I was a little bummed out that ALL they really had were berries, but then again, I couldn't resist buying 8 pints of fresh RASPBERRIES! Yes, they were rather expensive, but they were oh, so worth the money!
Why make raspberry jam, of course!
This is where I start wondering why I do these things to myself! You see, we didn't leave until 11:30 a.m. By the time we got the berries, made a stop at Walmart and then the local grocery store, it was 3:00 by the time we got home!
For anyone that does any canning, you KNOW that starting at 3 p.m. is probably NOT the best idea! But, what was I to do? I couldn't wait, as raspberries are WAY too fragile and need to be dealt with the same day they're picked. I was told these were picked today, so there you go!
Gotta start with all the prep work, and when you're doing any home canning, that means sterilizing. The only way to do that is to boil the jars, lids and rims.
The lids and rims are boiling in a small kettle.
The half-pint jars I bought at Walmart are boiling in one of my water bath canners. I discovered today that I actually have THREE water bath canners! And, as we'll find out shortly, that's a GOOD thing!
The nice thing about raspberries is that they mush up really well all by themselves once you add some heat to them! I put all eight pints in my big stock pot (and ya'all wonder why I have so many BIG pots, pans, bowls, etc.! I really DO need (and use) them!).
Most recipes call for a cup of sugar to each cup of raspberries, but I find that to be entirely too sweet. My blood is sweet enough, I don't need to add that much sugar to it! I like my jam sweet, but I don't want it to be overpoweringly sweet. I want to taste the berries, too!
The berries are here cooking with about 16 cups of sugar (almost 10 pounds!). That's HALF of what is recommended in every recipe I researched! They needed to be cooked until the candy thermometer reaches about 221 degrees. Because of the natural pectin in raspberries, you don't need to add any "Sure Jell" to it when it's cooking.
I filled up the twelve 1/2 pint jars I bought, and I still had a LOT of raspberries left. Oh, geeze! Abby helped out by running to get me more jars, which meant I had to start the whole sterilizing process all over! ACK! So, there I was, with one canner on for the jars of jam I had to boil for 15 minutes, and another on sterilizing pint jars, and yet another kettle on with the additional lids and rims!
Doesn't everyone want to have three burners going on a HOT summer day? Yes, I had the air on (thank goodness for air conditioning), but it still managed to heat up the kitchen! The new exhaust fan over the stove and ceiling fan over the kitchen table really helped disperse the heat I was generating!
I think I was finally done at about 8:00 at night! Yes, I ask myself . . . why do you do this to yourself! LOL! Oh, well. I doubt I'll ever learn my lesson!
I ended up with 12 one-half pints, seven pints, and one quart of raspberry jam. Adding in the 10 pounds of sugar, it ended up costing about $2.00 per half pint (not including the cost of the jars, lids or rims). The jam didn't jell as well as my strawberry jam did last year, and is a bit runny, but once you open it and put it in the fridge, it thickens up nicely!
Oh, that whole "why do I do this to myself" thing? Well, I'm in the middle of making homemade bread now (Sunday), so that I can take some incredible bread to work to toast and have with my amazing jam for breakfast! Another hot day here, and what better than to bake some homemade bread! LOL
Hope everyone's enjoying summer and the bounty of summer as much as I am!
Love, peace and prayers to all!
Julie
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