Home-made Jam

This is now the real stuff made from fruit, not a savoury jam (remember Bacon Jam?). When I was a kid, I didn't even know you could buy jam at the store because this is all I remember growing up.

It's very simple with only four ingredients - fruit, sugar, Certo, and lemon juice. This is the "no cook" version and there are fourteen options listed in the package insert. You can check it out now to see what you need before you get started and how much it makes.

I made raspberry jam this time as the raspberries were free from my brother's house and I didn't even have to put in the work since Mom and Jess picked them for me.

I needed 2 cups of mashed raspberries and that took about 4 cups of berries. Half of them I put through a sieve to remove the seeds. That's an optional step, so feel free to use all the seeds if you want.

Then add the 4 cups of sugar. It pretty much overwhelms the raspberries, but with that much sugar you can't really pretend that jam is healthy.

But somehow the raspberries do manage to dissolve all that sugar. I did this in the evening so this could sit overnight to make sure all the sugar crystals are gone. If there is too much sugar left, it will crystallize your jam. All you have to do to tell if the sugar is dissolved is to rub a little between your fingers as you'll be able to feel any sugar crystals remaining. If you feel more than a few, pop it into the microwave for about a minute. You don't want to start cooking it, but just warm it up a little.

The next morning, I added the lemon juice and the Certo.

Stir for 3 minutes and pour into jars. This particular recipe makes 4-1/2 cups (other fruit options make different amounts), so it filled the 2 jars I used with a little leftover that I just put into a plastic container. If you used tasty fruit, this is delicious jam!

Raspberries - Free!
Certo - $3.49 (but comes with 2 packs, so really $1.75)
Lemon - $0.99
Sugar - maybe $1.50 (gets cheaper as you buy bigger bags of sugar of course)

So two jars of jam for $4.25. Cheaper than the store!

 ~Lisa