"W. Baker" > wrote in message
...
> Well, Ihave just finihsed a batch of blueberry jam as local berries are
> around even in NYC(New Jersy berries). I use the pectin for low suar or
> no -suar added jams and prefer surejel to Mrs. Wages because it lasts for
> years in the box without clumping, so if I overbuy or don't get berries at
> tehend of the season I canwait untilthefollowing year.
>
> I like farily soft jam so end up making rather more with the eone box than
> they say, ending up with over 6 cups of jam. I add mu non-nutritive
> sweetener when I open the jar, rather than addingit when making it as I
> don't always trust the lasting power of the sweetener.
>
> A few ips with the no-sugar jam. because sugar , itself, is a
> preservative, when you make jam without sugar once it is opened it doesn't
> last long in the fridge so pack in in no bigger than 8oz jars and make
> sure they are well sterilized and sealed. If you will not be suing the
> whole jar fairly quickly, you can stick it in the freezer adn thaw and
> even refreeze without real loss of flavor.
>
> Follow the instructins on th ebox, except for the quantity of berries(as I
> mentioned ealier). If you like it soft, you can get twice as much jam
> from a batch, saving work time. I usully use a potato masher, but as I
> made this batch inthe city rather than upstate, I didn'thave one here so
> used my hands to squoosh the berries with plastic gloves on. Kind of
> slippery adn you have to be sure to squeeze each bery as they are tough
> skinned. Next year I may try the food processor as they now suggest it,
> but only on a few pulses as you want chopped, not pureed.
>
> I used 5 pints of berries to get the 6+ cups. Although they say just wash
> the jars in hot soapy water, I am from the old school and boil the jars
> before filling, using the same pot and water to put the filled, sealed
> jars i for the 10 mins of boil after packing. that was how I ws taught
> agesagso still do it.
>
> Don't do this inthe middl eof a heat wave. I waited for today which is
> the first day we have been below 90 and the humidity is way down)no need
> fo the air conditioner last night, just the ceiling fan did the job!. It
> still it swety work, but today I amable to cool down with just a fan
> runing :-)
>
> This is the season to do this as so many berries are ripening. A bit late
> for strawberries, but rasberries, blueberries adn, for me, soon
> blackberries upstate make for gret jams. I stick to berries as I prefer
> them to , say peach jame and I never can be really sure of getting nice
> juicy peaches instead of the dry tasteless kind.
>
> In the past I used to do applebutter, also no sweetener, but it is a big,
> overnight job and there is only me so I don't have need for so muchas I
> did when the kids were home takign lunch to school.
>
> Wendy

I tried making jam many years ago. It was my first experience with canning.
Pretty sure that I did use sugar because I wasn't diabetic then. But I
didn't know enough about canning to know what I was doing and I'd gotten bad
advice from a variety of sources. In those days, there wasn't such strict
regulations on canning as there are now. Of course one can still do the
wrong thing but there are hard and fast rules that you need to follow if you
want to do it safely. I didn't do it safely so only two of my jars sealed.
I did try to give it away and told people to eat it up quickly but they
didn't want it. So that was a big waste of my time and money.

Angela only recently started eating the stuff. Not even sure if what I buy
is called jam. I think they call it all fruit spread. I eat it very
infrequently on a peanut butter sandwich. I might buy two jars per year and
they would always go bad before I could finish the jar. I wish I could get
the little single serve ones but I can't find those in the sugar free. Not
a problem now though since she has started eating it. Now I have the
opposite problem. Keeping enough in the house. I bought a case of it from
Walmart online. I'm glad that they put it in little jars because surely a
big one would go bad before we could eat it.

I am picky though and pretty much only like the strawberry kind. I think my
failed attempt at canning most likely involved raspberries. I am not fond
of those but my dad used to grow them. He was always giving them to me and
I kept trying to find ways to use them. I did once try Marionberry. I was
in a restaurant and got a pill stuck in my throat. The only way to push it
down further was to eat something and our food hadn't arrived. So it was
either a condiment or jam. My family likes Marionberries so I grabbed one
and tried it. It tasted good and it did push the pill down but I don't
recommend eating jam this way!