Jammin’

Ted, Didi, Alan & I all got together this weekend to make jam from the bounty of raspberries I harvested over 2 days. I’ve been tending to these raspberries plants since 2007, so it was awesome to be working with the large, juicy fruit that came off the canes, in amounts that kept me in awe.

If you’ve ever bought raspberries from the store (and who hasn’t) you know that they are a rather delicate fruit that can breakdown and get moldy quickly, which makes picking them yourself within a day or two of using them that much more special.

Raspberries are a type of bramble, like blackberries and are also known as “Cane berries”; however, they are different from blackberries in that the fruit has a hollow core that remains on the plant when you pick the raspberry.

(Get more facts on the fruit from a wonderful website called “Pick Your Own.”)

Preserves

Of course, you know that jam is made from the whole fruit, and jelly is made from the juice of a fruit— both of them require a great deal of sugar. In fact, it isn’t really a jam or a jelly without sugar, and these are but two of the variety of fruit preserves.

The sugar is an important part of the chemical process that sets the fruit pectin (a carbohydrate taken from plants) to thicken the jam. In fact, when making jam you are essentially making a candy in that you are melting sugar and flavoring it (in this case with organic fruit). Some fruits are high in pectin and will thicken on their own, but some need to have pectin added.

Naturally Sweet

Since I haven’t been eating processed sugar, I set about exploring another approach to preserving the raspberries by making a fruit spread, that is, whole fruit made like a jam, but without adding any processed sugar.

I settled on a fun recipe for a spiced raspberry spread made with the fruit we harvested, concentrated organic fruit juice, a sliced apple, spices, and lemon zest and cider vinegar for some acid (another important step in processing the pectin in the fruit—see above).

Once I figured out the difference between liquid and powdered pectin—they function the same but will affect the recipe if not carefully interchanged—and saved us from my math error (ounces to tablespoons to teaspoons to cups…oh, never mind!), we were on our way.

Once we had the ingredients in the pots, the trick is to cook quickly, without over cooking, and preventing the boiling mixture from burning.

When Ted arrived, we were able to get an assembly line going to get the bright red jam into jars. (Clean them, warm them, fill them, process them in boiling water.)

The result (for both the traditional jam and the spread) is fantastic. Good color, great flavor, nice set. You’ve heard it before, you just cannot beat just-harvested organic fruit.

As you may know, when the processed jam jars are cooling, it is important that the indent in the lid be sucked down by the vacuum created in a properly-sealed jar. So, while cleaning up (the jam does get everywhere), we had the satisfaction of listening to our many individual jars “pop” with this final sound of success.

So, we had a complete farm-to-kitchen experience. While I thought back on the time I spent tending, cultivating, composting, mulching, pruning, etc., the raspberries, I had a new appreciation for the effort that goes into producing quality organic fruit. And, Alan, Didi, and Ted, can attest to the work involved in producing a quality organic jam and their appreciation for the process.

In short, organic, farm-to-kitchen, is hands-on, but so worth it.

~Timothy