My mom has always made fun of me for my inability to follow a recipe exactly. Yesterday, when I made blackberry jelly, was no exception! I had to improvise in a few places, but I am happy to report that the end result was pretty tasty. We now have 6 tiny jars of blackberry jelly from blackberries we have picked over the last few months from our neighborhood. This was my first time making jelly and my first time canning and I think they both went pretty well!

Finding Ingredients in Panama

Basically, I learned that finding pectin in Panama wasn't going to happen, so when my husband recently took a trip back to Texas, I asked him to pick some up for me! He brought me back two big bottles of it which I thought would last a very long time!

The blackberries we have picked in our neighborhood over the last few months and stored them in the freezer. Sugar, of course, is pretty easy to find, but I did have to use the local brown colored sugar as white is more expensive. I brought the jars from the United States when I moved.

A Great Project With The Kids

@crosheille was talking about sewing with her daughter yesterday and encouraged us to do something with our kids. I thought my kids would really enjoy helping me do this. What I didn't factor in was the pull of friends who were playing outside. Ha! My son helped me with the first step while another watched. Then I didn't see them again until it was time to test the product! They have, however, helped me pick the blackberries on our walks!

_{Stirring the berries to help them release their juice.}

Following the Recipe

I found a recipe online that looked like it would work for me and was relatively easy. I got all the ingredients together and started boiling the berries in some water. I didn't measure either of this, and perhaps I should have!

After boiling the berries for about 20 minutes, I strained them into a pot and measured to see how much juice I ended up with. I was about 1 cup short of what the recipe called for! Yikes! Time to improvise. Since I was short on juice (and didn't see the note that I could add up to half a cup of water), I just cut out some of the sugar.

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That's A Lot of Sugar

I measured out 3 cups of sugar and set it aside, ready to add it to the juice after I added the pectin and it began to boil again. Having it all sitting there sure helped me see how much sugar is in this jelly!

_{It was interesting to watch the juice and sugar mixture turn into jelly!}

Prepare the Jars

I had prepared the jars in advance and they were waiting in a warm water bath. Then I realized I had to stir constantly and take the jars and lids out basically at the same time. I then asked my husband to help. He took the jars out of the water...a little too early. He ended up taking them out and putting them back in twice. Ha! They were nice and hot when it was time to fill them with jelly though!

Fill the Jars

After the jars were prepared and the jelly was ready, it was time to fill them up with jelly goodness! We have a canning set, but it's still in boxes from our move, so everything was improvised! Thankfully I had rubber ended tongs and a funnel with a wide mouth! Those made this process a little easier!

Hot Water Bath

I have never done any canning before, but I went to a class in Texas once, so I understand the canning process. The directions said to do the inversion method or hot water bath. I wanted to give some to a friend in the evening and the inversion method said it could take hours, so I decided on a hot water bath. That meant I had to figure out really quickly how that works!

After a little research, I realized I needed to keep the jars off the bottom of the pot while processing. It suggested a cooling rack (too big) or some canning rings tied together. I had that, so that's what I decided to use! It worked great! I processed the jars and then took them out and slowly started hearing the "pop" sound as they sealed! Super exciting for me!

Trying the Jelly

The next part was probably our favorite. We got to try some of the jelly that was in the bottom of the pan and a little bit of leftover that made it to the fridge. It was mighty tasty on a piece of bread. All the kids loved it!

Final Thoughts

This was a fun process and not as difficult as I thought it would be. I have been putting it off for months thinking it would take me all day and make a huge mess. Well, it took a few hours total and not a HUGE mess.

We used our jelly on our peanut butter sandwiches today and it was yummy! I'm glad that I finally decided to just do it! So if you're putting off making jelly or canning like I was, know that if I can do it, you can too!!

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for a snack of some homemade blackberry jelly on a piece of toast. YUM!