My first canning of the summer bounty has begun! Our raspberry plants have so far given us 12 half pints of jam and a few extra cups for eating–mmmm! I hope to get one more batch of jam–but with the extra hot weather this year, I don’t know if that will happen, but I am thankful for those 12 half pints! It’s a start to building the pantry up! 

With the intense hot weather we’ve had I canned and prepped this batch on the front porch–we’ve got a little makeshift kitchen set up on the front porch area with our 2 burner camp stove and our other camp stove/oven (which bakes bread so quick and nicely!).

 This jam is so simple to make and can up!

9 cups of fresh raspberries

2 cups of grape juice

2 packages of MCP Pectin (the no sugar needed variety)

1 cup organic sugar

I put my raspberries in a large stockpot and crush with a potato masher, add the grape juice and sugar (optional) and then stir in the pectin. Put this on the stove and continually stir until it gets to a boil you can’t stir down.  Remove from stove. Set aside. Meanwhile jars & lids are sitting in pots of hot water, waiting to be filled and my canner is getting to full rolling boil. Jars and lids can be HOT–be careful fishing them out of the hot water pot–or better yet, use some jar lifting tongs–a wonderful tool!  Fill jars, leaving 1/4″ headspace, wipe rims, put your lid and ring on firmly, and process in your water bath canner for the applicable length of time, depending on your elevation.  Check out your copy of “The Ball Blue Book” for specifics on processing   I let my jars cool 12 to 24 hours and then put up on the pantry shelf! Yum.

Enjoy– next up we’ll do blackberry jam, I drove by my cousins property yesterday (where we pick each year–read: FREE) and they are about 10 days away from being ready to pick–can’t WAIT for blackberries–we’ve been OUT for quite some time, this year I hope to put up more! 

Happy Canning!

Lisa