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)
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.