More Jammin'

So when I left off, I had made my first batch of sour cherry jam, and it was awesome.

Having been bitten by the berry bug (yes, I know cherries aren't berries, but I wanted to get some alliteration going on), I decided that blueberries were next on the list.

We went with some friends to a local orchard, and spent an afternoon in the orchards. While we were there, I saw that they not only had a section for "pie cherries," they had a pitting machine. Cherry jam without having to pit them myself? I was so there!!!

Once we got home with our loot, I got to work (yeah, ok . . . it was the next night by the time I got started). I made another batch of cherry jam, which also turned out wonderfully, although the pitting machine had left a few pits.

A few days later, I turned to the blueberries. I had let the kids eat some of them plain, but most of that afternoon's work went into a pot with pectin and sugar. And that jam turned out . . . not so well. It tastes ok, but the texture leaves something to be desired. It's not that it's grainy, like the sugar didn't dissolve. But it isn't smooth, either. In a word, it is disappointing.

I don't know if I'll try blueberry jam again next year, because that was an awful lot to "waste." Not that we can't eat it, but it just isn't as good. If I'd known, I wouldn't have bothered with making jam, but frozen all of them to use in pancakes and ice cream toppings for the rest of the year.