July 22, 2012

Jammin' at home

'Tis the season for shopping at the farmers' market.  I'm particularly proud of the one in our neighborhood.  It's just the right size - about a dozen vendors consisting of veggie stalls, a cheese lady, the meat guys, the fish guy, the nut guy, fruit tents... 


These last few weekends, the cherry-and-blackberry dudes have been around and they consistently carry the sweetest of them all.  My inner-Martha Stewart hit me today - I want to make blackberry jam!  I've read easy recipes online and always wanted to make my own fresh fruit jam with simple ingredients.  After perusing a couple of these jam DIY's, I've created a hybrid and made a conscious effort to use less sugar and let the natural sweetness from the fruit shine through.  Here's my take on Basic Blackberry Jam:


3 baskets of blueberries

1/4 cup each sugar and honey
juice of half a lemon

place all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil in medium heat



then mash the berries and bring heat down to simmer for 50 - 55 minutes




































meanwhile, sterilize your clean jars in a pot of boiling water for about 15minutes 










































let jars dry and cool down

after jam cools for about an hour and a half, transfer to your impeccably clean jars.  i'm not a big fan of berry seeds so i strained off most the seeds, which resulted in a looser, almost saucy finished product.