Friday, July 19, 2013

Marionberry Freezer Jam

This summer I've been hitting our local U-pick almost on the weekly.

Our first visit produced 13.5 lbs of fresh strawberries - YUM! I shared how you can easily freeze your picked berries so that they are just like the bagged kind from the freezer aisle :) I love to use these in my smoothies and toss a few in with Penny's morning Cream of Wheat too.

Last week I visited the farm and picked about 3 lbs of marionberries. I have only had marionberry pie before but wanted to see what else I could do with them. I used a few handfuls for a cobbler that I was not terribly impressed with..otherwise I'd share a recipe ;)

Today I'm sharing my first foray into the world of freezer jams!

So here's a great recipe that can easily use marionberries, raspberries and blackberries. You can try strawberries or any other fruit you desire, but the sugar / gelatin content might be different. If I decide to pick more strawberries before the end of my farm's season, I'll try a batch of strawberry and give you an update :)

You will need:
4 cups (1 quart) of mashed marionberries - which starts out at about 2 1/2 pounds of berries
1/4 cup of sugar
1 packet of plain gelatin

You will do:
1. Mash the marionberries. You can use a potato masher, or if you don't have one (like me) just put a ziplock bag over your hand and mash manually. This way you don't have a berry stained hand at the end. One thing to note - marionberries have a internal stem/pit thing (like raspberries and blackberries) so when you mash them you might want to pick out that part. I couldn't imagine it being super tasty finding something that looks like a maggot inside of your jam. Sorry for the image.
2. In a large pot, bring all of the ingredients to a boil together. Allow to boil for about a minute.
3. Place into clean plastic containers. Allow them to set for about 30 minutes on your counter. Transfer to the fridge or freezer after that. Easy peasy!



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