blue berry jam

Ok, so I've got a confession.

I love making my own food!

Well... I guess I didn't make the blue berries, but hopefully in a couple years we will grow some!

Nevaeh and I went to The Berry Patch yesterday. Boy, was it fun!

If you haven't heard of this place, it's a berry farm where you can go pick your own berries (and lots of other fruit as well) and take them home. Nevaeh and I picked about 8 lbs worth of blue berries.

Hmmm, I should correct that, I picked 8 lbs worth of blue berries. Most of what Nevaeh picked went into her tummy, not the bucket.  ;)

Now, I had no idea what to expect and I had no inclination of bringing home that many blue berries. But like one of my life group ladies said, We had to pick every single last berry we could!. (paraphrased) It was hard to stop picking scrumptious, mouth-watering, farm-grown blue berries!

Getting ready!

 Pickin' some berries!

 smile!

 This pic makes me smile because she looks like she wants to say, "Dude, mom, you're not getting any of these. Don't even try."

So, now the question... what do I do with ALL these berries?!?!?!?!

Easy-peesy-lemon-squeezy!

JAM.... of course!

So, with no further adieu, my very first..

Home made Blue Berry Jam

I made a freezer jam. A jam without cooking and it goes into the freezer... hence freezer jam. :) You can make canned jam, but that is a lot more involved. 

I basically used the recipe on the back of the Pectin package (pectin for freezer jam), but I don't like following another recipe. So I had to change something up. Instead of using sugar, I used honey.

Honey is healthier than sugar. Don't get me wrong, sugar is fine too. God created our bodies to need sugar, but if I can use a tid bit healthier ingredient that I already have, I'm going to use it. Honey is a more natural sweetener and doesn't give you that sugar high/crash.

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups blue berries

just under 2/3 cup honey

1 package of pectin (a thickener in the canning section at Wally world)

Mix honey and pectin until combined. 

Crush berries. Don't pulverize the berries, but crush them enough to have chunks. 

Add the honey mixture to berries and stir for 3 minutes. 

Ladle into freezer jars. Let sit for 30 minutes.

Can refrigerate for 3 weeks or freeze up to a year.

ENJOY!