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I know they don't look so pretty in my re-used jars but who cares?!

The other night I made jam!  I’ve been wanting to do this all summer and now that berries are just about done I had to do it now or wait until next year.  I can’t believe how easy it was to make!

I save all of my jars from other food items that I purchase so I had plenty to use.  They were already clean so I put them in a pot of boiling hot water to warm them up while I made the jam.  I had purchased a box of pectin quite awhile ago so I already had that on hand.  The box contained a bunch of different recipe ideas.  I made a batch and a half with a mix of raspberries and blueberries.  I used a ratio of 2:1 (raspberries to blueberries) so it is mostly raspberry but with a slight undertone of blueberry – I’m happy with the combination.  When using blueberries it calls for fresh lemon juice.  I used the juice of one lemon yet still needed a little more so I used an orange that I needed to use up as it was on its way to the bin.

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Instead of sugar I used Agave Nectar.  Agave Nectar looks like honey but is thinner and comes from a plant.  It doesn’t spike your blood sugar the way sugar does so I try to use it as much as possible in place of sugar.

So, all you do is mash your berries, add the lemon juice, bring it to a boil add the pectin and pour it into your jars leaving 1/4 inch open at the top.  Put the tops on and turn them upside down.  I put them back in the hot water for a bit to make sure they were super warm and would seal and then I put them on the counter to cool.  After an hour I flipped them and within another hour I pressed the seal on the top and it went down and didn’t pop back up – meaning they were sealed and safe to stay in the pantry.

I’m so excited to have discovered how easy it is to make jam – I’ll be making it a lot more now!