Cara brought some frozen raspberry that she bought direct (or pick?) from a local farm when it’s in season for canning at the Food Preservation workshop held at the Garratt Wellness Center organised by the Richmond Food Security Society.

The raspberry jam tasted wonderful. It is tangy and sweet. These raspberry jam will be great on toast or scones.

Ingredients

• frozen or fresh raspberry
• sugar to taste
• lemon juice
• pectin

Cara bought the liquid pectin for her jam making. Check out this link for some concern using liquid pectin.

At the end, Karen DW (the host of this food preservation workshop) suggested that Cara try different pectin for her raspberry jam, one using liquid pectin and another no sugar pectin which so happen Karen had with her.

Instructions

Prepare canner:

Any large pot can be a canner. Just ensure that the pot is tall enough to hold water at least 2.5cm/1 inch deeper than your tallest jar. Place a cooling rack on the bottom of the pot, to raise the jars off the surface (helps to avoid excessive agitation). You can make a canning rack by tying a few old jar rings together with twist ties or twine. Otherwise, line the bottom of the canner with towels.

Prepare jars:

Wash with hot, soapy water, rinsing well. Inspect jars, and discard any with nicks. chips, or scratches, as these flaws can cause breakage. Set the jars into your canner, fill with water, and bring to simmering. Do not boil. Keep warm until ready to fill.

Prepare lids:

Wash with hot, soapy water, rinsing well. Heat the seals in hot, not boiling water, for 5 minutes. Rings do not need to be heated. When using, remove, remove lids from hot water using a non-metallic device, rubber gloves, or a magnetic stick. Avoid using any tools which may scratch or nick the sealing compound or the inside liner of the lid.

Mash the raspberry with a potato masher.

Cook the mash raspberry with the no sugar pectin until the pectin is dissolved and a smooth jelly texture is achieved. Add sugar to taste (about 1 cup). Bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Boil hard 1 minute. Remove from heat, skim off foam if necessary.

For the liquid pectin method, cook the mash raspberry with sugar together. I remembered that it calls for quite a lot of sugar for the liquid pectin. The instruction is with the packaging.The funny thing was Cara forgot to add the pectin into this batch of jam. But the jam turned out ok because the left over jam that she placed in a saucer for us to taste set beautifully.

Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) headspace. Remove air bubbles with a none metallic spatula and adjust headspace, if neccessary. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to finger-tip tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.

For smaller jars, you can stack them with a towel in between the jars to prevent rattling. Bring to boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.