The Jam | Preserving the Taste of Late Summer | Blackberry Freezer Jam
This post is sponsored by the makers of Ball® home canning products.*
I’m excited to share I’m back in the kitchen with Ball® Home Canning to bring you more canning how to’s and simple, delicious recipes to preserve your harvests, fleeting memories & the tastes of the season in a simple glass jar.
Here in the Midwest, it is late summer, goldenrod is starting to sway as the dragonflies dance on the prairie, there is a slow but felt descent into the shift into autumn as the light wanes, the nights are cooler and back to school is upon us.
“This abundance of berries feels like a pure gift from the land. I have not earned, paid for, nor labored for them. There is no mathematics of worthiness that reckons I deserve them in any way. And yet here they are—along with the sun and the air and the birds and the rain, gathering in the towers of cumulonimbi. You could call them natural resources or ecosystem services, but the Robins and I know them as gifts. We both sing gratitude with our mouths full” Robin Wall Kimmerer
Excited hands picking gifts from our blackberry briar.
Around our work in progress pond this year, we found a briar filled with hundreds, if not thousands of blackberries, a gift that continues to give. We’ve been picking the sweet & plump berries from their thorny abode for the whole of August, inviting friends to share in the abundance, living by the rule “one for the basket & one for our bellies”. We were all so amazed and grateful to add blackberry picking to our late summer traditions. With this last harvest I decided I’d love to save for a winter jam, and to share with you how to do it without a water bath canner!
This Ball® Home canning tested and approved recipe for Blackberry Freezer Jam is truly so simple, easy & refined sugar free!! This is a perfect recipe to dip your toes into the waters of preserving without fear. If you’ve been nervous by the process or maybe it's too hot in the kitchen to get the canner going like in this late august heatwave we’ve been riding, this recipe could be perfect for you.
Freshly picked blackberries ready to be made into jam.
You can freeze this jam in glass jars, like this Honey Sweetened Blackberry Freezer Jam. The jar must have a wide neck to accommodate the expansion and requires a little more headspace too. Freezer safe jars include wide mouth jars like these Ball® Quilted Crystal Half Pint Jars, 8 oz. Ball® Regular Mouth Glass Mason Jar, 16 oz. Ball® Wide Mouth Glass Mason Jar, Ball® Nesting Jars
I love this method of preservation especially if you are looking to make this quickly and are not looking to gift your jam. These can be easily removed the night before for breakfast or pb&j sandwiches the next day. Coming soon, I’ll be testing & sharing a yummy breakfast recipe with this Blackberry Freezer Jam.
Simple Blackberry Freezer Jam
Makes: 5 Freezer Safe Half Pint Jars (8oz) for this I used my favorite Ball® Quilted Crystal Half Pint Jars.
Prep: 15 Minutes
INGREDIENTS
3 cups crushed blackberries (about 4 pints berries)
1-3/4 cups unsweetened cranberry-raspberry or apple juice
3 Tbsp Ball® RealFruit Low or No-Sugar Needed Pectin
3/4 to 1 cup honey, up to 3 cups sugar, or 1-1/2 cups SPLENDA No Calorie Sweetener Granular
TO PREPARE
Gather all your ingredients and this recipe. Wash your jars and lids, and berries. Crush berries in a dish or large bowl.
Wash your jars & berries before you begin.
TO MAKE
In a medium saucepan, gradually whisk pectin into juice until dissolved. Over medium-high heat, bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, stirring frequently. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Add the prepared blackberries into the hot pectin mixture, stirring vigorously for 1 minute. Stir in sweetener, either sugar, granular no calorie sweetener, or honey, all at once. Mix thoroughly.
Ladle the jam into clean jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Secure the lid and let jam stand in the refrigerator until set, approximately 24 hours. Serve immediately, refrigerate up to 3 weeks, or freeze for up to 1 year.
Ball® Quilted Crystal Half Pint Jar filled & ready for the freezer.
“Gratitude is so much more than a polite ‘thank you.’ It is the thread that connects us in a deep relationship, simultaneously physical and spiritual, as our bodies are fed and spirits nourished by the sense of belonging, which is the most vital of foods. Gratitude creates a sense of abundance, the knowing that you have what you need. In that climate of sufficiency, our hunger for more abates and we take only what we need, in respect for the generosity of the giver.” Robin Wall Kimmerer
After a long year, of loss & grief, I am so grateful for the summer’s memories etched onto my heart. How are you preparing this September? What is filling you with gratitude? What is growing in abundance where you are?
*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post that is part of an ongoing partnership with the Fresh Preserving Division of Newell Brands. They have provided jars, equipment and monetary compensation. All thoughts and opinions expressed remain my own. Ball® and Ball logotype TMs Ball Corporation, used under license.