Jam!!!

[Bettacreek]

The boys and I picked black berries for about two hours yesterday and ended up with a gallon of blackberries. Now if only I can find my darn jelly jars and my new lids, I can get cracking on my first ever jam! My mom used to make it a lot when I was really little, but this will be my first expedition. I'm using dutch gel since it's so much cheaper in bulk than the $2-$3 boxes. I have about 3-4lbs of the dutch gel, so I'll be ready for whatever other blackberries we pick and blueberries and elderberries when they come in! I might even try to find time to go current berry picking to make a small batch of that. The boys may eat that, but if not, my brother has always loved that yucky stuff, lol. So... Any advice? I have never canned anything and have never made jams/jellies so sounds like a good introduction to the world of canning and preserving (besides freezer and fridge).

 

[Wannabefree]

My ONLY advice, is make all of it you can, because there is NOTHING like homemade!!! It'll go QUICK! Suddenly the kids will crave PB&J for weeks on end till there's no jam left in the house

 

[valmom]

What is dutch gel? Congratulations on your foray into jam and jellies- it is a lovely delicious journey.

 

[TanksHill]

dutch gel?

 

[Bettacreek]

Well, I ended up with 10 pints of jelly. I will definately be taking them out to get more berries very soon to make more batches, because we go through way too much for ten pints to be of any "value". I go to the store and buy up to five pints at a time, so definately, definately need to make more! It did turn out really good though. My mom even came out and started making chocolate wafer "cookies" with jam between them lol. But, it was pretty fun. The boys had some berries smashed into the tile in the kitchen, but they did help! I just wish the canner held more jars!!!

ETA: Forgot to add the bit about dutch gel. It's a pectin used by amish. It has dextrose (another sugar if I remember correctly), fruit pectin and citric acid. You use 1/3c which actually weighs out to be about 50g. If you look at the boxes, they weigh 49g so 1/3c of dutch gel is the same amount as one of those little boxes (just assume that I put 1 gram too much into my measuring cup). I'm not entirely sure how much the boxes cost, but they're definately at least $3 here. My dutch gel is $4.59/lb, which ends up being $.53/"box".

 

[Marianne]

That's certainly a bargain then. I'll have to ask about it at the little local store.
Congrats on the jam!

 

[Bettacreek]

I'm having some major issues with the canner. Why is it basically not boiling?! I've tried three different cook-top surfaces and none are getting it to a real boil. Would a turkey fryer work?!