Jam on!

I have had the pleasure of making 2 trips out to Marble Falls this May to pick berries at Sweet Berry Farm The first trip was for strawberries, and my friend PMB and I picked 3 boxes (one for each of us, and one for our friends TF and DG. Here is PMB at work:















As I have a number of times before, I made strawberry jam with the Sure Jell pectin. The mystery that drives me batty in this recipe is that it tells you to heat the the berry, sugar, pectin mix at a "roaring boil" for "exactly" one minute. The problem here is that "roaring" is not a scientific designation, I mean my "roaring" boil could be your "vigorous" boil. And at what exact moment does the one minute start? It is next to impossible to know. I am all for approximations in the kitchen, BUT when a recipe uses the work "exactly," I get nervous. Anyhow, the strawberry jam turned out really well:

A few weeks later, we went back to the farm for blackberries. We had to use gloves and really get in there for the blackberries. It was not as easy as the strawberries, but it was equally rewarding. My blackberry jam came out slightly runnier, and I am not sure why. Perhaps there is more juice in fresh berries than the Sure Jell recipe accounts for? I think that I let the jam cook long enough, but I did not get the jam off the stove fast enough, and this may have had an adverse effect. The jam tastes fantastic, and after a few hours in the refrigerator, it is definitely spreadable.