Condiments Lunch Ideas

Blueberry Jam

July 28, 2014

Simple and sweet blueberry jam! The perfect summer project for the kids and so delicious!

Blueberry Jam
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Right about mid-summer the most beautiful blueberries you have ever seen start popping up everywhere around here.

Just a 10 minute drive down the road from our house is a wonderful family blueberry farm where we pick plump, sweet blueberries every year.

Blueberry Jam
Blueberry picking is a fun one to bring the little ones to because the bushes are just their size, the picking is super easy, and kids love blueberries! This was baby Caitlyn’s first blueberry trip, and while she was strapped to momma’s back most of the time, she did stretch her legs a little toward the end and definitely caught on to how fun the blueberries tasted!

Blueberry Jam
We brought home 40 pounds of blueberries this year. I froze about half, dehydrated some, and we’ll eat a lot of the fresh this week. I also triple batched blueberry muffins, and the rest went into jam.

Blueberry Jam
Blueberry is my absolute favorite jam! I think most people think of strawberry jam when it comes to favorites, but if you have never had blueberry jam before you really have to try it! I rarely make any other jam anymore. The flavor and texture is similar to grape jam, and it is just amazing on pancakes, or stirred into oatmeal or yogurt!

Blueberry Jam
I use the Pomona’s 100% citrus pectin and have always had very good outcomes on my jams with it. You don’t need a load of sugar to make it work, and you should be able to find it in your health food store. If you can’t, Amazon does carry it.

Blueberry Jam

Print Recipe
5 from 3 votes

Blueberry Jam

Simple and sweet blueberry jam! The perfect summer project for the kids and so delicious!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time25 minutes
Course: Condiment
Cuisine: American
Keyword: blueberry jam, blueberry jam recipe, homemade blueberry jam, how to make blueberry jam
Servings: 16 servings
Author: Renee - www.raisinggenerationnourished.com

Ingredients

  • 16 cups whole blueberries
  • ½ cup juice from a lemon
  • 1 TB calcium water comes in the Pomona pectin pack
  • 1 TB pectin powder comes in the Pomona pectin pack
  • 2 cups organic pure cane sugar If you want to use raw honey, back it off to about 1 ½ cups

Instructions

  • Put the whole berries, lemon juice, and calcium water in a large stock pot and bring to a boil. Use a potato masher to squish up the berries as they warm and get soft.
  • While the berries are warming, whisk the pectin with the sugar.
  • Once the berries are mashed up to your liking, and has come to a boil, pour in the sugar/pectin mixture and stir constantly for a couple minutes so everything dissolves.
  • Bring the jam up to a boil again, and then turn off the heat.
  • Ladle the jam into your jars or containers, let them come to room temp, and then put them in the freezer WITHOUT the lids on. Let them freeze for a day before you lid them. You could alternatively follow hot water bath canning instructions instead of the freezing.

Tips:

  • Here is where you can get the Pomona’s 100% citrus pectin if you can’t find it in your health food store – I have been using it for years and it always works very well – very forgiving.
  • This recipe makes about 2 dozen 4oz jars (about 12 cups) – just half the recipe if you don’t think you want that many. This jam will last me until next summer!
  • You can alternatively blend your blueberries to a puree before you cook them if you like a super smooth jam. They really cook down well anyway, and it really has a pretty smooth texture even without blending. I just use a simple potato masher to squish up the berries while they cook!
  • Have you seen these Ball Freezer Containers?! They are my absolute favorite. I do about half of my jam in the pretty little Ball glass jam jars so I can give them away for gifts, but the other half I put in the simple (cheap!) BPA free Ball freezer containers. You can put the lids right on and stick them in the freezer– they won’t crack like glass would with a lid on while they freeze! I usually give a few containers to my mom for the year so she can have them in her freezer when the girls spend the night at Gramma’s and might need a PB&J!
  • The freezer jam will last a couple weeks in the fridge once thawed.
  • We like to use our jam on pancakes! We don’t eat a ton of PB&J’s around here because we are gluten free and GF bread is expensive. But I do make large batches of pancakes to keep in the freezer, and the girls will have PB&J sandwiches using pancakes for the bread. You can also stir your jam into soaked oatmeal or whole plain yogurt!

