commercialcanner wrote:

> Edrena, jams that begin as red except for raspberry, tend to fade
> towards brown. We hope to have strong color for 3 months on normal red
> jams. In the past holding strong color in plum and white nectarine has
> forced us to eliminate these jams from our line. Apricot and peach jams
> always hold their color. Over cooking the fruit will cause immediate
> darkening. Another factor with color is the ripeness of the fruit. We
> work with fruit that begins in frozen form, if we over defrost we lose
> color in our jams. Over ripe fruit will fade more quickly.
> As far as added sweetner is concerned, there is a balance to find.
> Fruit that is too dilluted with sweetner will also dull color, yet a
> good balance of sugar and acid will hold color. We try to keep our
> acid/ph (we use frozen single strength lemon juice) below 3.8. There
> are commercial jams from Europe that advertise right on the label that
> their fruit was never boiled. This is a secret in making high quality
> preserves. -commercialcanner

Thanks for the tips - every little secret helps.
Edrena