Black Raspberry Jam

When our fruit starts to ripen it seems like it is all we can do to keep up with the harvest. To give myself a little breathing room I have discovered that freezing raspberries is a big time saver.

When my raspberries are ripe I try to get out and pick them every morning. That is the way to get the raspberries at their peak of freshness. I don’t always have enough raspberries in a single day to make much jam with. And the times I have tried to save up two days worth, the first day’s pick either gets soggy or it gets eaten, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But if I freeze them right away then I can use them later.

As soon I as I pick my raspberries I bring them inside, rinse them off and let them dry for a few minutes. Then I spread them on a cookie sheet in a single layer. I stick them in the freezer for a few hours before scraping them off the cookie sheet and putting them in a freezer bag. That way they are frozen individually. This makes them much easier to use. I can put them in smoothies, baked goods, jam or whatever else I decide to try.

I have two varieties of raspberries. Red, which are pretty much what you expect when you think of raspberries. I also have black raspberries. No, they are not blackberries. Without going all scientific, just trust me, these are raspberries. They are sometimes called “black caps” in fact that is what my grandparents always called them. I guess because the middle or “cap” berry always turns black first, while the others around it are still red.

The black raspberries are generally smaller than the red ones. They also tend to have more seeds and a mellower flavor. They don’t have the tartness of a red raspberry.

We really love them fresh, but because of how many seeds they have it is hard to use them in other things. I normally don’t mind a few seeds, but it is a bit much even for me. We tried mixing them with the red raspberries for jam but that didn’t make enough of a difference. We tried taking the seeds out and voila! The jam got eaten!

I am still searching for a better way to take seeds out of raspberries. Any suggestions?

Once the seeds are out it is a pretty standard jam making procedure.

• wash and sterilize rings, lids and jars
• Heat the fruit puree
• add sugar
• add pectin
• pour in bottles
• Process (for correct time for your altitude)

I generally buy Ball no/low sugar pectin because then I don’t have to add much sugar. My mother in law told me that it usually has more consistent results even if you use the full amount of sugar. Which I have found to be true also. I like to buy the jar of it rather than the box because then the recipe is more flexible. Their recipe is pretty general, it should work for most fruits and in most amounts. I just figure out how much fruit I have and go from their. Because I am using frozen fruit, there isn’t much I can do if I don’t end up with 5 cups of fruit. If you are confused go to the baking section in your grocery store and look at the pectin. Then message me if you have questions.

I made a video for this one. I have a lot to learn about making videos but it has been a fun process so far. I think this is worth watching to see David steal the show.