Julie Bove > wrote:

: "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!

I occasionally use the Smuckers no sugar jams and they are not bad. they
also must use some preservatives as they don't go moldy dquickly as do the
home make ones. I have tried the strawberry but can't find many berries
in tere and the apricot which I use for cooking as it makes a good fake
cakes, etc. They com ein, I think 10 r 12 oz jars which might be fine for
Angela.

As for learning how to can, I learned mostly from the Ball blueBook, kind
of the boble of canning, but they don't hav emuch on no-sugar stuff
although I did used to make a diet ketchup/chili sauce fromthat book that
I liked in early dys after my diagnosis. Inthose days and earlier I was
canning tmatoes adn freezing spagehettisauce as we would go to thelocal
farms raround Labor day and pick a bushel of tomatoes adnthenput themup as
well as orgyon those absolutely delicious tomatoes! Later, as we got
older, we wold buy a bushel of all ready picked ripe tomatoes for about
$9-11 a bushel adn I woud put them up. I have even dried tomatoes havign
gotten a small (4 tray) dryer from Waldbaums. With no car and no longer
beign able to drive, I can't get to those farms about 30 miles fromour
country house so my only canning is jam once or twice a year. I hope I
get enough blackberries for a second batch. I used to make sugared jams
for Syd and the boys as well as sugar-free for me. We had suffieiecnt
berry harvast for that, but now other weeds seem to be takign over the
blackberry patch.

Wendy