Jam Recipe

Blueberry-Mango Jam

Blueberry-Mango jam is just a lovely and thick berry jam. It brought me right back to the pies that my great-grandmother made when I was a little girl.

You'll need:

9 cups of blueberries
9 cups of cut-up mango
1/4 cup lime juice
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tbs. Vanilla
cinnamon to taste
1 package of Pomona pectin (http://www.pomonapectin.com/)
12-15 half-pint jars washed
12-15 lids and rings

1. Make calcium water according to the directions on the pomona pectin box.
2. Mix 6t of pectin in sugar. Sterilize jars and lids.
3. Mix blueberries, mango, lime juice and 7t calcium water in a large pot. Mash blueberries and mango together. Bring blueberries and mango mixture to a boil.
4. Add pectin-sugar mixture. Stir vigorously for several minutes. Add cinnamon and vanilla. Bring to a second boil.
5. Fill hot sterilized jars with jam, leaving a 1/4 inch space between the top of the jar and the jam.
6. Place lids and rings on jars, tighten rings, and carefully place in pot of boiling water. Boil for 5-10 minutes.
7. Remove jars. Place on counter to cool. Listen for the pinging of each jar. If a jar does not vacuum pack, use within 2 weeks.

Berry-Picking and Jam

Lulie and I went berry-picking on Saturday. We drove out to Morning shade farms and after some surreptitious tasting, we found Olympia Blue berries and some kind of fat boysenberry. For about a buck a pound.

Lulie came over on Sunday, with Pomona Pectin, a whisk and some towels. Pomona pectin uses calcium as the gelling agent, instead of sugar. So, you can make jams that taste like berries, instead of cloying sweetness. It's just so much better.

Part of making a life is facing my fear of decay. I was afraid that I'd take these good berries, and make jams and come November, I'd pull them off the shelf and they'd be moldy and fermented. A waste. People have been making jam since Napoleon's time. Most of the time it works out fine.

Lulie said, that afternoon, "Someone once told me I was a perfectionist, and I thought, "I've never done anything perfect in my life!" We struggle with the thinking that what we do isn't quite good enough.

To preserve jam, you sterilize the jars, and fill them with hot sugary jam, and then you put the sealed jars back in boiling water. It stays boiling hot until the lid seals. When they are done, the jars will make a little tink sound, as the vacuum in the jar pulls the lid tight. This satisfying little sound means that the jam jar is sealed tight. All 18 of ours tink'd, one after another, as if the universe was saying "Yes" and "Yes" and "Yes".

The next day, I made Blueberry-mango jam by myself. I accidently dropped a jar back in the water. The air required to make the vacuum bubbled out. I panicked, and thought about re-sterilizing the jar and reboiling that cup of jam. Then I thought, "Screw it.", and pulled it out. All the jars around it "tink'd". It sat, quietly and silently starting to rot. And I was okay with that.