Are you riding the canning wave? If you intimidated by canning, don’t be. I finally tackled the canning process this summer and it’s left me wondering why it took me so long to start! With all the delicious things to can using fresh summer produce, it’s not to late to try. A couple weeks ago I went blueberry picking and I knew making jam would be in my future. This Blueberry Lemon Freezer Jam is a super easy introduction to canning and the best part? It’s a cinch to make. Plump fresh blueberries are crushed and combined with lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar and pectin to create this luscious fruit spread that’s great on pretty much everything…
recipe adapted from Ball
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup water
6 Tbsp Ball® Real Fruit™ Classic Pectin
6 Ball® Plastic (8 oz) Freezer Jars or 8 oz half pint glass jars with lids and bands
Combine the crushed blueberries with lemon juice and lemon zest in a large bowl. Add sugar, mixing thoroughly. Let stand 10 minutes.
Combine water and pectin in a small saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard for 1 minute, continuing to stir.
Add the cooked pectin mixture to fruit mixture and stir for 3 minutes.
Ladle jam into clean Ball® freezer jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Apply caps and let jam stand in refrigerator until set, but no longer than 24 hours. Serve immediately, refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze up to 1 year.
I've been on the search for blueberry canning recipes since I hope to pick a bunch within the next week. I got back into canning this year after taking a few summers off. So far I've canned garlic dill pickles, sweet pickle chips and quartered tomatoes (and I expect to can a lot more tomatoes!). I especially love having the tomatoes to go to all year round.