While sipping said amazing cocktail (and then wanting another), I realized that we never posted our favorite jam recipe. So here it is – blueberry lime jam + blueberry bramble cocktail. It’s also awesome as the filling in a coconut layer cake . . . → Read More: Blueberries for Morning and Night]]> I had planned to post a delicious way to use up all those CSA greens, but then Erik met a friend for a drink last night and I made myself a post-baby-bedtime cocktail.

While sipping said amazing cocktail (and then wanting another), I realized that we never posted our favorite jam recipe. So here it is – blueberry lime jam + blueberry bramble cocktail. It’s also awesome as the filling in a coconut layer cake or stirred into yogurt (especially homemade!). Enjoy.

NOTE: In the interest of brevity, I haven’t included detailed canning instructions. See our post on canning for more details on the canning process and safety. If you haven’t canned before, this is a good one to start with, because it’s just as good as a syrup, so you really can’t mess up on the gelling stage.

Blueberry Lime Jam

Makes about 10 quarter-pint (4 ounce) jars

Directions

1. Prepare your jars, lids, bands, and equipment.
2. Put a couple of small dishes in the freezer. You’ll see why…
3. Put all the ingredients into a big pot – the wider, the better – and boil until gelled, stirring occasionally. A wide pot will help this happen faster than a narrow one, but it could take about 20 minutes of boiling. Be careful to keep the boil under control – stirring more frequently as time goes on will help with this; sugar boils up and out of the pot quickly and can cause nasty burns.

   To test for gelling, put a teaspoon of jam on one of your freezer plates and return to the freezer for a minute or two. If you can draw a clean line through the jam after this short stint in the freezer, it’s ready. (See our vanilla rhubarb jam post for a photo)

4. Fill your jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace
5. Process for 10 minutes.

Now for the fun part – 1 ounce lemon juice, 1-2 ounces vodka or gin, 1 tablespoon jam, and finish with ice and seltzer. Mmmmmm….

Last Saturday was National Can-It-Forward Day, a day to spread the fun and value of home canning. Erik and I had our own little party and taught two of our friends the art and science. There was gabbing, a few glasses of wine, and plenty of boiling water. This was the first time I had every canned with people and it was a blast!! A lot of canning is sitting around waiting for the . . . → Read More: Can-It-Forward Recap]]>

Last Saturday was National Can-It-Forward Day, a day to spread the fun and value of home canning. Erik and I had our own little party and taught two of our friends the art and science. There was gabbing, a few glasses of wine, and plenty of boiling water. This was the first time I had every canned with people and it was a blast!! A lot of canning is sitting around waiting for the pot to boil or meditatively peeling tomatoes, which I appreciate for its mind-centering qualities, but it was a hoot to sit around our kitchen island with a couple of ladies and gossip/discuss/debate the events of the day.

We made two recipes, neither of which I’ll repeat here, because we made them both just as published. First, whole tomatoes, the workhorse of the canning world. The recipe said that we’d get 7 quarts out of 21 pounds of tomatoes, but it only took us about 18 pounds to get there. Heavy tomatoes? Overly gentle packing? I don’t know. The rest became tomato and cashew chutney from Canning for a New Generation the next day.

Since the tomatoes need to process for 45 minutes, we whipped up a batch of Blueberry Lime Jam. Yes, really whipped up. It was almost no work at all. It took about 35 minutes at a hard boil to get the gel point, but this will depend on your particular conditions. We got 12 quarter-pints (4 ounces) plus a tiny little bit in the refrigerator that I think Erik has eaten already. It was his favorite jam last year.

What’s on deck in my canning calendar? Peaches peaches peaches this weekend then a crazy tomato canning extravaganza (120+ pounds) over Labor Day weekend. Peaches and tomatoes were the big winners last year, but, unfortunately, they show up at the same time and often require peeling. This makes August and September a little busier than I would like, but it’s worth it.

Happy canning!