Jamming...as in jelly, not dancing

This weekend was a full out foodie weekend for me, beginning with berry picking and ending with a baking class alongside a bakery full of dietitians. I’m feeling very well fed!

Saturday started out with me heading to Ward’s Berry Farm in Sharon, MA where I organized a group of dietitians through the Massachusetts Dietetic Association to get together for a day of picking, networking, and socializing. We picked big batches of blueberries, raspberries, and peaches. I think this was my first time ever picking raspberries and peaches! We survived the intense heat and all went home with lots of fruit from our pickings, as well as some groceries from the fantastic market at Ward’s.

I have wanted to try my hand at jam-making and this was the perfect opportunity, as I already had a box of Pomona Pectin on hand. My experienced jam-making friend Nicole recommended this brand, as it doesn’t require you to use outrageous amounts of sugar in your jams or jellies. I spoke to my grandma before I began jamming and it went something like this:

Me: Hi Grandma, I’m about to start jamming!
Grandma: What?
Me: Jamming.
Grandma: Canning?
Me: No no no, jamming.
Grandma: Jamming? You mean dancing? In my day jamming meant dancing!

Ha! I did no such dancing while I was jamming, but it might have made the experience even more fun.

I decided to use peaches, blueberries and raspberries in my jam, and mashed up four cups of these fruits to jam. I made sure to follow the jamming instructions to a T, which included boiling the lids of the jars, carefully adding pectin and a calcium solution to the boiling fruit, and tightly sealing the finished jars. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous my jams wouldn’t turn out right and I would have wasted all of that good fruit. I even called the Jam Hotline listed on the pectin package because I had an emergency jam question!, but sadly nobody answered and I was asked to leave a message. What is the point of a jam hotline if nobody answers the phone!? And clearly a jam hotline exists because there are others out there who are halfway through jamming and don't know what to do. Maybe next time I need to jam during business hours...I was afraid my jam was a little too runny, so I googled “runny jam” and found out my batch was likely fine. I did a quick freezer test to be sure and my jam jelled up right away. And it tasted delicious.

Anyway, I finished my jamming by boiling all of my filled jars, and waited to hear the lids pop!, which indicated they were sealed and complete.

I felt like a proud mama looking at all of my little jam jars in a row. Aren’t they cute?! My very own homemade peach-raspberry-blueberry jam.