This post was shared at Fat Tuesday, and Real Food Wednesday!

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25 Comments

  • Reply Holly @ Your Gardening Friend July 28, 2014 at 4:13 pm

    40 lbs of blueberries?!!! That’s awesome.

    Did you say you have a blueberry muffin recipe? I’d love the link. 🙂

    • Reply Renee Kohley July 28, 2014 at 8:23 pm

      Hi Holly! The blueberry muffin recipe will be live in the morning! I’m finishing it up tonight 😀

  • Reply Blueberry Muffins :: Gluten Free, Nut Free, Egg/Dairy Free Options | Raising Generation Nourished July 28, 2014 at 8:31 pm

    […] weekend we picked our 40 pound blueberry haul and I had a fun weekend of making blueberry jam, freezing up bags of berries for the winter, and triple batching some blueberry muffins for the […]

  • Reply Amanda L July 29, 2014 at 3:27 pm

    I LOVE the idea of freezer jam. I’ve always shied away from jams or other canning items, since I don’t know how to do that yet. This looks like I could actually do it myself. Thanks for the post.
    And 40 pounds of blueberries? I’d be in Heaven…

    • Reply Renee Kohley July 29, 2014 at 4:34 pm

      Hi Amanda! I do zero canning 😀 I love my freezer and that is what I have time for right now!

  • Reply linda spiker July 29, 2014 at 3:51 pm

    Wow what a haul! How fabulous for you and your family! The jam looks divine!

  • Reply Jennifer Margulis July 30, 2014 at 12:54 am

    5 stars
    Yum! We are hoping to go blueberry picking this Friday.

  • Reply LittleOwlCrunchyMomma July 30, 2014 at 2:01 am

    Oh yum. Blueberry picking is the best. The pictures of your darling littles are just precious. The jam looks amazing!

  • Reply Samantha July 30, 2014 at 11:17 am

    Yum! I love all things blueberry related!

  • Reply Andrea Fabry July 30, 2014 at 11:58 am

    I want to run right out and buy or pick blueberries! Awesome photos. Very inspiring.

  • Reply Aubrey July 31, 2014 at 9:09 am

    I’m really jealous of that haul! My kids eat all of ours before we have time to preserve them.

  • Reply Liz August 9, 2014 at 11:14 am

    5 stars
    That pic of the baby is too sweet!

  • Reply Carla August 29, 2014 at 11:57 am

    Not only good but so pretty sitting on my counter. I love just looking at my own projects for a bit before I store them 😉
    Thank you for this recipe…

    • Reply Renee Kohley August 29, 2014 at 12:36 pm

      Absolutely Carla! I do the same thing!

  • Reply Simple & Quick Gluten Free Thumbprint Cookies - Raising Generation Nourished December 21, 2014 at 1:01 pm

    […] usually pull jam from the freezer for the middle of the cookies. We made blueberry jam last summer, so that is what we used this year, and that one always turns out really pretty. […]

  • Reply Blueberry Buckwheat Muffins - Raising Generation Nourished August 1, 2015 at 7:00 pm

    […] year I showed you how we used our blueberries for jam, and while I still made some jam this year, I didn’t make quite as much as usual. I have more […]

  • Reply Megan Needham August 27, 2019 at 8:33 pm

    5 stars
    Made this this afternoon, it was not difficult at all to make and smelled so good! Can’t wait to try it! Thank you for the recipe!

    • Reply Renee Kohley September 4, 2019 at 11:54 am

      I’m so glad you got a chance to try it Megan! Enjoy it!

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