I've had an insatiable craving lately for homemade jam and bread. The bread thing I have down. The jam thing... not so much. I've never made jam before. But upon recommendation we found ourselves at Zimmerman's filling baskets full of berries in hopes to create our first jam. This berry farm - hidden in the valley of a beautiful range - proved to be an experience we now hope to follow every summer. The girls loved searching through the trellises for plump and vine-ripened blackberries while I sought out what remained of the raspberries. In the end, we plucked about 1.5 pounds of raspberries and over 5 pounds of blackberries.

Following the sugar to fruit ratio in The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook, we created two delightful concoctions... Raspberry Nectar - replacing half the sugar called for in the recipe with honey and topping with a bit of Irish Whiskey. This jam set perfectly and I loved the ease of the authors frozen spoon method to check for doneness. Our second was Black Rose Jam - I thought of the name before I knew what I was going to do - but it came together beautifully - a little loose - but delicious. I also loved the ease of these recipes - most of the Blue Chair recipes do not call for pectin making the cooking time a bit more critical. As a new jam maker there are some lessons learned - each noted at the end of the recipe - but I am so in love with the process and the idea of endless possibility. And I would love to hear any tips you might have - I see a lot of jam in my future...

 

*Note: In terms of the quantities of berries - we cooked what we picked - so change amounts of ingredients based on what you pick/buy.

RASPBERRY NECTAR

1.5 pounds of fresh raspberries

1/2 c. honey

1/2 c. sugar

4 oz. Bushmills Irish Honey Whisky

Start by placing a plate with several metal spoons in the freezer for checking the jam later.

As we picked our berries at a farm that does not spray their plants at all - we brought home a lot of little critters on our berries. We did go through each berry to ensure the little ants and beetles didn't end up in the jam. Once picked over, combine all ingredients in a large heavy bottomed pot and stir over low heat until everything is combined. 

Gradually turn up the heat to bring to a boil and continuing to stir constantly, keep the mixture at a boil for about 15 minutes. When the time has passed, take a spoon from the freezer and using an additional spoon, add some of the jam to the frozen spoon. Replace in the freezer to rest on the plate. Wait 5 minutes and remove the spoon from the freezer. The bottom of the spoon should be room temperature and if you tip the spoon, the jam should not run. If it does, cook for a bit longer and check again. When the jam is ready, can immediately. Here is a great canning tutorial.

*WHAT I WOULD CHANGE: Next time, I would add the whiskey just before checking for doneness - I felt like the flavor of the whiskey was cooked off.

 

BLACK ROSE JAM

5.5 lbs. blackberries

1 c. honey

2.5 lbs. sugar

4 oz. lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon

1/4 c. rosewater

Combine all the ingredients in a large pot EXCEPT for the rosewater (lesson learned!) and coat evenly over medium heat. Once the sugar dissolves, slowly (yet another lesson - cranked up the heat on this one and it boiled over!) bring to a boil and stirring constantly, boil for 20 minutes. Add the rose water and boil another 5 minutes then using the spoon method above, check the jam for doneness. Jar immediately.

*WHAT I WOULD CHANGE: I think it depends on your heat - as we boiled over, we may have not allowed the jam to boil enough after we removed it from the heat to clean up our mess. In the end, this jam was runnier than the perfectly set up Raspberry Nectar - but we'll find good use for it!

 

Again - would love to hear your jam making tips! And in the meantime... summer jams...

SUMMER JAMS

Take Me Home : Golden Animals

Swamp Music : Lynyrd Skynyrd

Walk A Mile : Holly Golightly

Birds of a Feather : The Civil Wars

Blue Ridge Mountains : Fleet Foxes

Little By Little : Lay Low

Sky Open Up : The Watson Twins

Kick Drum Heart : The Avett Brothers

Maybe Mine : Good Old War

Daddy Sang Bass : Johnny Cash

Golden Bird : Levon Helm

Won't Be Me : Vetiver

Up On Cripple Creek : The Band

Moonshine Sonata : Black Oak Arkansas

Midnight Rider : The Allman Brothers Band

Listen here.

p.s. ALSO incredibly honored to be asked to talk about my favorite cookbooks over at 101 Cookbooks - thank you SO much Heidi!

p.p.s. and BIG NEWS - my new shop, CISTHENE will open a pop-up store tomorrow morning - sort of a teaser of what's to come in September! 

Comments

[Susanne]

Warm runny jam over ice cream is heaven!

[jen a]

susanne - YES! we plan on glazing ribs with it as well!

[Joy]

beautiful post!

[Stephanie]

LOOOOOOOOVE the second photo. So Secret Garden-esque.

[Rose D., Frenchtown, NJ]

I originally saw your jam photos on Twitter and it got me in the mood to make some!!! Hoping mine turns out well. Absolutely beautiful post!!

[Cinnamon]

That black rose jam sounds delightful! I usually stir in my alcohol into my hot jam right before putting it in jars. Otherwise it seems like such a waste! Some of my favorite combos are black berry cointreau jam, raspberry amaretto jam, and sometimes I just add elderberry liquour (I use St~Germains) to whatever I making. It pairs well with everything, I swear!

[jen a]

thank you joy!

stephanie - YES - same think i thought when i saw her peeking through at me...

thank you rose - good luck with it!

cinnamon - st. germains in jam - oh my heavens yum!

[Anna]

hooray for jam making! jen, i really have been enjoying the book, canning for a new generation, by liana krissoff. lots of great recipes! think...cardamom plum jam and tarragon persian pickles.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=canning+for+a+new+generation
as always, thanks for sharing. we still have some raspberries left at the bellevue farm so i think that nectar is begging to be made. xo.

[jamie @ green beans & grapefruit]

Wonderful post!

[Sascha Mills]

Hi,

I have been a follower of your Nectar & Light blog for the past year but I had no idea that you have this blog (until I clicked on a link today)and what a delightful surprise! It is really nice to see this other part of your family life and of course the beautiful photos! Both blogs are so well done! You are truly an inspiration!

Sascha

[Erin]

I just discovered the joy of jam-making last year and think the trial and error is part of the fun but my go to for inspiration is Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures.
Beautiful site by the way. I signed up for the class you're teaching at Delancey this fall and was happy to find this space.

[jen a]

anna - thank you so much for the recommendation - going to check that one out. just came back from south carolina with an arm load of peaches to play with!

thank you jamie!

sascha - i'm so happy you found your way over - thank you!

erin - thanks for recommendation! sadly, i'm not teaching anything at delancy - maybe someday! ;)