugar

Wash ground cherries.  Combine fruit, lemon juice, water, and pectin in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  When ground cherries begin to burst, mash them well.   Add sugar.  Return to boil and boil an additional 1 minute.  Ladle into hot jars.  Put on two-piece caps and process in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes.

Preserving Blueberries

I picked up 20 pounds of blueberries at the farmers market (with the Double Up Food Bucks tokens I saved from last week plus this week's, they were almost free: $9!) yesterday.  I went easy on myself this time and just bagged them up and stuck them in the freezer.  I'm hoping I'll be able to pick up another 60 pounds or so before the season is over and maybe that will be enough to last us the year, but considering how much I like blueberry muffins and how much the kids like eating them frozen, I wouldn't count on it.  If I can get more while they are in season, I'll definitely go for it.

Last year, I didn't take is so easy on myself with preserving blueberries (of course, last year I had access to a large stock pot I could use for water bath canning, so that made a difference.  Last year, I made a ton of blueberry sauce for pancake/waffle topping, ice cream topping, and yogurt flavoring (okay, I hadn't started making my own yogurt yet when I made it, but we've been using it for that purpose more than any other the past few months!).  I made a couple batches:  the first I screwed up somehow, but it made a thicker sauce, so I thought that was nice.  I didn't actually realize that I'd made a mistake in the recipe until I followed it exactly (well, as exactly as I ever follow a recipe) and it ended up being a lot thinner.  I present here the recipe I used the second time, but I think it is safe to say that the water could be reduced (somehow.  Really, this recipe is so simple, how did I screw it up?!?!) if you want a thicker sauce.  It can be frozen or canned, with no noticeable difference in end result.

Blueberry Sauce

 2 quarts blueberries, rinsed and drained

2 cups water

3 cups white sugar

4 cups water

2 tbsp lemon juice

Mash blueberries in a large pot.  Add 2 cups water and simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.  

In a large saucepan, mix sugar and 3 cups water.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until temperature reaches 260 degrees.  Add blueberries; boil for 1 minute.  Stir in lemon juice and remove from heat.  Let cool.