This weekend, I made Raspberry jam with my sister.  We picked about 13 lbs (plus or minus) of berries, with all 3 older kids, who complained bitterly about the needing to be out of doors on a beautiful sunny day, where it wasn’t too hot, and eating berries (poor, abused things! :-P)

So we ended up with this:

Then we got to the jamming.  My sister, who plays roller derby is, in actuality, a jammer, lol, just not this kind.  We added 1 cup of sugar for every cup of berries.  13 lbs turns out to 32 cups of each!  Mashed it up with a spoon and started cooking. 

Then, I decided we should add a handful of mint.  Mmmm…I’ve been in love with mint lately.  It both smells and looks great!   We minced it up & tossed it in.   In other spicing, we kept it down to a 1 inch piece of ginger, diced.    

Once it got to a boil, I let it go for about 30-40 minutes and did the plate test for jam readiness.

The plate test:  Put a plate in the freezer for 3-5 minutes.  Put a spoonful of hot jam on the plate and put it back in the freezer for another 3 minutes.  Take it out and turn the plate vertical.  If the jam does not run, it’s ready.  If it runs, keep cooking.

We finished the jam & got it bottled up.  It’s nummy.  The kids have been asking for the leftover bits (the part that didn’t fit into a jar) ever since. 

This jam comes out a bit on the loose side, but it’s really done & ready to be bottled.  Over cooking will kill the taste.