Making Sweet Summer Memories and Raspberry Freezer Jam

I love to get out of the city in the summer, and a berry picking excursion is always on my summer bucket list.  Since my kids were little, we have enjoyed the many U Pick berry farms here in the Seattle area.  Raspberries are my favorite to pick (and eat), though.  The tall bushes provide a bit of shade and there is less stooping involved so they are easier to pick than strawberries.  The first time we picked raspberries my kids ate so many right off the bush.  They said they tasted like candy growing on bushes.

The raspberries are ripe now so we drove up to Biringer Farm in Arlington this week to pick.   We got an early start when it was still cool and there were a few clouds overhead.

We picked about 15 pounds of raspberries.  That’s a lot, I know, but it only took us about an hour. I make big batches of raspberry freezer jam, and also freeze some berries for smoothies. Raspberry freezer jam is truly the best tasting jam.  So much better than any store bought jam, in my humble opinion. I prefer freezer jam for a couple of reasons.  It is so simple to make (I’ll show you how I make it below), and there’s no cooking involved.  Since it isn’t cooked, it tastes like fresh raspberries.  It doesn’t get much better than the sweet taste of summer raspberries in the middle of winter.

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Easy Raspberry Freezer Jam

Ingredients (Only 3):

• Raspberries
• Ball Realfruit Instant Pectin
• Sugar

Directions:

1. Wash the raspberries.
2. Place berries in a food processor and pulse a few times.  You can also mash the fruit by hand.  You will need 3  1/3 cups of mashed fruit.
3. In a separate bowl, combine 1  1/3 cups sugar with 4 tbsp of the instant pectin.
4. Add berry mixture to the sugar and pectin and stir for 3 minutes.
5. Ladle the jam into clean jars, leaving about 1/2 inch at the top for expansion.
6. Let the jam sit for 30 minutes and either freeze or use immediately.

This recipe makes five 8 ounce jars of jam.  The jam will last up to one year in the freezer or about 3 weeks in the refrigerator.

For freezer jam, my favorite pectin is Ball Realfruit Instant Pectin.  (Make sure to get the instant pectin, and not regular pectin which is used for cooked jams.  The containers look very similar).   Also note, this recipe only works with this particular pectin.  If you use a different brand or type of pectin, the amount of fruit and sugar will be different.

Mix the sugar and pectin.  This recipe uses way less sugar than some others out there.  Like 5 times less.

Add the mashed berries and stir for 3 minutes.

Ladle the jam into clean and dry jars.   Let sit for 30 minutes, and either freeze or enjoy now.

So yum.

I hope you are all making sweet and wonderful summer memories.

Thanks for dropping by!

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