Here’s a Recipe for Summer Fun: Try Making Raspberry Jam from Your Own Patch. Scrumptious

Now that summer is in full bloom, it’s time to raid the garden. We had a blast recently harvesting a bunch of raspberries from a patch we planted a few years back that has turned into a mini bounty. We took this delicious looking fruit and spun it into raspberry jam that we have stored away in our freezer for a nice treat during the winter months. We also enjoyed transforming our plump, little raspberry buddies into a yummy cake filling, which adds a certain summer zest to a double layered chocolate cake or two.

While we are lucky enough to have three fairly productive fruit trees – an apple, pear, and plum – we’ve had a bit of hard luck growing bush fruit. A decade or so ago, we planted six or seven blueberry plants in hopes of growing and eating that luscious blue fruit that is one of my personal favorites. But after a few years when the plants finally matured and – according to the books we read and the advice we were given – should have been producing handfuls of berries, we discovered to our dismay that nothing was happening.

Yes, indeed, we had a few stray berries pop up on some of the plants, but nothing like what we witnessed at friends’ homes or at U-Pick farms. Most of our bushes didn’t produce anything at all, except for some nice green leaves. No flowers, No fruit. Nothing. It was maddening. And, as it turned out, all this disappointment occurred, in spite of us doing everything people with proper green rhumbs recommended: good soil, fertilizer, plant food, sunshine, plenty of water and so on.

After nearly six years of nurturing those plants and wondering why they didn’t propagate when they were located a stone’s throw away from our fruit trees that were thriving with buds and bees, we decided to give up the ghost and tear them out. It was a sad day, but we had a backup plan. Friends had given us some small raspberry plants that we rooted in a raised bed not too far from the row of blueberry bushes.

The raspberries shot up and before we knew it, they were popping up in an area not far from the erstwhile blueberry patch. Why this happened, we’re not altogether sure, but. … Viola. We suddenly were growing raspberries. And not long after, we uprooted the ones in the raised beds and relocated them to a happier place where we once hoped blueberries would thrive. Now, thanks to some additional plants given to us by another friend, we have a raspberry bush patch that is roughly 35 feet long by 4-5 feet wide and is in various stages of maturity. We couldn’t be happier.

So, what to do with this crop of raspberries that were melt-in-your mouth good? They are great to eat plain, on your morning cereal, or atop a bowl of vanilla ice cream after dinner. But my wife, Mary, wanted to go further, and found a recipe online to make raspberry jam. To paraphrase a famous line from the movie Apocalypse Now, ‘There’s nothing like the smell of raspberries in the morning,’ steaming from a hot cauldron, or in our case, a Dutch oven.

The low sugar recipe we used is called “Raspberry Freezer Jam,” and is authored by Emily Dixon of Sweets & Thank You. The prep time is approximately 25 minutes, with an even shorter cook time of just 15 minutes. The batch makes six cups of jam, each equivalent to about 32 calories.

For those of you on the edge of your couches at home, taking notes, and with your mouths watering, here are the simple ingredients:

• 4 cups mashed raspberries, taken from 8 cups of fresh raspberries, or the frozen variety. (We used a potato masher to smash them up!)
• 31/2 cups of granulated sugar (700 grams)
• 1 (1.75 oz) package of Sure Jel fruit pectin for less or no sugar needed recipes
• 1 cup water

Instructions

We won’t go into all the instructions here, other than to say this recipe is pretty straight forward.  Make sure you have clean and dry jars. You can order them online or perhaps find them in a local grocery store. Of course, mash and measure the raspberries, trying to get most of the lumps out of the mixture.

Separately, in a large saucepan combine sugar, pectin, and water. Whisk constantly over medium high heat to bring to a boil. This is important: boil this concoction exactly 1 minute, making sure the ingredients are truly boiling, aka bubbles all across the surface not just here and there.

Next, after 1 minute of boiling, remove the pan from the heat and add the mashed raspberries. Whisk or stir for 1 minute to combine completely. Then, as quickly as you can, spoon or pour the jam into the clean jars, leaving 1/2-1 inches of room at the top of each jar to allow for expansion in the freezer.

Allow the jars to sit at room temperature for 24 hours to set up. After 24 hours, you’ll be able to tell if your jam set properly. For example, it shouldn’t slosh from side to side but rather move slowly when tilted.

Finally, transfer the jars to the freezer and refrigerate for up to a year. Once you open a jar, it can stay in the ‘frig for up to three weeks.

We did this – or should I say – my wife did most of the heavy lifting on this project in a few hours, with me acting as the masher and cleanup detail. We also made a raspberry filling for a double-decker chocolate cake with a similar approach. It was just as easy to produce, and I was responsible for most of it, with help from a guardian angel. To learn more, check out Emily Dixon, Sweets & Thank You: About – Sweets & Thank You

Bon Appetit!

And, if you are interested in growing your own raspberries on Bainbridge Island and beyond, this website has some great information to guide you along: How to Grow Raspberries in Washington State: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners – johnysfarm.com

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