Jam making: berries not beats

Last week Wednesday the Cultivating Community team and students made jam! We hosted a jam making workshop to instruct participants on one of the more famous methods of food preservation. Everyone brought fruit to jam. Because time and equipment was limited, one jam including all of the fruits was made. The fruits used to make this "monster" jam were: plums, grapes, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. They mashed the fruits until it was a thick paste.

And then put all of the mashed fruit into a large pot and cooked the fruit using a gas stove.

The jamming group poured the fully cooked jam into several sterilized Ball jars. They then placed the jammed jars into a rolling boil water bath for about ten minutes to seal the jars from the outside air. Dana removed the jars from the water bath using tongs.

The jam making team left the jars at the Trotter Multicultural Center overnight to cool. The Cultivating Community team and the other participants picked up their share of the jam the following day. I recently tried the jam and it is one of the best jams I have tasted...ever. So myself and the rest of the Cultivating Community team encourage you all to experiment with canning, and jamming!