Sunday Night Jam Session

 Making jam is a fantastic way to preserve your summer harvest for the bleak winter months. I've been picking strawberries and blackberries from the garden and decided to turn them into jam. Sunday night at 9 pm- perfect time for a berry jam session. Obviously. Here's how.

YOU NEED:
- 5 Cups of mashed berries- so about 7 or 8 cups of whole berries
- 8 Canning jars (with two part lids)
- Canning pot
- 7 cups of Sugar
- 1 box of Pectin
- Metal tongs or canning tongs.
- Jam music!


1) Gather your berries. You'll need 5 cups of mashed berries to make jam, so thats about 7 or 8 cups of whole berries. In my case, I used a combination of garden-grown strawberries and blackberries- and since I was short about a cup I ran out and bought a pint of local, organic strawberries to make up the difference.

2) Put your Pandora station on Grateful Dead radio, or another appropriate jam session station. Hopefully your first song is a live version of Shakedown Street by Phil Lesh, because that song kicks ass and has a great berry mashing beat. Seriously.

3) Fill a canning pot about half -way with water and bring it to a simmer. You'll need this hot water bath for the very end of the jam session.



4) Wash out the jam jars. Unscrew the lids and wash the jars and lid rings with soap and hot water. Place on a clean surface to dry. Take the lid caps, put in a saucepan and pour boiling water over them. Let them hang out in the hot water until you need them.

                                                     

5) Mash you berries. A potato masher will suffice. I used some strange ladle-like device because I couldn't find my potato masher. You can also use a food processor but DON'T puree. There should be plenty of berry pieces in your berry mash.

6) Measure out 7 cups of sugar and put aside. I know, 7 cups of sugar is kind of gross, but you need this exact sugar - fruit - pectin ratio to ensure that the jam sets safely.

7) Put 5 cups of mashed berries into a saucepot. Make sure the measurement is exact. Start heating on medium heat.

8) Add one box of pectin and start stirring. Stir until the mixture reaches a rolling boil. A rolling boil is a boil that can't be stirred down.

                          

9) Quickly add the sugar. Keep stirring continuously until the mixture again reaches a rolling boil. Once it does, stir for one more minute and then remove from heat.

(Things start to get a little hectic at this point. The background jam music is crucial here to keep you moving.)

10) Ladle the jam into the jars, filling until about 1/8 inch below the top. Wipe off any jam that might have dripped onto the top of the jar and then put on the lids, turning tightly.

11) Using your tongs, lower the jars into the canning pot full of simmering water. All the jars need to be covered by at least 1 - 2 inches of water, so if there isn't enough, add boiling water to the pot.

12) Bring to a gentle boil and keep the jars in the pot for ten minutes.

13) Remove the jars from the pot and place upright on a towel to cool.

14) After the jars have cooled, check each lid by pushing on the center. If the lids pop back at your touch, the jar has to be refridgerated- it hasn't set correctly. Otherwise, you are safe to keep your homemade jam on a shelf until you are ready to eat it. The National Center For Home Food Preservation recommends using the jams within a year.

15) Scrap the bottom of the saucepot for the jam remanents and put on a piece of toast. Rouse your roommate who is resting nicely in her bed and make her try your AMAZING BERRY JAM!!!!