There have been so many summers that I thought about making jam, but it took being completely overrun with blueberries this summer to make me finally do it. After picking a ridiculous amount of berries at my mom's house, one of the hubbie's friends brought over a huge grocery bag full of berries he had picked at his grandparents' house. Since my children can consume their weight in any kind of berry it took this volume to finally push me into canning. Why did I think making jam was hard? It is SO easy, and not even that much of a time committment. I think I was put off by all the canning stuff that you can buy and that everyone who does canning seems to have. The only things I bought were some pectin (I tried liquid) and some jars. I already had a big pot to boil the jars in, and plenty of other pots to do everything else in, and I'm really not sure why you need a rack to put in the pot you boil the jars in? I didn't use one and just used tongs to lift the jars out of the boiling water. I ended up using the recipe on the pectin box for my first attempt (what better place to find an idiot-proof recipe?) but would really like to try a spiced one like this one. I'm hoping to try canning tomato sauce next, I have a ton of tomatoes that are all going to ripen at the same time, if the ants don't nibble them first.
