Blackberry Jam!

A few weeks ago, @bingbabe did one of her many 10k runs but came back with a huge basket full of blackberries.

This fruit grows wild in England and is very common at this time of the year. Where the basket came from, I’m none the wiser.

The picture below are wild blackberries growing at the rear of my house.

The conversation was had next was something like this...

‘What are we going to do with those?’, I said.
‘Make some jam of course’, came back the response.
‘Have you made it before?’
‘Never’

Sigh; It was a case of get on the internet and discover a recipe. We used this one which proved quite sufficient but didn’t really deliver in the quantities mentioned.

Ingredients
Makes: 8 (340g) jars blackberry jam
1.8kg blackberries
85ml water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1.8kg caster sugar

We had around 1.2kg of blackberries, and just less than 1kg of caster sugar. Everything else seemed good and OK.

In a large pan, combine the blackberries, water and lemon juice. Simmer gently over a very low heat for 1 to 2 hours, or until the fruit has broken down and is soft and pulpy.

Easy enough, we left them for around 1.5 hours simmering and the fruit did indeed break down.

Add the sugar to the blackberry mixture and bring to the boil, stirring constantly.

I was balking at this. 1kg is a LOT of sugar and that stuff is NOT good for us. Talk about a pile of the white stuff and according to the recipe this still is not enough.

Begin testing for the setting point by dropping a little jam on a cold plate. If you push it with your finger and it wrinkles, it is ready.

I wasn’t too sure what this meant. I was prodding it and getting my fingers sticky. Is that what should be happening?

Skim any foam from the top of the jam and transfer to sterilised jars and seal immediately. Leave undisturbed in a dark place for 24 hours.

There didn’t appear to be any foam and putting boiling jam in glass jars didn’t seem right, but we did it anyway.

There was supposed to be 8 jars from 1.8kg, but we only managed 3 jars from 1.2kg.

24 hours was a little long for me, and the next day I couldn’t wait to try the jam. After getting past the ‘this has far too much sugar’ phase, I added some butter to these Hot-Cross Buns and then spread the jam quite thickly.

The constitution seemed good, the seeds are small with no huge lumps and the taste is simply wonderful. We gave away one jar, and one of the two is already half empty.

If you see those Blackberries growing then grab some and make some jam while they are still attached to the bushes!